Business is booming for the Idaho Attorney General in Canyon County and so much so he might want to set up an office in the Canyon County Courthouse. Our friend and colleague Dave Frazier of the Boise Guardian offers the following:
We have had the John Bujak embezzlement case, another prosecutor's son with kiddie porn, the DMV clerks making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars, a sheriff's pose clerk charged with embezzlement, an today former maintenance supervisor has has plead guilty in a plea bargain deal to "false accounts" for work he never did.
Each time we learn of another crook in 2/C government it begs three questions:
1. Is Canyon County more corrupt than other counties?
2. Do they have a better auditing and investigation controls and methods than other counties?
3. Or is it a case of employees exploiting holes in the system and they think they won't get caught?
According to the AG, former Canyon County maintenance supervisor Andrew Eveland pleaded guilty today to four counts of presentation of false accounts, a felony, one count of grand theft, also a felony. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden said Eveland entered his pleas during a hearing before Third District Judge Susan Wiebe in Canyon County.
The Canyon County Grand Jury returned an indictment on December 7th, 2011, charging Eveland with 40 counts of presentation of false accounts and one count of grand theft. Pursuant to the plea agreement, the state dismissed the remaining counts.
The indictment issued by the grand jury alleges Eveland submitted false invoices and claims to the Canyon County Commissioners for cleaning services that were never rendered at the County Juvenile Detention Facility. It also alleged Eveland wrongfully appropriated various items of county property to his own use.
AG's Special Prosecutions Unit investigated and prosecuted the case at the request of Canyon County Prosecutor Brian Taylor because it involved allegations of criminal misconduct by a former county employee.
Judge Susan Wiebe ordered a pre-sentence report and set a sentencing hearing for June 28th, 2012.
Something absolutely must be done. We must elect and hire people who know right from wrong and follow what is honest, true, and right.
ReplyDeleteBut how? When I think of a way, I'll share! JG
It really gets down to the way they allow purchasing to happen w/o a central purchasing dept. Direct interaction with vendors on ordering and receiving goods and services is a prescription for the right person to exploit this hole in the system.
ReplyDeleteI have been an advocate of a central purchasing dept for the county and all public entities for a long, long time. It puts a minimum of two more layers in the process of accountability of public money. So far, the Commishes see a greater need for a PIO v. more internal control and oversight of public money and how it gets spent.
Correction.... A clerk for the commissioners office who ripped off the non profit organization known as the Canyon County Sheriff's Mounted Posse. One theme in common with all this. Commissioners failed to supervise in all cases.
ReplyDeleteMarcus Young - IT Department - Overseen by Commissioners
Andy Eveland - Building Supervisor - Overseen by commissioners
DMV Clerks - Assessors Office - Commissioners never caught on that money was being skimmed from the tills for how many years? Who is in charge of reviewing income and expenditures again?
John Bujak - Prosecutors Office - Commissioners had the power to prevent fiasco but did nothing and allowed Bujak to run amok.
It's time for new commissioners.
Paul, You forgot to add former CCSO Lt. Roger Sharp to your CC Hall of Shame. Sharp plead guilty around 2003 I believe for misappropriating funds for GPS equipment as I recall. He was terminated and actually served some time on the work release program. Keep up the work you do.
ReplyDeleteThey better keep looking, especially in that custodial department. There are two of them working for the county right now that used to work for one of the local school districts around here, and they were doing questionable things with the money. I lost my job, when I went thru the right channels, and reported it, and they got promoted.
ReplyDeleteWho are these two that worked for the school district?
ReplyDeleteName no names, point no fingers, and give it some time to reveal itself.
DeleteWho are you? Nostradamus? Out with it already! Are we seriously going to sit around and wait until the next scandal and waste of our money so you can say "I told you so". You have us all listening, have they done something wrong yet?
DeleteYes lets make sure we hold Smith accountable too for his Leutenant he would like to forget. How did he miss all his embezzling? I think commissioners are not the only ones who should be held accountable.
ReplyDeleteI just love it when people forget their history and blame the wrong guy. Roger Sharp was on Nourse's watch not Smith's.
DeleteI have become aware of criminality, misconduct, misfeasance, and other misdeeds in a number of law enforcement offices and the judiciary in Nampa and Canyon County.
ReplyDeleteThe John Bujak matter that the press has generally covered is only the tip of the iceberg. And the other matters of misconduct, embezzlement, etc. are only a small piece of the puzzle. Why do you think that former Nampa Police Chief Bill Augsburger was shown the door? And why do you think that Bujak's former chief of staff Tim Fleming flew the coup on the same day that Augsburger announced his "retirement"? This was not coincidence!!! Remember, there are generally few cases of true "coincidence". Usually, there is another explanation underneath. And, why do you think that some of the other deputy prosecutors in the CC Prosecuting Attorney's Office have either left "voluntarily" or were shown the door? I could name names, and perhaps you could as well.
As far as the Nampa Police Department, do you really believe that the issues that have been brought to the fore in the litigation there are isolated instances? And further, why have we not heard a peep about how this case is progressing in the courts? It is because Nampa and its police department are desperate to put a lid on it!! And further, is it not ironic that some of the officers who have brought the complaint are the same participants in the Nampa PD disciplinary and internal affairs unit that routinely and systematically sweeps citizen complaints about the department under the carpeting and whitwashes everything? Hmmmmmmmmmm.
And the judiciary, well, that is another story...................
Well don't tease us! Out with it already! Tell us the rest of the story and who is involved!
DeleteIn due time. In the meantime, watch closely for others in such renowned bastions as the Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney's Office to quietly slither out the back door, never to be seen or heard from again. I could name some names, and so could you if you watch closely.
DeleteAlso, you may wish to glean some information from the documents and articles surrounding the dispute for the production of the records surrounding Bujak's contract with the City of Nampa to prosecute misdemeanors. There was a lot in the press, plus many documents online at the Idaho Press. Review these, and note who was involved in the fiasco. Also, pay close attention to one of Bujak's cronies in the CCPA who wrote letters to defend not releasing the stinking information to the public. Remember, this issue went all the way to the Idaho Supreme Court, which ruled that the issue was public and that the documents related to it, including Bujak's bank records and many other records must be released under the public records request laws. Bujak and his cronies tried to keep all of this hushed up and concealed.
Those who helped him conceal such an obvious fraud and criminal activity include some of the other prosecutors at the CCPA. Hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Well, and there is much, much, more.
DeleteFirst of all, do you really believe that Bujak did all of this without others around him "aiding and abetting" him, or conspiring with him? Hmmmmmmmmm.
Any prosecutor who can't finger at least two dozen others in the police forces, prosecutors' offices, the clerks office, the courts, and the judiciary, who were complicit in his scam should not be permitted to prosecute a jaywalking case in Nampa or Canyon County!!
Further, take a peak at the statistics posted on the CCPA website about the last several years of prosecutions, charges, convictions, acquittals, etc. Anyone with half a brain will see that his hair is on fire looking at this stuff with an open mind and objectiveness.
How many ways can you say "treble damages plus attorneys' fees" for those wronged, plus other criminal charges for a number of wrongdoers, conspirators, and aiders and abettors?
I'd like to but I haven't a clue what you are talking about. You are saying there is malfeasance and a huge conspiracy but you want to release it piecemeal. Boring, I've lost interest. I'd like to know more now before May 15th please.
DeleteWhat ever happened to the Idaho Ag's investigations into Caldwell corruption from a few years ago? This AG keeps moving it to the bottom of the pile and after a few years, when the heat is down,the file accidentally gets dumped into an industrial sized shredder! End of problem for a good old boy!
ReplyDeleteI do not know, but the AG does not seem to have much more than some bark and a little bite here and there on some of these things. Sometimes I really wonder if he has any stones at all.
DeleteThe only way Idaho's current AG will get any stones is if he buys some at a sand and gravel quarry!
DeleteIt is not yet confirmed how many others were involved in the Bujak scam and conspiracy and the subsequent coverup and attempted concealment. However, we do know this: The Nampa office of the CCPA was the nexus of the Nampa contract that Bujak had, and which now is at the center of the crime. And, it makes sense to look closely at the prosecutors in that office, particularly those who were in supervisory and management positions.
ReplyDeleteFurther, other prosecutors in the CCPA and the Nampa office were also involved in the dispute regarding the public/private controversy surrounding the contract, and which was decided by the Idaho Supreme Court, which ruled that it was a public contract. This decision by the Idaho Supreme Court put to rest the inane, moronic, and cretinous assertions by Samuel Laugheed from the CCPA that the contract was a private one.
Again, this appears to be an attempted, but failed, concealment of a criminal matter, which may also be a crime.
Having representative from the Idaho's AG office in the County building would be like having a weasel in my chicken coop. He might be getting a rake off, too. A federal prosecutors investigator would be more suitable, because there are sure a lot of racketeers in the Canyon County building, and in our two big cities in the county, also.
DeleteYes, the Idaho AG has failed to demonstrate that he has any backbone or inclination to clean any of this putrid mess in Canyon County and Nampa up. He seems very spineless in the face of this corruption.
DeleteBujak was trying to clean up the mess of youngs and he didn't have a chance to fix the corrupt ways of canyon county trying to throw bujak down the tube....im glad that its one happy family...the police here do what they want when they want. If you don't have money you might as well let them just take you into a jail cell...again I hope bujak finds a way out of the snakes nest
ReplyDelete