Candidate culled from voter rolls

John Weick, on the November ballot as an Independent candidate for Kootenai County Sheriff, is almost certainly a long shot to win, especially since he can’t even cast a symbolic vote for himself.

He was removed from the rolls of registered voters recently after his opponent, incumbent Sheriff Rocky Watson, challenged Weick’s status as a county resident.

Weick and Watson not only are opponents on the ballot, but are embroiled in a lawsuit over Weick’s purchase of a private security firm formerly run by Watson and his wife, Mary. Weick bought the company in late 2001, but stopped making payments after about six months. He accused the Watsons of not paying thousands of dollars in various payroll taxes and employee benefits that Weick contends were to be taken care of prior to purchase.

The Watsons dispute the charge and by November 2002 filed suit seeking payment. They have won several rulings from Kootenai County 1st District Court Judge John Mitchell, including two ordering Weick to resume payments in the $1.15 million deal.

A growing sense of unfairness after losing rulings in the three-year-old dispute prompted Weick to file as an Independent candidate for sheriff March 19, just 15 minutes before the deadline, he said.

After filing, however, Weick has apparently done no campaigning. He hasn’t purchased any signs or advertising, Weick said, or made any appearances at the fair or other candidate-heavy events. No campaign finance reports have been filed. (The next deadline, covering the summer months, is Tuesday.)

At the same time, Weick has appealed all of Judge Mitchell’s rulings.

In late July, Mitchell found the retired, 20-year Los Angeles police officer in contempt of court and Weick was led away in handcuffs to the Kootenai County Jail.

He was almost immediately transferred to the Shoshone County Jail so one sheriff’s candidate wouldn’t be incarcerating the other. Weick bailed out later that day but still has four days of jail time to serve. He has appealed this ruling, too.

Weick was rumored to have left for Southern California to avoid arrest on a contempt warrant. But he said Thursday evening he was speaking by telephone from North Idaho, where he continues to run the private security company, still confusingly named Watson Agency.

“I’m finding out a lot about this community. I’ve been torn apart in the newspapers. I’ve been trashed. My wife tells me I’m crazy and I probably have to agree with her,” Weick said.

Weick casts himself as an outsider trying to break open a corrupt system and blames political influence behind the actions – or inactions – of county officials such as Clerk Dan English (for challenging his residency) to Judge Mitchell (for ordering him to jail) to Prosecutor Bill Douglas (for not pursuing Weick’s claims of criminal conduct against Watson) and the county commissioners (for not acting on Weick’s complaints that Watson sold the same X-ray scanning equipment to the county and to Weick).

“It’s like there’s a total conspiracy here and nobody wants to address it,” Weick said. “You go to any other city and this would be top headline news: Sheriff accused of theft. Nobody is addressing the issue that he sold equipment to me and the county both.

“I don’t think I stand a chance of even getting close in this race,” Weick said.

Campaigning might help, but Weick said he has thrown up his hands.

“This is politics at its finest. I don’t want to have anything to do with it,” Weick said.

English, the county clerk, said he received at least four complaints about Weick’s residency.

“The initial complaint was from Rocky,” English said. “They’ve got that civil suit going, and, as a result of the discovery process, it raised the issue to him.”

English said he received one other complaint from someone whose name he could not remember and took two telephone complaints from callers who didn’t reveal their names.

“Whether it’s one person or 100 – and no matter who it comes from – this raises a legitimate question and that starts the process of me finding out,” English said.

English first looked into challenging Weick’s ballot status and was surprised to learn that candidates who aren’t residents of a county or electoral district can’t be removed from the ballot. If they win, the Secretary of State’s office told English, the results can be challenged. English said he talked about the issue with other county clerks around the state and they hope to make changes through the Legislature.

After running into the dead-end on the ballot question, “The natural thing is, if I have question about residency for ballot status, then I do also for registered voter status,” English said.

According to process, the clerk’s office sent a registered letter to the Post Falls address listed by Weick as his residence. The letter came back unopened after three attempts to deliver it and Weick was removed from the rolls.

He can ask for a hearing to prove residency up to 10 days before the election but hasn’t so far, and “the clock is ticking,” English said.

Weick scoffs at this, calling himself a local business owner who pays taxes in Idaho.

“Just the fact that you have a business and just the fact that you own property doesn’t give you residency,” English said. Weick could show other things, payment of personal Idaho income tax or an Idaho driver’s license, “to show you belong to the community,” English said.

“We are not singling him out,” English said. “I strongly dispute there is any kind of favoritism.”

Weick said the experience has led him to conclude “the politics in this community is filthy rotten. I pity the poor taxpayers,” he said.

Challenged that he has not made any effort to offer the voters a choice, Weick said:

“When you get thrown in jail when you are running for political office, you get the message: Stay out.”