Don Pounds sent an e-mail to the Richardson County Commissioners on Saturday, July 6, 2019, offering his resignation as Richardson County Sheriff.
The e-mail was received and discussion was placed on the Tuesday, July 9, 2019 agenda for consideration and acceptance by the County Board of Commissioners.
According to Nebraska State Statute §32-562, the resignation is not effective until accepted by the County Board.
The letter of resignation will be released at the time the County Board of Commissioners accepts the resignation during their Tuesday meeting.
During the County Commissioners meeting, the Board will appoint an interim County Sheriff until a permanent successor is duly appointed per Nebraska State Statute §32-563.
UPDATED: 1:30 July 8, 2019 – The July 10, 2019 edition will carry the letter of resignation in its entirety.
The Journal has obtained a copy of the letter of resignation.
Sheriff Pounds addressed the County Commissioners and said he assigned the responsibility of acting Sheriff as of July 6, 2019, to Sergeant Roland Merwin and turned over all county property that was in the Sheriff’s possession to Sergeant Merwin.
Sheriff Pounds stated that as of July 31, 2019, the Richardson County Sheriff’s Office (RCSO) will be subjected to no records management system. Pounds indicated that this could be a dangerous situation.
“You have reduced the Sheriff’s Office to the point the only system left to run the complicated law enforcement system is pen and paper. The current Records Management System (RMS) is Omnigo. Omnigo has proven to not be a good fit for the RSCO in Nebraska,” stated Sheriff Pounds.
He addressed the current contract that is due to expire with Omnigo for RMS on July 31, 2019. Sheriff Pounds stated he had done several things to move along with the purchase of CRIMES for the new RMS for the Sheriff’s Office.
“It became obvious from day one, that one Commissioner was adamantly against this. For this reason, on June 11, 2019, I submitted a purchase order request to continue the use of the Omnigo system. The purpose of submitting this subsequent purchase order was to ensure at least some type of RMS was in place,” stated Sheriff Pounds in his letter of resignation.
The Sheriff continued to discuss the CRIMES program at length. He stated that when he left the July 3, 2019 [sic] Commissioners meeting he understood that he would be given approval, “so we could have an RMS system operational August 1, 2019. As of July 6, 2019, you have not given me approval to sign a contract with CRIMES.”
Sheriff Pounds stated that he can not operate the Sheriff’s Office without an RMS and the Commissioners have failed to provide the means to operated the RCSO.
“Therefore, I have been forced to resign to avoid the personal liability you have created for me,” stated Sheriff Pounds.
Sheriff Pounds also stated “In January of 2019 the Falls City – City Attorney initiated a criminal investigation against me on state and/or federal charges. As every person representing the County is entitled too, I requested an Attorney to assist me with the defense against this charges [sic] that if they would have been founded would have also made the County liable. After repeated requests, I still was denied an attorney and had to face a criminal investigation that included several Sheriff’s Office employees being involved. Thanks to the professionalism of the entire Office the case was unfounded. This is a basic right of mine that the Commissioners denied me. To no surprise, the City of Falls City was the initiator of this accusation.”
You can pick up a Falls City Journal tomorrow morning in the office at 9:00 a.m. to read the letter in its entirety.
