Was disgraced sheriff Joey Kyle preparing for Armageddon?
Former Christian County Sheriff Joey Kyle says the interim sheriff has been spreading false and misleading information about Kyle to the detriment of the department.
In his first interview with the News-Leader after pleading guilty in May to embezzlement and aiding a fraud scheme, Kyle accused interim Sheriff Dwight McNiel of wrongly saying there are missing automatic weapons in the sheriff's department, exaggerating operational flaws and grandstanding in the name of an investigation that has obliterated the morale of deputies.
"If you read his report — Dwight's report — it's all about him. 'Look what I did. Look what I've done. Look what a good boy I am,'" Kyle said.
"This sounds like a drama, not a factual report."
Three reports examining the sheriff's department — including one written by McNiel — were released this week and were critical of many aspects of the department's operations and leadership.
The election for sheriff is Tuesday.
It's unclear whether Kyle, who has not yet been formally sentenced, can vote. He is expected to serve one year and one day in federal prison. He declined to comment on whether he is supporting any candidate for sheriff and commented minimally on why he believed McNiel is allegedly making false statements about him.
"I think he's making nonfactual statements about me and about the way the department is run because he doesn't think that anybody's gonna catch him on it."
Kyle said he was back-stabbed by McNiel, who was a reserve deputy under Kyle.
"I was not friends with McNiel. McNiel was a reserve deputy for me. He was supposed to be going on cold cases and didn't produce squat."
Kyle says no automatic weapons missing
When asked about the missing automatic guns described in McNiel's report, Kyle said that was false.
"You think I'd be sitting here talking to you if the (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) thought I had 20 guns?" Kyle said.
Kyle said the department has four or five fully assembled automatic guns that were received through a deal involving EDI Plus gun store and the Ontario, California, Police Department. According to Kyle, 20 guns of varying functionality were purchased from the Ontario Police Department; the sheriff's department kept all of the serialized portion of of the guns as required by law and the parts of 15 guns were given to EDI, which put up money for the deal.
Kyle said the sheriff's department made money on this deal and that none of those guns were unaccounted for.
Kyle acknowledged that some equipment and procedures of the sheriff's department are substandard — not enough training, outdated equipment, worn-out vehicles. Kyle, who became sheriff in 2008, said he was aware of these problems and that the sheriff before him, Mike Robertson, had much less training in place, even more outdated equipment and fewer vehicles.
Kyle said he was doing the best he could to run a department with an unrealistically small budget and was vocal for years to the county commission about budgetary problems.
"I argued last fall; I argued this this spring that the sheriff's office budget was rolling 60 percent of where it should be. We have 86 employees when we should have 125. We've got 100 beds, we should have about 250, 300 beds in the jail. We have 18 road deputies, we should have 40," Kyle said. "We were limited by the amount of money the county had, not by a lack of desire."
Kyle comments on candidate's controversy
Kyle said an independent candidate for sheriff, Keith Mills, was not involved in a deal that Mills said got him demoted and suspended from the sheriff's department two weeks ago.
McNiel met with the county commission for 76 minutes in closed session and the commission then voted to suspend both Mills and Cpl. Karl Wagner, according to unofficial minutes from the meeting. While no official reason has been given for Mills' suspension by either Presiding Commissioner Ray Weter or McNiel, Mills said he was told the following day it was because of 160 hours of unaccrued vacation time given to Wagner when he joined the force.
Wagner, who had spent 14 years as a detective for the Stone County Sheriff's Department, said he accrued 160 of vacation time at Stone County that he wanted to keep when he was hired by the Christian County Sheriff's Department earlier this year.
Wagner, Mills and Sgt. Mike Wells said they were in a meeting with Kyle where he approved the deal. Kyle confirmed that and said it was within his purview to grant the 160 of vacation time and that it was he, not Mills, who granted it.
"It was completely and totally my authority, my responsibility," Kyle said.
Both Weter and McNiel previously declined to comment on why discipline for a sheriff's deputy was meted out by the commission, not the interim sheriff. Kyle said that was inappropriate.
The commission had "no jurisdictional right, no authority" to discipline Wagner or Mills, Kyle said.
Mills has said the suspension was politically motivated, but Kyle declined to comment on that.
Kyle said he has not been in contact with Mills for several months.
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