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Highlands Today

Sheriff's Election

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Robert Dietrich

Published: October 26, 2008

As a retired police officer with over 36 years of experience, I feel compelled to voice my concerns regarding the upcoming Sheriff's election.
I have followed this race very closely and found that Sheriff Benton willfully misled the public on the evidence issue.
The missing evidence is extremely disturbing to me because as Mike Rowan so aptly said during the primary, "the evidence room is the integrity of the Sheriff's Department." When the original 13-page Newell report was submitted our sheriff missed a golden opportunity to stand up as a leader, acknowledge the problems and move towards resolving evidence issues. Instead she attempted to cover up this report. When the report surfaced, she misrepresented Mr. Newell's work and damaged his reputation in a public forum.
Only after State Attorney Jerry Hill wrote the sheriff a letter on Aug. 29 expressing his concerns and effort to work towards solving the problem did the Sheriff conduct another inventory. In her subsequent evidence report published Oct. 14 in Highlands Today she stated her folks accounted for 99.77 percent of the evidence inventoried. At a candidate forum the previous day she stated that missing items have not affected pending criminal cases.
Sheriff Benton thought she had effectively swept the missing evidence under the carpet. On Oct. 17, however, Mr. Hill wrote the Sheriff another letter expressing nine specific concerns including a missing firearm, missing drugs, 31 items which remain unaccounted for with whereabouts unknown, an additional 48 items unaccounted for in the latest inventory, and virtually all items listed in the Newell report remain unaccounted for as of today. Of particular concern is missing evidence in two homicide cases. Mr. Hill further stated that cannabis cases (marijuana grow houses) will continue to be problematic for the prosecution for some time to come.
What we need is honest leadership, experience and integrity in our Sheriffs Office… something lacking in the present administration.
Sorry Susan I will not support you. I am casting my vote for Ron Grimming.
Robert Dietrich
Lake Placid

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