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Jackley Foisting Bosworth Signature Investigation Costs onto Hughes County

Last updated on 2014.08.06

Even if Annette Bosworth can't stick us with the bill for her lawyer, holding the doctor accountable for her crimes and lies is costing the state of South Dakota thousands of dollars. For some reason, Attorney General Marty Jackley is trying to shift some of that cost to Hughes County:

Hughes County Commissioners want an explanation from the Attorney General’s Office before paying an expert witness bill in a case being prosecuted by the AG’s office.

The commission Monday night decided to delay paying a $4,440 bill submitted by a handwriting expert who is being used in the Annette Bosworth election fraud case ["Commission Wants Explanation Before Paying Bill," KCCR Radio, 2014.08.05].

According to paragraph 14 of the affidavit filed by Division of Criminal Investigation agent Bryan Gortmaker to inform the Bosworth arrest warrant, forensic document examiner Janis Tweedy analyzed Bosworth's signature on the petition sheets on which Bosworth appears to have sworn a false circulator's oath:

14. Your affiant states that these six (6) nominating petitions have been examined by a forensic document examiner, Janis Tweedy, to determine the authenticity of the circulator's signature. Two (2) petitions are identified as having been produced by the person said to be Annette Bosworth when compared against known Dr. Annette Bosworth signatures that various State entities had on file. Four (4) of the petitions are found to be highly probably as having been produced by the person said to be Annette Bosworth when compared against known Dr. Annette Bosworth signatures [Bryan Gortmaker, affidavit, State of South Dakota v. Annette Bosworth, Civ. No. 14-305, paragraph 14].

Tweedy looked at six Bosworth signatures and compared them with other exemplars. I believe Tweedy was present for the June 17 grand jury hearing. I don't know what other services she has rendered for the state, but at $4,400 so far, analyzing signatures sounds like a really good job.

Whatever the services, the key phrase is rendered for the state. Hughes County isn't investigating or prosecuting Bosworth; the state is. I can think of no good reason for the state to try passing costs of the Bosworth investigation onto any county. Neither can Hughes County commissioners, who are asking the Attorney General to send someone to a future commission meeting to explain why the county should pay that bill.

Marty Jackley appears to be a lot like Annette Bosworth and her husband Chad Haber: they all want someone else to foot their bills.

13 Comments

  1. Nick Nemec 2014.08.07

    It sounds as though Jackley is trying to squeeze his budget through a loophole and leave someone else holding the bag.

  2. Tim 2014.08.07

    They are all republicans, do I need say more?

  3. JeniW 2014.08.07

    Who is putting the pressure on Jackley about the expenses related to the case?

    I do not know about handwriting analysis, but I know from trying to decipher penmanship, it is a very intense process. She deserved every penny she got.

  4. Nick Nemec 2014.08.07

    JeniW no one is claiming the handwriting expert shouldn't be paid, but rather the question is who should pay her. AG Marty Jackley thinks the citizens of Hughes County should pick up the bill while any fifth grader can see that expenses related to this case should rightly be paid by the State.

  5. mike from iowa 2014.08.07

    Austere South Dakota might well be broke,that happens when wingnuts don't want to collect revenues to make sure gubmint functions. Seems like Jackley tried his level best not to have to prosecute this case so why would he want to pay for it?

  6. Dave Baumeister 2014.08.07

    I am just playing devil's advocate here, and I not positive how everything in the judicial system works, but if Boz is tried in Hughes Co, wouldn't her fine, or at least the court costs stay with Hughes Co? In which case, the county would be paid for the handwriting bill. Of course, this all pre-supposes Annette will pay her fine and court costs after being found guilty. Chad is probably convincing his wife to play martyr and go to jail to avoid paying anything.

  7. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.08.07

    Dave, I believe you are right about where the fine would go, but Article 8 Section 3 of the SD Constitution seems to direct that money to the schools in the county of prosecution: "The proceeds of all fines collected from violations of state laws shall be paid to the county treasurer of the county in which the fine was imposed, and distributed by the county treasurer among and between all of the several public schools incorporated in such county in proportion to the number of children in each, of school age, as may be fixed by law." If I'm reading that correctly (Nick! Help us out!), the Bosworth fine would go to the Hughes County schools, and the county would still be out the handwriting-expert fee.

  8. MJL 2014.08.07

    Isn't this standard operating procedure in this state? The state government claims that they are thrifty, but then stick the counties with a huge bill. It doesn't matter if it is the roads, schools, jails, and now trial costs. The state GOP prefers to hide the true cost (human or monetary) of running a government.

  9. caheidelberger Post author | 2014.08.07

    MJL, I'm of the impression the state did the same thing with the June flood response, leaving Union County in charge of emergency management and holding back on state resources. Make the locals pay, make the feds pay.

  10. Nick Nemec 2014.08.07

    I think you're reading the SD Constitution correctly, fines, if any, would go to the schools of the county. I don't think that's a sufficient justification to stick Hughes County, simply because it's the county of the State Capital, with the costs related to prosecutions that are rightly State issues and not simply County issues. The county is already picking up other unenumerated and unreimbursed costs associated with this and similar cases simply by having the courthouse that is host to these "orphan" cases.

  11. Steve Sibson 2014.08.07

    And Keloland ran a story last weekend that argued Minnehaha county doesn't have enough resources because their property tax base is not growing as fast as the Sioux Fall's sales tax base. Maybe not directly related to the issue of this post, but I thought it interesting enough to bring up.

  12. Dave Baumeister 2014.08.07

    I don't think I was clear. Wouldn't that expense fall under court costs, which can be imposed separately. I think any deal would involve her paying for the investigation

Comments are closed.