Time for a change
Time for a change
I am writing this letter in regards to the upcoming sheriff's election in Phillips County. I don't think we realized how good we had it when we had Leroy Stephen as our sheriff. I have had the opportunity to work for both Sheriff Stephen and Sheriff Wisinger. I feel like there was a lot more being done about the local drug problems and usage under the Stephen administration.
When Mr. Stephen was the sheriff, we executed multiple major drug search warrants each year; there haven't been any major drug search warrants conducted since Wisinger took office. This was supposedly Undersheriff Harm's specialty, but where are the results? There have been very few drug busts in the Wisinger administration, and most of those were merely people passing through headed to major cities and were caught by the hardworking deputies and the Highway Patrol. It is great that we caught them, but there seems to have been very little effort put into the local users and distributors. Thankfully, we have a good group of hardworking deputies who do a great job of trying to stop the underage drinking and get some of the drugs off of the streets due to their patrolling.
During the Stephen administration there were many very successful investigations that were conducted to stop the local sources that were bringing the drugs here and distributing them here. Just think what can be done if we put Leroy Stephen back in office with a good undersheriff, and the great group of deputies that we have. It is time we make a change in the administrative area of our sheriff's department. It is time we vote Leroy Stephen in as our sheriff.
Nathan Mathes
Phillipsburg
Whatever accomplishments were done by the Stephens administration were probably done by Wisinger and others on staff at the time anyway.
(Posted by: I'm for Wisinger)
: 7/24/2008
Mr. Mathes- If you had worked as hard for the Phillips County Sheriff's Department as you did on this letter, maybe you'd still be employed by the Phillips County Sheriff's Department. Only an uneducated fool would for vote Leroy Stephen.
(Posted by: Phillipsburg Citizen)
Time for Change?: 7/23/2008
Mathes is obviously a disgruntled former employee, as he isn't telling he whole story here. Those of us in Phillips County would love for Mr. Mathes to sit down with someone from the Sheriff's Dept and tell them all he knows about his perceived "local drug problem" if he has some information we would really like to hear about it. Maybe his many trips to the local liquor store are blurring his vision and his imagination. The truth is, Sheriff Wisinger’s administration has sent more people to prison in his first three years than Stephen did in his last four. He states that under Stephen’s administration there were “multiple major search warrants” served. There were quite a few which were done, but the majority of them were not done in the last four years of his administration. Most were done in the four yours prior to that. At the time, Meth had arrived in Phillipsburg and the surrounding area. Of the six search warrants I’m aware of, only two people went to prison. Had there been anything “major” about any of them, I would think more people would have gone away. Mathes also fails to mention that the other folks who didn’t go to prison were given deals. Most were to result in drug purchases by these folks, but they were never followed up on. Mathes also states that all the drug arrest during the Wisinger administration has been done by Deputies and Troopers actively looking for such people. The fact is that meth and marijuana may be in the community, but not at the levels we had in 2000 and 2001. Most of our drug problem now is prescription drug use/sales, which is very difficult to deal with. Another monster that has reared its ugly head is underage drinking. There has been three times the arrest for underage drinking during Wisinger’s administration than Stephen’s. In late 2006 and early 2007 we had an increase in sex crimes, all against children. Three people have been (and currently residing in) sent to prison. If Wisinger’s administration isn’t fighting enough crime, why is it that his average jail population through May has 5.3 inmates compared to Stephen’s 2.6 average? Why was our court the busiest in the entire 17th District last year and already looking to break that record this year? I get a kick from Mathes’ statement that all the drug busts have come from Deputies and/or Troopers on traffic stops. I thought that was what they are supposed to be doing! Mathes’ last drug bust involved a load of cocaine that was intercepted by a Trooper. Mathes’ involvement was limited to the use of the drug dog. That case has since been taken over by the DEA and is beginning the federal court process. A couple weeks ago there was a hearing in Wichita in which Mathes, the dog and the dog’s training were the only things discussed. In addition to this, during the time he worked for Wisinger, he was told on several occasions to work drug issues he had received information on. He never did. Evidentially he had no confidence in his sources or his abilities. As for his comment about a “good Undersheriff”, I would be very interested in who Stephen is planning to select. If you see him, pin him down and ask him. I have a issue electing someone who has rarely been able to stay within the budget of the department, is over 54% physically disabled from an incident one should be physically prepared to do as Sheriff, and for the selfish reasons he has provided many voters as his reason for running. Want to enjoy a little light reading? Visit http://www.kscourts.org/kansas-courts/court-of-appeals/default.asp and search for “97254”. Why would we want to change to the way law enforcement once was in Phillips County? Remember to Vote August 5th!
(Posted by: Pat)
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