Constitution
Adams Deputies Slated To Return Prior To ISP Results
December 2, 2015 
While the Idaho State Police, FBI, and Idaho Attorney General claim they will conduct an impartial investigation into the events leading to the shooting death of Jack Yantis, Sheriff Ryan Zollman is awaiting approval from his insurer of all things before returning two deputies (currently on paid leave) to duty. See IDAHO STATESMAN.
Deputies Bryan Wood and Cody Roland were involved in the fatal shooting of Yantis Nov. 1. ISP is the lead investigative agency. They say there is no timeline for the investigation and the Attorney General has had no results to consider with regard to any potential prosecution at this point.
All this begs the question, “If investigators have not cleared the deputies of wrongdoing and the AG hasn’t even seen any reports, how in the name of common sense can the sheriff return the coppers to duty?” In the event either deputy is charged with any wrongdoing, all arrests made after the Yantis incident will be tossed out of court.
Without question the local sheriff in an Idaho County is the “top cop.” However, the ISP has “concurrent jurisdiction” in all counties of the state to enforce state laws. If that is indeed the case, it would seem prudent for all concerned to assign a trooper or two to patrol Adams County until the Yantis case has been resolved.
To put it in perspective, a school district would never return a teacher accused of sexual misconduct to a classroom pending the outcome of a police investigation.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Dec 2, 2015, 1:46 pm
Perhaps the good sheriff wants them to voluntarily resign rather than to be draining his budget until the investigation is over. Strange things happen if somebody might hold a grudge.
Dec 2, 2015, 2:14 pm
This was decided 5-minutes after it happened. The 6-months is needed to carefully push it up our rear.
What you say makes sense Editor. But a decision against the deputies is just too costly. So the strategy is to slowly sway public opinion to align with the 5-minute findings. Returning the deputies to work as well as slowly floating media reports in favor of the deputies is part of a strategy of winning the war of public opinion.
Watch and listen to the daily news reports intently. Little by little the local media is making small changes and the rancher is slowly becoming the aggressor and rebel.
Why would media do this? More than half their newscast comes from reading government press releases. They actually don’t do much real reporting. They enjoy too close of relations with the coppers and often get a post TV career with the coppers when they get too old for TV close-ups. Local media control is a tremendous PR victory for local governments. (Creepy feeling! Do you recall Soviet State TV from the 1980s?)
Thank you for your attention comrades. Now let’s all stand and profess glorious love for mother land USSA.
Dec 2, 2015, 2:17 pm
Like all things there are many truths to any given situation. I am willing to wait for the ISP investigation to come out on this unfortunate episode.
I agree the guys involved should remain on administrative leave until the investigation is over. It shows poor judgement to put them back out on the road while this remains under investigation.
Dec 2, 2015, 5:01 pm
As I sit here watching the “active shooter situation” in San Bernardino Ca with all the talking heads saying DOMESTIC TERRORISM every few seconds, and zero mention of the fact that another mass shooting happened in a ‘gun free zone’, I can’t help but wonder if there is some sort of scheduled date for when America offiially becomes a Soviet style Police State.
If this is true, it might explain the callous stupidity of returning these local Deputies to duty. Maybe this is the turning point where murderous cops get medals for eliminating domestic terrorists before they can claim their would be victims, as the TV ‘news’ people cheer them on.
Dec 6, 2015, 3:45 pm
There has been so little sense and so little accountability in any of this. I have been waiting to see how long it would take before they started trying to sway public opinion. A little posting by a wife on FB and of course she is going to support her man. She only knows what he has told her. Then an article featuring his father in the Idaho Statesman. And then of course they have to smerch Jack’s reputation. None of that had anything to do with this but everything in a cop’s history has plenty to do with it. F&G violations and aggressive behaviors speak pretty loudly. I heard last night or this morning on the news that the ISP investigation is going to come out soon. That too is a tactic to try to diffuse a situation. It is a totally inappropriate and disrespectful way to handle this. We do not want them back on duty here and we hope they clean out the department of any others who have this type of attitude towards the people who pay them.