By Cameron Rasmusson
Reader Staff
Bonner County Undersheriff David Hale, Sheriff Daryl Wheeler’s second-in-command, resigned last week under fire from accusations of improper electioneering.
Hale took heat earlier this month after he admitted to creating a website masquerading as a campaign site for Terry Ford, Wheeler’s challenger in May’s primary election. After a week of scrutiny and a promised review of misconduct from Wheeler, the sheriff’s office announced Hale’s resignation in a terse, one-sentence press release.
“I have accepted the resignation of David Hale as Undersheriff of Bonner County,” the press release read.
According to county prosecutor Louis Marshall, his office is in communication with the Idaho Attorney General’s Office to determine whether Hale broke any election laws in creating the website. Marshall confirmed Wednesday that the attorney general’s staff agreed to conduct an investigation.
“The [attorney general’s office] has agreed to take the case, and they haven’t set a timetable on when the investigation will be completed,” Marshall said.
Ford’s supporters discovered the website early this month, tracing it back to servers operated by Hale. After questioning, Hale told the Bonner County Daily Bee that he did create the site, but his intent was merely to provide voters with information about Ford.
However, Ford’s supporters contend that the site was designed to make the sheriff candidate look unpolished and inept. They cited the sloppy website design, blurry photos and website copy with less-than-flattering descriptions of Ford’s service record. Supporters also decried the claim that the site was “paid for by Friends of Terry Ford for Sheriff.” In addition, they said the website had been back-linked in Wheeler’s personal website to improve its Google search results.
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