A group of Eureka citizens have started a petition to recall Lincoln County Sheriff Daryl Anderson, accusing him of failing to fully investigate several alleged rapes.
The Lincoln County Recall Committee, a community group of about 25 people, submitted a draft petition to oust Anderson to county election officials last week. Election officials had until Tuesday, May 23 to accept or reject the petition, reviewing it first for compliance with state statute.
If approved, the petition would circulate among Lincoln County voters. The citizen group must gather nearly 2,000 signatures – 15 percent of residents registered to vote in the county’s last general election – before a formal recall measure could be placed on a countywide ballot.
In the draft petition, the recall committee says Anderson “failed to adequately investigate six reported rape cases completely, if at all.” Recall committee members believe some of the rapes were committed by the same people and involved “date-rape drugs.”
“We’re not directly in the sight of the law – we’re so far removed up here that we don’t have consistent police involvement in the community,” Diane Kaechele, the committee’s spokeswoman, said. “And there’s been a lack of interest or apathy on (Anderson’s) part to investigate some very serious crimes.”
The draft petition also alleges that Anderson and his deputies failed to investigate the death of a puppy; illegally refused to issue a concealed weapons permit to a local man; and allowed a deputy to “impersonate a law enforcement officer,” by not requiring the officer to attend the state’s police academy.
Anderson, who did not return calls for comment last week, has called all of the committee’s allegations untrue. In the case of the alleged rapes, he has said only a couple of rape reports were made, and investigations proved those claims unfounded, or the cases were stymied by a lack of evidence.
If approved, the petition could begin circulating as early as this week, Kaechele said. The committee has 90 days from date of the first signature to gain its needed support.