Sheriff Faces Inside Challenge Boundary Opponent Emerges From His Own Department

The only incumbent candidate in the Boundary County election is on the defensive.

Sheriff Greg Sprungl, a Democrat, is facing an aggressive challenger from within the sheriff’s department - Sgt. George Voyles.

Sprungl put his Republican opponent on graveyard shift earlier this year.

But that didn’t stop dissension in the ranks.

At least two former deputies said they left the department because of Sprungl, and Voyles has managed to attract the support of outgoing Prosecuting Attorney Denise Woodbury and former Sheriff Bruce Whittaker.

Sprungl, meanwhile, has his share of quiet support. Among those backing him is Ron Smith, who served as sheriff in the mid-1980s.

“I hate it when I see all these accusations and mistruths that are going out,” Smith said about the sheriff’s campaign. “He’s (Sprungl) working within the budget, he’s doing the job we elected him to do, and he’s doing a good job.”

Voyles and his supporters gather at Beauty’s Kitchen, a restaurant at Three-Mile Junction that’s become Voyles’ unofficial campaign headquarters.

“Don’t bungle with Sprungl,” reads a bumper sticker outside the restaurant.

Here they drink coffee, grumble about the current sheriff and strategize for Voyles’ victory.

“We get assaulted and attacked at our homes, and Greg won’t do anything about it,” said Harvey Gordon, who’s had problems with a neighbor for months. “He just walks away.”

The neighbor was convicted of a misdemeanor charge, but the Gordons say the conviction wasn’t Sprungl’s doing. The Gordons started bringing evidence directly to the prosecutor’s office because they thought Sprungl was just sitting on it.

Prosecutor Denise Woodbury confirmed that the victims were coming directly to her in that case.

Sprungl defends himself in the case, saying the matter was handled appropriately and professionally.

“It’s a simple case - disturbing the peace,” he said. “They make an issue about me not engaging them in a long conversation and why I didn’t make an arrest. … They politicize it in a political year.”

Meanwhile, as Voyles’ supporters denounce Sprungl, Steve Tanner - the county’s recently appointed Republican Party leader - has been questioning the character of his own party’s candidate.

Tanner went digging through Shoshone County court records and found record of a 1973 restraining order that was filed against Voyles by his wife at the time.

Details of the order are scarce. The file has since been purged, leaving only a log of documents, and neither Voyles nor his ex-wife remember the order, they said.

“It’s been a long time,” said Diane Jutila, his ex-wife.

Tanner also points to a 1998 case where a concealed weapons charge was dismissed because the gun was discovered during an unlawful arrest for driving with a suspended license. Voyles was one of the officers making the arrest, which involved two suspected militia members packing weapons and ammunition.

“I don’t care if he’s Republican or from Mars,” said Tanner, who’s known locally for his extremist views. “If someone operates using the color of law to hurt people, he has no business being in a position of authority.”

Bud Larsen, Voyles’ campaign manager, said Tanner will do “anything to get George off of this, because he (Voyles) enforces the law.”

Tanner spent five days in Boundary County’s jail for driving without a license in 1993. Tanner refused to submit to the court’s authority, arguing that “there is but one King and it is Jesus Christ.”

Voyles declined to respond to Tanner’s attack, leaving that to Larsen, who said; “Consider the source.”

Through all this, Sprungl said he is trying to focus on his record.

Wages for deputies have increased nearly $3 an hour. The jail is now one of 17 certified jails in the state. He has kept within his annual budgets. Sprungl has made use of grants and drug-seizure money to purchase equipment and tra in deputies.

Voyles and two deputies who quit, however, say Sprungl gets most of the training.

“Any training we get, we pretty much have to do on our own,” Voyles said. He’d like to see greater use of federal and state grants, while Sprungl avoids grants with strings attached.

Former deputy Mark Strangio said firearms training is infrequent, and what in-house training does occur usually has to be squeezed in before or after a regular shift.

“There’s a couple deputies who haven’t gone to any training in the last couple of years,” he said.

Lack of training is one reason department morale is so low, but lack of leadership is the main reason, Voyles said. Low morale has resulted in a poorly motivated force, Voyles said.

Deputy Jess Sanders said he left the department to work in another county sheriff’s department for less pay; “I finally got fed up and decided to make a change.”

Sprungl attributes the morale problem to Voyles, who he believes is sowing in-house dissension for political gain. The high turnover can be traced to the months after Voyles announced his candidacy, he said.

Contrary to what his critics say, Sprungl defends his department’s response to major crimes as strong and swift, while he allows his deputies some discretion on the minor crimes.

“I don’t like nit-picking in traffic violations,” he said.

On Monday, Woodbury, a Republican, presented Voyles with an award for injuries he suffered in a shotgun incident more than two years ago.

Sprungl learned of the award through the newspaper.

Voyles has worked for the Boundary County Sheriff’s Department since 1991. His law enforcement career began in 1982 in Shoshone County, after he lost his mining job when Bunker Hill Mine closed.

Sprungl drove logging trucks for several years before joining the Sheriff’s Department in 1990. He was appointed sheriff by the county commissioners in 1994.