BRUCE WITHERS

07-28-23

Neighbors, for over 20 years, I have wanted to address what I believe is corruption and ineptitude in our DA’s office. I have to get this off my chest finally, and I will start with current events and then take you back into past events in the Lemhi County prosecutor's office.

Bruce Withers improperly charged me with a crime three years ago. It took till yesterday to go to trial, and I was found not guilty by the jury in only five minutes (maybe less) of deliberation. How can it be that this prosecutor/dufus/idiot can charge crimes that don’t exist, use the county’s money for three years of legal wrangling, take it to trial, and lose so soundly and OBVIOUSLY? All of this is being paid for by your taxes. I’m guessing that in the last three years, Bruce spent/wasted about $30K of your tax dollars on my case, which should have never been charged.

My belief is that Withers is simply stupid, really stupid! He’s so stupid that he is a danger to this county, state, and each of us just out of ineptitude. However, it gets worse! When Withers could see he was losing my trial yesterday, in closing arguments, he simply started doing what I can only define as lying directly to the jury. Out of desperation, he simply started making stuff up, and fortunately for me, the jury easily saw through it. Is that what our criminal justice system is about……winning for the sake of winning, truth be damned? When the truth becomes an obstacle to our public servants, do they get to lie? Just for ego's sake? Ego and winning have no place in public service. Only the best interest of the public should be our government's sworn agenda. From what I’ve seen, I believe Withers is too stupid even to determine what proper charges should be, IF ANY, never mind putting on a trial.

In another Withers case, around 20 years ago, Withers charged me with a felony. In the dark recesses of his mind, he might have thought he had a proper case. However, Mr. Withers did not understand statutory/legal language (yet he is your DA) and mischarged me (he should never have charged me at all), so as we approached the trial date, his assistant pointed out to him that he filed the wrong charge and Bruce had to drop the charge. When Withers charged me 20 years ago, I faxed the charges to the same attorney who defended me yesterday. It took that attorney literally less than 30 seconds to see Withers had filed the wrong charge, yet Withers remained in the dark and did not know until his assistant pointed it out to him months later. What a dufus! Again, all this dysfunction and ineptitude is paid for by your taxes. Now, in an effort at what I perceive is to get revenge on me for his 20-years prior loss, he filed the false charges that led to yesterday's trial and my acquittal.

As I was walking to my car yesterday, at the close of the trial, I encountered one of the jurors outside the courthouse. I asked this juror about the deliberations and my not-guilty verdict. This juror related that when the jury went into the deliberation room, in a matter of a few minutes, the jury had concluded that this trial was petty, a waste of their time and the county’s money, and I was innocent. The juror stated that the jury stayed in the deliberation room for about 15 more minutes and deliberated some more so they could follow the judge's instructions of not making a snap judgment.

Here is just one dirty little secret of our justice system that Withers uses………… When the DA presses charges that should never be charged, he knows he will get you one way or the other, and here is how it works. You get charged wrongly, but it is going to cost you 30K to take it to trial. That is 30K you do not have, so then the prosecutor says to you, let's “plea bargain.” If you pay this small $1,000.00 fine, I’ll drop these charges” to lessor charges. Since you don’t have 30K but can get ahold of $1,000.00, you take the deal, and the prosecutor gets his conviction (albeit on lesser charges) and your money. Withers made that same offer to me on this case several times, but at my age, I would prefer to fight false charges than plead guilty for something I did not do. I call this process that Withers uses “prosecutorial extortion.” In my case that concluded yesterday, my attorney took the case pro bono because we’ve been friends for many years, and he knows of Withers ineptitude. My attorney offered to take the case pro bono, but I did not ask. After the trial, my attorney told me that was the easiest trial victory of his nearly 30 years practicing law (he practices in C d’A) simply because it was a wrongful case to start with and because Withers is stupid and does not know what he is doing. I asked him to rate Withers performance on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the world's dumbest prosecutor and ten being the best. He stated Withers is about a 2, perhaps a 3 on one of Withers better days, in his opinion. Is this what you want running your local DA’s office? My wife is a retired elected DA from Wyoming, and her opinion is that Withers is too stupid and corrupt to deserve any rating above a 0, which is not an option I gave her.

If anyone cared enough to check and find out where Withers graduated in his class at law school, I’m betting it was in the bottom 3-4%. If you really want to fume, when Withers retires or is defeated, you will be paying his retirement benefits, till the day he dies, from your taxes. The entire burden to the public that Withers is falls on the shoulders of taxpayers.

Folks, I believe Withers has run for office unopposed several times. If you care about your county, your neighbors, and your own welfare, you need to get him out of office. The office of DA is a “public” office, the people's office! I’m far from the only person with these types of horror stories about Withers' misconduct. I doubt he cares, as none of the money wasted is his. It appears we will be suing Withers for “malicious prosecution” for his misdeeds in my recent case. Withers' conduct, in this case, seems to meet all the statutory qualifications for “malicious prosecution.” This, too, will be paid for by your tax dollars, as will any judgment/punitive award, but I refuse to sit by and let this fool get away with figurative murder in the execution of his duties in the office he was elected to. He is not being held accountable for his actions, yet he is in the business of supposedly holding others accountable for their actions?

My best wishes to you, and may God bless,

Tim Sundles

Ps. Your local Salmon newspaper declined to run this as a “letter to the editor,” so I offered to pay to have it run as an ad. They also refused that, so I ask you, what good is a news source that refuses to carry the news? Your newspaper chooses to be irrelevant.