Idaho rescue group cleared in boat ordeal

A brouhaha over donated boats and payments to Priest Lake Search & Rescue, Inc., appears over.

Bonner County Sheriff Elaine Savage and the search-and-rescue group issued a joint statement Friday clearing the organization and restoring calm between the two.

“This is way overdue,” said Mike Nielsen, president of Priest Lake Search & Rescue.

In July 2004, then-Sheriff Phil Jarvis requested the Idaho State Police investigate the group for possible criminal misappropriation of funds.

The press release issued Friday says that neither the group, “nor any of its individual members committed any crime …”

Nielsen had accused the sheriff’s office of retaliation because he had called office incompetent, and because he had declined to support Savage, Jarvis’s appointed successor, in her bid for sheriff.

In return, Nielsen had requested an investigation of the sheriff’s office for misuse of police powers. The county prosecutor ruled before the election that Nielsen’s accusations “totally without merit.”