OTHELLO – Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner admitted in an official ACSO social media post on Friday that he had worked and operated agency vehicles with a suspended driver’s license for nearly two years. According to the statement, the issue came to public attention after an unknown person or people with the “apparent intent of creating division, spreading misinformation, and discrediting myself” posted about it on social media.
Wagner said he was ticketed in April 2023 while off duty in his personal vehicle on SR-26 near Royal City. He said he made payment in full to Grant County District Court, but “the payment was received late,” and Grant County assessed a late fee.
According to Wagner, the late fee led to his license suspension. Wagner said he never received notice of the suspension until January of this year. “I was shocked to learn that my driver’s license had been suspended by the state due to the unpaid late fee. I had received no prior notice of this action. If I had, I would have paid the $52.00 fee right away,” he said. RCW 46.29.605(2) requires notification of a license suspension via first-class mail. RCW 46.20.345 stipulates a mandatory 10-day sentence for first time offenders.
On April 8, Hank Revard, an Adams County resident, asked questions of the county Board of Commissioners, including: What liabilities could the county have had if there had been an accident? What about the cases Wagner worked during his license suspension, and who was responsible for oversight? The Commissioners never publicly answered the questions in that meeting or the April 15 meeting, where the issue was discussed further. That meeting ended with the suggestion that Adams County would refer the matter to Benton County for outside investigation.
While he accepted responsibility for his suspension, “I understand that it will still be twisted or slammed by those with other agendas, I encourage everyone to simply consider the source. The facts speak for themselves,” Wagner said in an apparent reference to the people who brought the issue to the public realm. The attention on social media is “rooted in personal grievances, jealousy, political reasons or losses, and simply a desire for attention. While every citizen has the right to voice their opinion, the spread of baseless rumors and misleading narratives does nothing to build our community—it only feeds negativity,” he said. It is unknown which baseless rumor he was referring to, as he had validated this rumor himself. “if the tables were turned, and we as elected officials chose to publicly share the rumors or personal information we hear and know first-hand, about these same individuals, we’d be accused of abuse of office—yet we are expected to silently endure the constant personal attacks,” Wagner said.
Wagner said ACSO will implement new procedures to include annual license status checks for all deputies. He did not return multiple requests for comment.
Click here to read Sheriff Wagner’s full statement.
