Really Right

Liberal website 9B News launched a scathing attack on Sheriff’s candidate Dave Schuman just six days before the election. They called him a liar, manipulator, fraud, and worse. The basis of the attack was supposed to be based on a Freedom of Information Act disclosure that the author admits he never totally read but then somehow blows up to the point that Hunter Biden could be nominated for sainthood.

While there hasn’t been time for an in-depth, thorough reading of the documents and no official investigative findings have been made public…

Schuman’s credibility as a peace officer formally questioned

OK. Stop right there. The author hasn’t read the FOI information thoroughly. Furthermore, the author is not making the FOI request available as part of his article. In other words, there is zero corroborating evidence to back up the claims in this article.

Folks if you really have the goods on Dave Schuman then put them out there. What happened to “we report, you decide”? Clearly reporting the news is not enough, they have to tell us how to interpret it too.

The timing of this really stinks.

Per the article, the county prosecutor wrote a letter to the Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training Academy. All we have as the basis of this article is an accusation. Schuman has always maintained that he was set-up by supporters of Travis Stolley.

If you recall, Stolley was flamed for not prosecuting an incident involving photos of a girl’s privates being emailed to an out of state adult. It is wrong, but in this county, deputies are given wide discretion on complaints and frequently do not document complaints or their outcome. This has been a constant gripe of candidate Jon VanGesen.

Low and behold, look at this line from the article.

Attached was a pages-long memorandum of record reference Ben Apo as regards allegations of conflict and financial discrepancies in reference to American Legion Post 55 and and Seniors Center that were never turned in for prosecution though there were concerns of potential crimes committed.

The pot here seems to be calling the kettle black. It is clear that the current sheriff might be a nice guy, but he doesn’t run a professional crew. Please note that both Stolley and Schuman have the same boss. It appears that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The article also attacks Schuman for being a liar concerning several matters without any substantiation: except one specific.

“I am attaching a letter regarding my concerns regarding Deputy Schuman’s veracity pursuant to Giglio,” prosecuting attorney Andrakay Pluid wrote. By calling the question, she is telling the court she cannot trust this officer to testify in a court of law sufficient to maintain the integrity implicit in the pursuit of justice.

“The Brady and Giglio precedents require police officers to be especially careful to avoid any actions or statements that could compromise their credibility,” the Nevada law firm GGRQM explains on their website. “The prosecution is legally required to disclose any misconduct or compromising information regarding the witness to the defense attorney, who will then use it to impeach the law enforcement witness on the stand. The end result can be the loss of what would have been a strong case.”

While murky to the layman, the principles in Giglio and Brady go to the heart of jurisprudence and the fundamentals of due process. An officer “Giglioed” or Brady listed won’t go to jail, but won’t be trusted to testify in a court of law. Worse yet, any testimony given in their career becomes suspect and open to challenge. For all practical purposes, their effectiveness as a peace officer ends.

Folks this is a thermonuclear charge to level at Schuman but is never substantiated in the article. Again, no supporting documents or an actual copy of this letter has been made available to the public. Furthermore, Schuman is under investigation for something, but no findings have been released.

The article also drops this accusation, again without specifics.

Allegations of falsified canine training records and of falsified personal training records; of false statements released to the public to bolster his campaign for sheriff.

Ok dear readers, let me ask one question.

Put yourself in Schuman’s shoes for a second. You are running for office. You know that you are under investigation by your employer. The things you are accused of would disqualify you from serving in the office for which you are running. If these accusations were found to be true, it would ruin your reputation. Given the above, why would you stay in the race?

Folks, Schuman either thinks he is not guilty, or he is trying to pull off one hell of a bluff. I’ve seen him at several events over the past few months and his public speaking has gotten much better. He sure seems to believe that he is the best guy for the job and doesn’t back down from a fight.

My response to the 9B article on Facebook was thus:

If these assertions are true, Dave Schuman should have withdrawn from the Sheriff’s race. So either he thinks that he will be found innocent or he’s holding two duces, threw everything into the pot, and is bluffing that he has a full house.

Since Dave gets to live amongst us after this race is over, I think it likely that Dave believes he will be found innocent. We won’t know the whole story until the report is issued.

That people are willing to condemn him without all the facts in hand less than a week before the election is more of a reflection of your character than it is Dave’s. Lastly, lest you accuse me of being a blind follower of Schuman, a different candidate’s sign is in my front yard.

Meanwhile, Travis Stolley is hiding in the basement and not doing any public appearances. He refuses to go to any candidate forums. His last public event was over a month ago. This is odd behavior for the guy blessed by the good ‘ole buys in the county. It seems presumptive that Stolley has this in the bag.

The Facebook thread on this article has some comments that smear Schuman even more. (Please note that they are from a group that requires membership so I can’t figure out how to link them to this post.) Currently there are over 100 comments, but these go way beyond what was on 9B. This seems to be an example of a “whisper campaign” otherwise known as gossip.

[Dave Schuman’s] certificates were on file at the sheriff’s office and they just came up missing, supposedly by a computer crash at the sheriff’s office. How convenient

Dave had three certifications that were lifetime certifications. These were before the county started supplying training through whomever, and those trainings were to be updated yearly. By law, those records have to be kept for 10 years before purging them. It was 17 years ago Schuman was a K9 officer.

So, if the county is saying Dave was not certified to be a K9 officer, but they allowed him to do drug stops and arrest people for drugs, then they were in the wrong. Now suppose the county wanted to push this, don’t you think everyone that was arrested would have a legal recourse on the county? It would probably bankruptcy our county and those in charge would probably go to prison.

That’s the latest chapter on the sheriff’s race. Oh, 9B News is endorsing Travis Stolley. No surprise there.

The political divisions in Idaho are very different from those on the Left Coast. We get to vote for two representatives in the Idaho House.

For those in Elk Grove or other parts of Gavin’s domain, image that each Senate district had two Assembly members living within those same boundaries. Every two years you get to vote for two Assembly members. Such is the case in Idaho.

In my case I live in Senate District one. Thus, we have two House members on the ballot, House 1A and House 1B. House 1B has no incumbent running but House 1A has a Liberal RINO type incumbent guy versus two conservatives. In addition, the incumbent and one of his conservative challengers both have the same last name. A website that I could swear sounds a lot like the work of Aaron F Park, is claiming that the candidates with the same last name used to be man and wife—which seems to be a false accusation.

Last week I attended the 1B debate and this week I attended the 1A debate.

Here’s my comments.

1B is Chuck Lowman vs Cornel Rasor. Prior to the debate, I knew nothing about either guy other than Cornel runs the Army Surplus store in Sandpoint Idaho.

Cornel was clearly the more conservative guy on the platform. Lowman used several talking points put out by the North Idaho Republicans (NIR) group. In fact, he said very little that can’t be found on the webpages of NIR.

Lowman used three talking points from NIR as the basis of his campaign. First, he wants to loosen restrictions on abortions in Idaho. Secondly, NIR is pushing the corollary to their abortion narrative that Idaho has a doctor shortage that is the direct result of abortion restrictions. Somehow doctors like killing babies and doctor shortages are the result of medical professional fleeing pro-life states.

By-the-way, this is B.S. It has more to do with rural areas having less patients in a doctor’s service area, thus less services to bill. When most doctors are carrying close to a million dollars in student loans when they completed their training, it doesn’t pencil-out unless they live in a larger population area where they can bill more services. They need a larger population base to get out from under their burdensome student loans. It’s simple economics not abortion restrictions.

Thirdly, Lowman is pushing for more governments spending; especially, for government schools. Lowman just wants more money thrown at the schools not targeted spending or results-based metrics for the spending.

Lowman used NIR talking points but without enthusiasm or conviction. I felt like he was not forthright in what he believed but saying what he thought he was supposed to say.

Cornel Rasor was more focused on the Constitution and emphasized limited government. What he said came from a firm conviction on what is the right and proper role of government. He came across as less likely to be subject to outside influence than Lowman. Lowman lacked core values.

I left the event convinced that Cornel Rasor was the better candidate.

Since the debate, I’ve often seen Lowman signs in the yards of Democrats and Left leaning people. I view this as confirmation that my impression of the debate was correct.

The second debate was for House seat 1A. As expected, incumbent Mark Sauter did not appear. Mark doesn’t know the difference between a boy and a girl so expecting him to campaign and defend his record, or lack of one, is not surprising.

This left the event to challengers Spencer Hutchings and Jane Sauter. I was told that both were conservative and that seems to be the case. Spencer owns a gun store and is pro-life. Jane is a mom of seven (if I got the biography correct) and homeschooled her children. Jane is clearly an evangelical Christian and began her opening remarks with a biblical explanation of the Old Testament’s Deborah. (See the book of Judges.) Spencer said that he had formerly been a Mormon but that was his only mention of anything religious during the entire evening.

In her opening, Jane also took a few shots at Spencer Hitchings concerning the Bonner County Central Committee and his time as their Treasurer. Jane is endorsed by the group and not Spencer. Clearly some history that has not been well publicized is lurking in the past.

A question that has been used in each debate concerns polygamy. Polygamy is outlawed by the Idaho Constitution, but the legislature has never enacted any laws to prohibit the practice. It has been claimed that some folks in my county have multiple wives. Part of the complaint is that said women are collecting benefits from the welfare system so that the dad doesn’t have to support his brood. This allows him to impregnate even more women without responsibility.

Men impregnating women and then letting the government foot the bill is really nothing new. It’s been a fixture of the Great Society since 1964 but I guess when Mormon sects do it then it’s a problem.  

Oh, on that subject, Jane Sauter said that one of her kids had met a girl that had over 149 siblings (brothers and sisters for those readers in Rio Linda).

After the debate, my wife and I still can’t make up our minds who to support. However, I did think it interesting that prior to the debate my wife had collected one of each item from Jane Sauter’s information table but after the conclusion of the debate, she returned them all to the information table.

Two conservative challengers versus an incumbent Liberal means that the 1A vote will likely be split and the incumbent wins. Thus, maybe it doesn’t matter who we support except in our own conscience.

The one question that I have that nobody seems interested in researching is what was the voter registration of Chuck Lowman and Mark Sauter prior to them moving to Idaho? I’d bet a meal at your local In-and-Out Burger that they were probably not Republicans.

Anyway, the election is a week from today. We will see how things turn out.

When you live in a small town that is two hours away from the nearest television station, has no local radio station, and a once or twice weekly newspaper that you’ve never read, how do you run a political campaign? Oh, sorry Sith Lord but you can’t go door-to-door here. If a property is posted and you trespass, the owner is within his rights to defend his property, Second Amendment style. Also, the voters do not get a sample ballot from election officials.

The cumulative effect of all the above is that yard signs and Facebook are the go-to ways to get your message out. However, who is the consultant, interest group, or candidate presenting you with campaign info? Usually, you never know unless they tell you or somebody outs your cute sounding grassroots name as a George Soros front.

Such is the case for the group North Idaho Republicans. From reading their website contents they try the tired and worn-out slogans of lower taxes, less government, and so forth but are they really? If you read the contents of attached articles and not the generic GOP talking points you will find that they favor lifting abortion restrictions, want more taxes and larger government, and favor trans children and other not Republican stuff. All the while they are saying they are the real and reasonable conservatives. Clearly a person cannot be both unless they are named Romney or Bush. Looking at this site its easy to smell the rats but when you try hitting them with the light of examination, they scatter like cockroaches when you turn on the lights.

Some enterprising people looked into the group and identified the participants behind North Idaho Republicans (NIR). Wow. This will blow your socks off. Of course, this info was so good that they had to make their own website just to expose the folks at NIR.

Introducing the Gem State Heist dot Org.

Who’s Behind The Heist?

Big Boise money, Democratic activists, woke liberals & Never Trumpers are trying to steal your grassroots conservative, ‘Make America Great Again’ Kootenai County Republican Party. They call themselves ‘North Idaho Republicans’. Do you think the people below represent your values?

Folks, what you are about to read is remarkable.

Christa Hazel

Not only does she hate Trump, but she was the leader of Idaho Women for Biden.

The pull quote they use from the Coeur d’Alene Press is a real zinger.

Hazel . . . thinks Kamala Harris is one of the most qualified vice presidential candidates the country has ever seen.

The stuff from her Twitter feed is incriminating as well:

From 2020

A major reason I’m fired up, left the Republican Party & willing to work my ass off to elect @JoeBiden is because…

From 2024

… North Idaho Republicans like myself are proud of.

Do you get the chronology?

She was a neverTrumper in 2020 and quit the Republican Party to support Biden but is back now to campaign for RINOs.

Oh, on the North Idaho Republican website it says, “Christa Hazel is … a lifelong North Idaho Republican.” Yeah, sure. if your lifetime is as long as a slug and you believe in reincarnation.

Mike Baker

Mike served on the board of North Idaho Pride Alliance which advocates for drag queen story hour for kids and Pride in the Park in downtown Coeur d’Alene. As CEO of Heritage Health, Mike is “dedicated to providing high quality care for transgender and gender-diverse patients” which ostensibly includes children.

The pull quote, again from the Coeur d’Alene Press is a real zinger.

Together, we can dismantle the outdated structures…that have hindered our collective progress.

Translation: we need to teardown the outdated Christian (Western) Culture because it hinders Marxist collective progress.

Damon Dajarky

Twitter posts by him are really damning.

We need a more balance of Democrats, and bipartisan politics in Idaho! Make the process more inclusive and diverse we need this in our state.

I have some very good Democrat friends who register as Republicans so they can participate in the primary process how is that fair to them.

He also is pro-transexual and hates Trump.

Jack Riggs

Jack has made it onto my blog before when he supported the false claims of racism related to the NCAA women’s tournament in Spokane. Damon Dajarky also supported the hoax claims to further his politics. Jack’s quote from the Coeur d’Alene Press might look familiar.

The empowerment of bigotry and racism threatens the very fabric of our community” (Coeur d’Alene) “ . . . these incidents are not just isolated problems. They remind us of the worst parts of our past, like the 1920s Klan.

Oh, better yet, Jack’s daughter is a partner in the Satanic Temple Idaho.

Trent Clark

Trent is the “bag man” or money guy behind North Idaho Republicans. He was a lobbyist and like others, supports woke ideology. He is a big supporter of illegal aliens and is on the Public Television board.

Marc Stewart

Marc is a rainbow warrior that hates Trump. No surprises there.

Russell Mann

Russell has a Twitter post that needs explanation.

Cheri Zao is a much better choice for conservative Idaho Republicans.

Why is this troubling? Well Cheri is Treasurer of the Kootenai County Democrat Central Committee. So how is she a better choice for “conservative Idaho Republicans”?

Conclusion

In conclusion, North Idaho Republicans is in fact run by Democrats, RINOs, and neverTrumpers.

Welcome to the wacky world of Idaho politics.

Folks, there is a line between gossip and information. In recent revelations about candidate Stolley, that line may very well have been crossed.

Put another way, when we observe human behavior, and a person knows that he is being observed, doesn’t he change behavior just because he knows he is being watched? What happens when the observer is affecting the results they claim to be simply observing. When an observer becomes a participant and not just an observer, do they forfeit the right to claim to simply be observing?

Really, I’m not trying to confuse things. The observer in this batch of revelations has shown themselves to be a participant in the events which they are reporting. Does this participation invalidate their claims of being an objective observer? In this case, said person admits that they reported Stolley to the FBI over his mishandling of the child porn case mentioned in this post and a previous one.

Anyway, here’s the latest via our good friends at Facebook.

Community members are questioning Travis Stolley’s suitability for Boundary County Sheriff, citing concerns about his adherence to law enforcement protocols and ability to fulfill the duties of the office.

Allegations from 2019 suggest Officer Travis Stolley did not follow prescribed procedures in handling a case involving child pornography on an iPod.

* See documents in my comments below (must be on Boundary County Watchman comments not a shared post)

Following the 2020 Dr. Drake murder, questions arose about Stolley’s adherence to local, state, or federal procedural protocols regarding the use of gloves.

* Please see video attached for reference. 

Further concerns arising from Stolley’s historical financial record, including a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filing in 2014. Copies of this Bankruptcy Court filing is available on request.

These concerns seem relevant to any informed decision by the voters in selection of candidates for Sheriff and might bear on fitness for the duties of this elected office.

Facebook Post

Here are copies of screen grabs concerning reporting Stolley to the FBI. My concern is that the dates are within the last week and not from time of this info going public.

The above prompted a response by Stolley posted on Facebook.

I will start by saying this, Adrienne Norris is correct about the bankruptcy my family went through. As part of my interview process with the BFPD this was disclosed and discussed with Chief Bob Boone in 2014.  He trusted me to overcome this experience and I have always been grateful to him for giving me the opportunity to serve our community.

It was one of the most humbling situations I have ever gone through.  I knew going into this process these kinds of issues would be brought up, considered and discussed. I’m okay with you making decisions based on fact and totality of the circumstances. We are all a sum of our life experiences and this is part of my life story.

iPod/CSEM issue.

More important to me than anything else is the privacy of the individual(s) actually involved with this case. Their privacy needs protected as much as possible. I will not disclose specific details which may disclose personal information.

Can you imagine what it’s like to have someone bring up a mistake or bad choice you made when you were young over and over again?

I’ve spoken with the victims family and they want this to be left alone and have asked people to respect their privacy. Instead they were directly attacked by a select few on another social media site.

I know for a fact the victims family doesn’t think anything wrong or improper happened with the investigation. So why do people that don’t know or have the facts of the case keep trying to be a victim when they aren’t actually involved?

Victim blaming is one of the worst things I can imagine doing to someone. Bringing this up over and over keeps pressing an issue without any regard for the real victim in this situation, a young child.

I have explained to Adrienne Norris in person the truth of this, as I will do now. She chooses to either not believe me or not care about the facts and listens to someone who has an obvious bias.

Here are the facts

There 100% was not a crime committed. I did not confiscate any device because based on the information and facts provided to me at the time, there wasn’t a case to investigate. I had the device in my possession long enough to hand it to a parent of the juvenile. The content of the device was reviewed and no criminal activity was found.

Again based on the lack of evidence of a crime this was referred to the parent to handle. The parent handled the issue as any of us who are parents of teenagers in today’s society would, by being the parent.

If there had been evidence any explicit content had been shared at all, an investigation would have occurred. But that was not the case. The parent removed any content of their child on the iPod and left with the device.

Addressing the next part of Adrienne’s post in reference to Brian Drake’s murder case.

This was potentially an active threat scenario were it was a real possibility we could have located someone who had just taken the life of another person by use of a firearm.

We responded to a shots fired call, we located a deceased male and cleared the entire office building looking for a potential shooter/murder suspect.

We thought this person could be inside and possibly hiding behind any one of those doors or cabinets. Once we cleared the scene of any potential active threats a perimeter was set and investigators called.

The video referenced shows parts of us clearing the initial scene after we entered the building a short time after discovering the body. This building was a tactical nightmare to clear. 

For info on the Brian Drake murder, see the following:

‘Coerced’ murder confession complicates case against one Bonners Ferry chiropractor accused of killing another

It sounds like nobody was ever prosecuted for this crime once the confession of Daniel Morre was tossed.

Murder charges against Bonners Ferry chiropractor dismissed

Family issues reward in 3 year old murder case, continue quest for answers

Oh, for those of you keeping score, this is not the only unsolved case in the area. Last summer a guy supposedly drove north of town, took a walk into the forest, and ended himself. Despite an intensive search, his body was never found. All evidence of suicide is circumstantial.

Stolley’s Facebook post ends on a less than positive note.

The reality is what happens in real life policing isn’t always like the movies. It’s fluid and often chaotic but we can learn from each experience and focus on professional training to improve. As Sheriff that will be a priority!

I’ve said this before and I’ll end by saying it again.

I’m not a perfect person or candidate. I do however care about the integrity of investigations and the wellbeing of our community.

In the above, Stolley seems to admit that not everything was done by the book but they had good intentions so that is what counts.

Conclusion

Folks, Stolley is a nice guy to talk with and he’d be welcome to a BBQ at my house (if I had a BBQ which I don’t) but I don’t think he’s ready for the big chair in the Sheriff’s Office. Youth and inexperience seem to be handicaps for Stolley that he has yet to overcome.

For readers in the once golden state, politics here seems more like running for high school student body president than a real office making important decisions. Such are things in a very small community.

In contrast to the sheriff’s race, lurking on the edges of campaigns for state legislative offices are characters that remind me of our good friends the Just-Us-Brothers. I will have more on these characters in an upcoming post.