Stark County Witnesses Testify to Hostile Work Environment - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

Stark County Witnesses Testify to Hostile Work Environment

Is the sheriff of Stark County a bully or just a boss who won't put up with any "bull"?

Stark county commissioners have requested that their sheriff be removed from office.

Right now a judge is considering testimony from day one of Clarence Tuhy's removal hearing.

He's normally the one cracking down on criminals, but now Sheriff Clarence Tuhy has come under fire, for his department's work environment.

"I guess on a daily occurrence it seemed, as if Sheriff Tuhy was on a personal mission to either write up or suspend or fire somebody." says Ernie Shear/former deputy.

"A lot of times I heard the saying, if you don't like it you could quit, it was pretty much the standard answer pretty much anybody that had a complaint about anything." says Brian Johnson/former deputy.

Complaints have come from all across the jointly-operated Law Enforcement Center.

"He would go in there and chew them out and I mean seriously to the point where they came back feeling intimidated, feeling like they were going to get their head bit off if not worse, when he had no right to do that, so in response we banned him from dispatch."

Witnesses were asked if they heard any inappropriate comments, if they saw Tuhy using county property for personal use... about the department's training and spending.

"Transparency and justification are pretty important when you are dealing with taxpayer's dollars." says county commissioner Duane Wolf.

The county hired Vogel Law Firm to investigate his conduct, but Tuhy's defense attorney says the report proves he did nothing illegal.

"Isn't it a fact that despite all the rhetoric in that report that Mr. Tuhy didn't do anything unlawful, isn't that the conclusion of the report?" asks Michael Geiermann/Tuhy's Attorney.

Commissioner Duane Wolf says there has been a large turnover in the sheriff's department:

15 employees gone within last two years.

The removal hearing will continue Wednesday morning.

Tuhy will take the stand in his defense as well as other sheriff's deputies on his behalf.