This editorial is the opinion of Columbia Basin News staff.
After weeks of online speculation and discussions with the Adams County Board of Commissioners, Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner made a stunning confession on April 15. He had worked and driven ACSO vehicles for a year and a half with a suspended driver’s license. The admission felt, at best, forced by way of a public outing. At worst, it felt like our Sheriff was blaming others for having to confess at all. We have tried to contact him, but the Adams County Sheriff still has some questions to answer.
It wasn’t until midway through Wagner’s post on the ACSO Facebook page that he even got to the point of his message. In the opening sentences, Wagner raged about “a small group of individuals have taken to social media and other outlets with the apparent intent of creating division, spreading misinformation, and discrediting [himself] and other community leaders.” He lamented that, as an elected public official, he is exposed to a higher degree of scrutiny than an ordinary citizen, even though he put himself in that position by standing for office.
Interwoven in the admission were thinly veiled threats as if to say those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. “If the tables were turned, and we as elected officials chose to publicly share the rumors or personal information we hear and know firsthand about these same individuals, we’d be accused of abuse of office,” Wagner said.
Wagner learned of his license suspension in January. He waited until rumors spread and people speculated before admitting his error in the middle of April. It leads one to wonder if he would ever have come clean if no one had spoken up. He definitely didn’t want to talk to Columbia Basin News about it. Numerous requests for comment were unanswered.
Through it all, we kept expecting that old Scooby Doo line to pop up – “I would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for you meddling kids!”
The idea that the leader of the ACSO didn’t know his license was suspended beguiles belief. Washington state law requires that a notice be sent via first-class mail to the last known address when a person’s license is suspended. This author knows firsthand how that system works. I’ve had a license suspended and received a mail notice (even though I had moved several times and not updated my address – oops). You bet I was on the phone immediately with the court, making payment and arranging for DOL to be notified so that I was on the right side of the law. The matter took mere minutes to clear up. The system finds you. Washington State doesn’t go out of its way to entrap drivers by failing to notify them of a suspension.
Wagner knows all of this. His agency regularly arrests people for driving with a suspended license. He has heard the “I didn’t know it was suspended” excuse countless times before putting handcuffs on a violator. Wagner also knows what the legal consequences are. RCW 46.20.345 stipulates a mandatory 10-day sentence for first-time offenders. I’d keep my mouth shut, too. But I’m not an elected Sheriff placed in office by the citizens of Adams County to uphold the law. The Adams County Prosecutor did not respond to multiple emails inquiring whether the Sheriff would face prosecution. The Sheriff did not respond to a request for information about how many people were arrested by ACSO for driving with a suspended license during the period that Wagner’s license was suspended.
Columbia Basin News attempted to reach Sheriff Wagner for comment several times before and after he posted his admission to Facebook. He did not respond. In a telephone conversation on April 25, Sheriff Wagner said, “I’m not going to do that,” when asked if he could check his spam or junk email folders and ensure our messages could reach his inbox. We wonder if he has the same attitude with other news outlets or if it’s just us. Either way, it seems like a shocking disregard for the First Amendment for an elected official who portrays himself as a constitutionalist. He said that we were welcome to call the Sheriff’s office when we had questions and that they would contact him by phone. It seems as if our Sheriff wants to avoid putting any communication with the media in writing. We will take him up on his offer to reach him through the office, but we’re skeptical the results will differ.
This is a scandal that the Adams County Sheriff’s Office didn’t need. And it didn’t need to happen. Wagner should have come forward immediately to freely admit his error. He only did so when that “small vocal faction” used their First Amendment-protected rights to discuss it. Why did he wait months after allegedly first learning of the suspension to come forward? We may never know. We don’t believe he would have come forward had it not been for social media chatter and a public comment given by an Adams County citizen at a commissioners’ meeting. He claims to value transparency. In the future, we hope to see more actual transparency from our law enforcement leaders.
ACSO is already embroiled in a legal battle with Washington State over alleged violations of state law regarding local law enforcement participating in immigration enforcement. A legal conflagration that he frequently posts about on the department’s social media pages.
Whether he likes it or not, Wagner is a public figure, even when he’s not “on duty.” You can’t turn off being an elected representative of the people. His position makes him susceptible to enhanced scrutiny, as he is well aware. There is no question that there is a faction of vocal people on social media who obviously are not fans of our Sheriff. It comes with the territory.
Blaming people the electorate for you having to confess is a bad look for an elected official. Citizens have the absolute right to speak up about their government and those in it. In this case, the “unsubstantiated rumors” proved to be true. This case is the perfect example for why the First Amendment right to free speech and a free press exists.
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