Sheriff recall petition sent back for revisions

Eureka residents say sheriff failed to investigate rapes

Lincoln County elections officials have asked a group of Eureka-area residents to redraft their petition to recall Sheriff Daryl R. Anderson over what the group alleges was a failure to properly investigate a series of rape complaints.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the Lincoln County Recall Committee, Tammy D. Lauer, Lincoln County clerk and recorder and election administrator, withheld approval of the group's petition on both procedural and substantive grounds.

The recall committee will be required to submit a hard copy of the petition in the form it will be circulated, file a new affidavit stating the basis for its knowledge of the facts claimed to constitute incompetence, and remove the words "We the people of Lincoln County."

Diane J. Kaechele, spokeswoman for the Lincoln County Recall Committee, said the group "absolutely" will re-file the petition.

"We will do what we have to do to move this petition forward," she said. "The only supervisors [Anderson] has are the people who voted him into office."

The petition, which first was reviewed by the county attorney's office for legality and compliance with state statute, was filed last week. The recall committee has the option to challenge in court the changes required by elections officials.

An approved version of the petition must be signed by at least 1,946 people - 15 percent of the number of residents registered to vote in Lincoln County's last general election - to force a countywide special election with Anderson's recall on the ballot.

In the draft petition, the Lincoln County Recall Committee accuses Anderson of failing to investigate six rape complaints "completely, if at all."

Anderson has roundly and repeatedly rejected the committee's claims of incompetence and wrongdoing.

The recall committee also has expressed dissatisfaction with Anderson's handling of an April 2008 case where a black Labrador dog was found dead in the Tobacco River near the Pigeon Bridge off Montana 37.

But investigators have said the case was blown out of proportion and evidence does not exist to support a theory that the dog was beaten and tortured.

The draft petition also accuses Anderson of denying a man a permit to carry a concealed weapon permit without a written statement of probable cause and hiring a deputy without sending him to the state's law enforcement academy.

Anderson, however, has said the weapon permit was denied because the applicant was involved with the Freeman uprising of 1996 in Eastern Montana. The deputy was only hired on a temporary basis, reportedly pursuant to state regulations, and now is a Lincoln County justice of the peace.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com