MagicValley.com (Twin Falls Times-News) is reporting that Minidoka County Sheriff Kevin K. Halverson resigned Monday after reaching an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty for felony misuse of public money. Halverson reportedly used a county gasoline card to purchase over $241 of gasoline for his personal use. The online article reported that in return for his guilty plea, Halverson will not be charged with other crimes uncovered during the investigation conducted by the Idaho Attorney General’s Office.
Halverson had an impressive bio which included a master’s degree from Idaho State University and several years as an Idaho State Police Trooper.
Here is a link to the complaint and supporting affidavit filed by the AG’s investigator against now former Sheriff Halverson.
The fact that charges were filed, especially over 241 dollars, is amazing. It seems to me that the ‘real’ story here involves the ‘other crimes’ that were uncovered but which were not charged or made public. A felony charge, arising out of $241 in gasoline, seems to imply that the ‘other crimes’ were substantial and that they were used to leverage the plea bargain. Apparently the Minidoka County prosecuting attorney did not want to investigate one of his/her buddies like most, it seems, county prosecutors. Is there a super-secret process that most county prosecutors are not aware of that may be used to obtain such an investigation?
Comment by up river — July 6, 2013 @ 8:28 am
up river,
Agreed. It sounds as if other persons, possibly including other county employees, could have been charged with related offenses and possibly the same offenses as Halverson. It also sounds as if there were other counts of the same offense with which Halverson could have been charged. The newspaper article reported that as part of the proposed plea agreement, Halverson would get substance abuse evaluations. Taken together, it sounds as if the AG’s office and the County’s PA agreed to charge one symbolic count in return for “shut up and don’t run for office again.” Since we don’t have the actual proposed plea agreement, we don’t know exactly what the outcome will be. Seems like it’s up to the Court.
Judging from what’s in the affidavit of probable cause, PA Stevenson could conceivably be a fact witness in any trial. Likely so would some of his immediate employees who were cooperating witnesses in the AG’s investigation. Logically, the investigation could and should have been done by the Idaho State Police rather than the AG’s office. Maybe the ISP wasn’t considered to be impartial enough to investigate other law enforcement officers.
Comment by Bill — July 6, 2013 @ 9:27 am