State rejects Lake County allegations

Despite a recently issued state ruling citing a lack of evidence for allegations against the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, further allegations will be tested in a lawsuit that began moving forward last week.

Sheriff Jay Doyle issued a press release last Monday reporting that the Montana Attorney General’s Office has determined that the three allegations the state investigated are without merit.

Doyle praised the findings while lamenting that “public funds, employee time and other resources were diverted away from public safety and, instead, wasted on dealing with unfounded, unsustained allegations.”

Those allegations were that former Deputy Patrick O’Connor illegally accessed Deputy Ben Woods’ personal computer and copied files, that Doyle and former Undersheriff Karey Reynolds obstructed justice by choosing not to investigate an incident at a local elementary school, and that Reynolds perjured himself when swearing in an affidavit for a search warrant that he had 20 years of law enforcement experience.

On the first allegation, the Montana Department of Criminal Investigation found a lack of evidence, citing several obstacles. Among those obstacles was that Woods engaged in what the state called unethical conduct, illegally tape recording conversations with Doyle and Michael Sargent.

The obstruction-of-justice allegation was determined to be unfounded after Deputy Jay Gillhouse, whose statements the allegation was based upon, told investigators he had overreacted and that Doyle had not obstructed justice.

The allegation that Reynolds had committed perjury was discounted on the basis that the statement was immaterial as the search warrant was never executed and the judge stated they still would have granted it if the number of years of law-enforcement experience had been stated correctly.

“It is my opinion that Karey Reynolds’ statement in the search warrant affidavit was in fact false or misleading,” Assistant Attorney General Brant Light wrote in a letter to Lake County Attorney Mitch Young, but then adding that “the false statement given by Karey Reynolds in the search warrant was not material. Thus, Karey Reynolds cannot be charged with perjury.”

Attorney Richard Buley, who is representing Deputy Steve Kendley, Terry Leonard, Michael Gehl, Ben Woods and Levi Read in a lawsuit against Doyle, Sargent, Dan Duryee and Dan Yonkin, rejected the assumption that the findings cleared anyone of wrongdoing.

The five men, all past or present deputies with the Sheriff’s Office, are alleging violations of their constitutional rights as well as violation of racketeering laws. Through the lawsuit, they are seeking unspecified damages, costs and attorney fees and any other relief determined appropriate by the court.

Bulay first responded to the supposed clearing of Reynolds in the perjury allegation.

“They did state Karey Reynolds did lie in the affidavit, but according to the attorney general’s office I guess when officers lie, it’s not that big of a deal,” Buley said.

Buley also argued that investigators were mistaken in saying Woods tape-recorded his conversations with Doyle and Sargent illegally.

“Our position is that’s simply not true,” he said. “One of the exceptions to [illegal taping] is if a police officer is investigating a crime, and in this case, Ben Woods was investigating the crime of theft of information from his computer which ended up in the hands of Doyle and Sargent.”

He said it was telling that the report from state investigators did not say what those tapes showed, which he argued was that Doyle and Sargent were being less than honest with Woods early on.

Buley was particularly troubled by the dismissal of the allegation of obstruction of justice.

He said the allegation stemmed from an incident in which the son of a Ronan police officer supposedly escorted a woman into K. William Harvey Elementary School while impersonating a police officer himself to ensure she would not be stopped by anyone. The woman then allegedly started beating her son with a spoon.

“Gillhouse told Kenley that he was told by Jay Doyle not to do anything about it, when this is a clear case of impersonation of a police officer, which is, of course, illegal,” Buley said.

In addition, he said, the man in question never was charged with any crime.

Buley said the report only included a summary of what Gillhouse said to investigators, and that his full comments or Doyle’s full comments to Gillhouse are unknown.

“It all just kind of went away,” Buley said. “Deputy Gillhouse never charged him [and] it never went to the county attorney’s office, so what happened?”

He said the results of the state investigation and the ensuing press release from the sheriff’s office were nothing new.

“It’s just not surprising,” Buley said. “There had already been a couple of investigations that amounted to the attorney general’s DCI not really investigating anything. I think the citizenry there should be quite concerned. We depend upon police officers to tell the truth, and the situation in Lake County now is ‘I guess it doesn’t matter.’”

Despite the presence of much weightier allegations levied against the sheriff’s office, both in the public forum and in the lawsuit, the three allegations dismissed by the attorney general’s office were the only ones being investigated. Other allegations include criminal activity by several deputies with the support of Doyle.

Judy Beck, public information officer for the Montana Attorney General’s Office, said the three allegations were the only ones provided to the Department of Criminal Investigation or the Prosecution Service Bureau for investigation. There are no plans to investigate further.

The allegations were provided to the Attorney General’s Office by Lake County Attorney Mitch Young, who, while not a named defendant in the lawsuit, is alleged in the lawsuit to have been complicit in the illegal search and seizure of computer equipment belonging to former Deputy Terry Leonard.

Kendley chose not to respond directly to the state findings but shared his confidence in the suit.

“There’s a trial coming up and the truth will come out,” Kendley said. “You really don’t know the truth until there’s a trial.”

A hearing on Thursday will determine the schedule for the civil case. Buley said they will be very busy over the coming months preparing for the trial because they have not yet been able to begin collecting information.

“So much of the information in this case is from investigations by law enforcement authorities, and it’s hard to get that kind of information without subpoenas,” he said, noting that they cannot get subpoenas until the scheduling for the case is firmed up at the Thursday hearing.

Young did not immediately respond to a phone message left with his office last Tuesday afternoon.

Doyle was attending a law enforcement conference and was unavailable for comment.