>Just hours after Mike Watkins was named as a possible future undersheriff by candidate Bruce Jolliff, current Sheriff A.J. Wuthnow responded with a letter to media implicating Watkins with blackmail and encouraging voters to write Wuthnow in on election day.
In the letter Wuthnow claims former sheriff Byron Motter and former undersheriffs Steve Bayless and Watkins came to him and asked him to resign. Wuthnow claims the three men told him if he did not they would send a letter to media that would “ruin” him.
“Throughout these attacks on my character and integrity, I have stood strong and continued to serve,” Wuthnow wrote. “It would have been very easy to resign and move on but I have never felt like doing so would be in the best interest of the citizens of Harvey County.”
The allegations were investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and sent to the Kansas Attorney General, but the attorney general has decided to not bring charges, Wuthnow said.
Watkins and Bayless were unavailable for comment as of deadline. Motter said he preferred to stay out of the issue.
He said he thought Wuthnow’s version of events was different than his version.
“I don’t know what he is trying to prove,” Motter said. “I don’t want to talk about it at all. He can do what he thinks he needs to do.”
Motter said he thinks the county will be better off when the sheriff’s race is finally decided.
“We just need to move on and get a new sheriff. It’s been a bad episode.”
Sheriff candidates Bruce Jolliff and T. Walton were contacted about their views on Wuthnow’s write-in candidacy.
Jolliff said he had not comment.
Walton said, “As far as my campaign, we will keep doing what we are doing. We are going to remain positive and move forward.
“It’ll just make it all that more interesting.”
In the letter Wuthnow also defended work given to Arlis Electric, which is owned by his wife, without going through a bid process.
The full text of his letter is below:
“On Aug. 5, 2008 I was narrowly defeated in the Republican Primary race for Harvey County Sheriff. This came on the heels of very strategically focused media attention on my partial ownership of the electrical firm Arlis Electric and work that company did for Harvey County. I can assure you that there was nothing unethical or ‘under the table’ about the work that was contracted and further, the use of Arlis Electric saved Harvey County thousands of dollars. I believe that the media was used by members of my opponent’s campaign as a tool to get their candidate elected.
