If you think the headline looks familiar, that's because folks never get enough of using illegal funds for powersports equipment, and we never tire of reporting about it. Whether it's a snowmobile club president buying a snowmobile or a fraudster buying millions worth of snowmobiles, where there's illegal money, there's usually cool toys. But this story is arguably worse because it involves not one, but two sheriffs.
The Curry County Sheriff's Office spent around $390,000 in private donations on a boat and a grill, a PWC, an ATV, off-road vehicles and trailers, and to pay for a retirement party complete with a DJ. All of the goods and services were for the sheriff and his predecessor, county leaders said on Monday. This wasn't one big, blow-out send-off, as the list of goods might suggest, but rather a slow, calculated case of illegal usage of funds spanning from 2009 to 2023.
Everything from the boat to the DJ was paid for with donations from the John G. Atkins Foundation, which was started by a local philanthropist to help institutions in the county that were hard up on cash, including the police force and schools. The misuse of funds happened under Sheriff John Ward and his predecessor, John Bishop. Bishop left the force in 2014, at which point the board of commissioners appointed Ward, who has been elected three times since then.
The county board said it found "a clear pattern and practice of using public funds for personal gain.” The board further stated that it had asked for lists of the county assets from the sheriff, but these requests "have gone unanswered for years." The chair of the Board of Commissioners, Jay Trost, said that he's committed to rooting out what he sees as "corruption", before sharing more about what his search for the truth yielded.
An investigation by the board found more than $125,000 in purchases by Ward, including a PWC that cost about $11,200 and a trailer and off-road vehicle bought for more than $30,000. But the purchasing of powersports equipment didn't stop there, and in 2023, Ward asked the John G. Atkins Foundation administrator, Rory Smith, for an ATV that cost $27,000 and a trailer for hauling it. Ward wasn't the only off-road adrenaline-seeking sheriff either.
The same investigation found that, during Bishop's tenure, about $75,000 was spent in a less-than-legal fashion. Bishop spent 28,000 on a 22-foot jet boat and $18,000 on a different (and unspecified) off-road vehicle. And if that wasn't bad enough, his retirement party cost about $15,000. In an interview, Trost said the FBI is investigating the sheriff’s office’s use of the donations; however, the FBI hasn't made an official statement yet.
