Incumbent faces two challengers in Clearwater County sheriff’s race

The three-way contest for Clearwater County sheriff includes a candidate who has a personal ax to grind against the incumbent.

Three-term Sheriff Chris Goetz, 46, is being challenged in the May 19 Republican primary by two former law enforcement officers: James D. Garrison, 74, and Don Denison, 47.

Garrison, a former Fresno, Calif., city police officer, is currently on probation in Clearwater County stemming from an October 2018 incident in which He was charged with two misdemeanors, including domestic battery. He pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace in exchange for the domestic battery charge to be dropped.

Garrison said Clearwater County deputies removed him from his camping spot and illegally confiscated his firearms during the incident.

“It was a false arrest,” Garrison said during a recent interview with the Lewiston Tribune. He was represented during the case by Lewiston attorney Paul Thomas Clark.

“The sheriff’s office threatened my wife ... and I pleaded to disturbing the peace” on the advice of his attorney, so he could get his guns back, he said.

“This is strictly political,” Garrison added. “That’s one of the reasons I’m running. The sheriff’s department is doing illegal things; breaking constitutional law. The sheriff is incompetent. … They forced my wife to write a two-page statement under penalty of perjury. They used ... force to get me out of my camper. The deputies violated (our) constitutional rights and threatened ... my wife. … They made me plead to disturbing the peace because I didn’t have the money to fight the case.”

According to documents filed in Clearwater County, Garrison was taken into custody Oct. 30, 2018, after a third party observed what appeared to be a domestic violence case in progress and alerted the sheriff’s department.

After Garrison was arrested, he posted a $5,000 bond, according to court records. An original felony charge was dismissed before a preliminary hearing could be held and after the misdemeanor cases were adjudicated, Garrison was placed on probation for 18 months, beginning in February 2019.

Garrison told the Lewiston Tribune he was released early from probation by his probation officer on March 3 and decided to run against Goetz.

But Clearwater County Prosecutor E. Clayne Tyler said Garrison remains on probation at this time. Misdemeanor probation officers do not have the authority to unilaterally terminate a court order, Tyler said, and Garrison would be required to request early termination from his sentencing judge. Such a request has not been filed with the court, Tyler said.

Tyler also said there is nothing precluding Garrison from running for office, despite the misdemeanor case.

But personal issues aside, Garrison said there are other reasons he decided to run against Goetz. The sheriff, Garrison said, has violated other people’s constitutional rights through illegal evictions and confiscating their property without search warrants or writs of probable cause. Citizens have complained, Garrison said, but got no results.

“I’ve had a lot of people, they weren’t too happy with the sheriff and kept asking me to run,” Garrison said. “This is my community, so I would like to try to make a difference and I think I can. … I’m a friend of justice and a constitutionalist. And I believe in due process. I’m not somebody who doesn’t know what to do. I know the law and this sheriff is not obeying the law.”

Denison, a former county deputy who now works as a logger, is less critical of Goetz, but said law enforcement needs to focus more on getting out into the communities and talking to the citizens.

“I believe public safety needs to change,” Denison said. “Getting more cops into the neighborhoods instead of focusing on traffic. … Traffic enforcement is important, but so is meeting with the public and being part of the public that we serve.”

Denison also said there is a “huge drug problem,” in Clearwater County.

“I see it every day on the streets,” he said. “I think we need to start looking at law enforcement (as an) intervention-based model. Not focused on marijuana, but focus on the people that are supplying narcotics to our community.”

Drugs coming into the county start what Denison called “a chain reaction,” that results in thefts and other crimes. The current administration, he added, is not looking at ways to break that chain.

Goetz disputes much of the criticism his challengers have leveled at him, although he agrees there is a distinct drug problem in Clearwater County that has repercussions in other crimes, such as thefts, burglaries and domestic violence.

“In other parts of the country, it’s opioids (that are the problem),” he said. “But meth, by far, is still our number one drug of choice and that’s something we take on every day. We’re constantly working on cases … and I do think we do a pretty good job keeping it in check.”

Regarding accusations he and his deputies have violated other people’s civil rights, Goetz said his deputies “follow the law. We get search warrants and we have probable cause when we take action.”

Goetz said his deputies did nothing illegal in the incident involving Garrison. Although Garrison’s wife later recanted some of her original statement, she was not coerced or threatened during the incident, according to a probable cause document.

There’s a lot more to running a sheriff’s department than just working cases and criminal investigations, Goetz said. That includes running a jail, a dispatch center, civil responsibilities, a driver’s license office and a search and rescue team. There are 34 employees in the department, including 14 patrol officers and 20 in other departments.

He has been involved in the Idaho Sheriffs Association and served as its president in 2015. He also has been involved in the Idaho Association of Counties, along with other county officials.

“They’re both important,” Goetz said. “We do have conferences a couple times a year but I learn a lot from other sheriffs. If you’ve got issues you’re dealing with … one of those other sheriffs probably have seen or dealt with it and a lot can be learned with sheriffs getting together.”

It’s important, he said, for sheriffs to be able to work with other county officials, as Goetz said he does with the Clearwater County commissioners, especially when it comes to crafting a budget. Because of that work, he added, he has been able to retain deputies and build up salaries in his department to a level where he can keep people on the job.

He also said he is deeply involved in the community, partly in his role as a 4-H leader. In 2019, Goetz was named the county’s 4-H leader of the year. He is married, with two school-age daughters.

“I think I’ve done a good job as sheriff,” Goetz said. “The staff is the most stable it’s been in a long time. I think we’ve got great employees and the citizens are being served well.”

Hedberg may be contacted at kathyhedberg@gmail.com or (208) 983-2326.