The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1911-11-17
RIDENH0UR WILL
CONTEST REPORT
According to Report of Special Exam
iner Accounts of Sheriff's Office
Are Shown to Be Long.

In view of the fact that the county
commissioners have ordered suit
brought to collect the amounts alleged,
by the r. NJ Nash report, to be due
the county from various officers of
the county, these officers have pre-
pared to resist the suit, and an in
teresting legal fight is impending.
According to this report the Office of
the sheriff owes the county about
$4,000. TIE sheriff engaged a special
examiner to go over his books and by
the report Of this examiner the county
owes the Sheriff instead of Ridenhour
owing the county. According to ]. S.
Thompson, an attorney of Oklahoma
City, who made the special eXamina-
tion of the sheriff's books there are
four items, which were thrown out by
the commissioners that rightfully be-
long to the sheriff that would more
than Offset the amount of the short
age stated in the Nash report.
According to Thompson's report the
sheriff is entitled to $1.0O per day for
Jail duty. He had been in office 1149
days, making this 81 ,149. About 1000
was thrown of the sheriff's expense
claims, incurred in the service Of
search warrants, were disallowed. He
is also charged by Nash, with all fees
collected from the clerks of the various
courts, when he should have been held
responsible only for the per cent of
these fees that was paid to the sheriff
himself, and not for the fees paid to
deputies The Thompson report says
he should have been allowed $1.50 for
each person brought into court,
amounting to about $1,700. All of this
was charged back to the sheriff in the
Nash report He released about 600
from the Jail, for which he should have
charged fifty cents each, but neglected
to do so. In addition to this Mr..
Thompson says the sheriff has about
$500 on his books in civil cases which
he will lose on account of irresponsible
litigants, and has paid about $1,S0O
from his own pocket for clerk hire. By
the Thompson report the county owes
the sheriff about $780, The following
is the sheriff's statement:
Vinita, Okla. Nov. II, 1911.
To The People of Craig County, Okla
homa:
| noted, in a recent issue of the
Chieftain. that the board of county
commissioners had, by resolution,
adopted the report of the state exam
iner, and instructed the county attor-
ney to demand payment from each of
the county officers alleged, by the re-
port, to be short in their accounts, and
in event of failure to secure payment
Of the same, the county attorney is
instructed to bring suit against such
officers denying payment
For one, | shall deny payment en-
phatically and absolutely None of
this alleged shortage in my accounts,
is caused by the misappropriation of
funds. 1t consists of a number of des-
ignated overcharges. or rather what
the examiner considers overcharges.
AS the citizens Of this county know,
! have been an officer, in this vicinity,
for many years. I am, consequently,
acquainted with most of the sheriffs
of the state | have always attended
their meetings, regularly, and made it
my business to learn what fees were
being charged, uniformly, throughout
the state. The charges / have made,
in taxing up my fees, were therefore
the same as have been followed by the
sheriffs in old Oklahoma for the past
twenty years. [ am aware of the fact
that simply because these sheriffs
have been charging certain fees, does
not necessarily make them legal, but
I wanted to show that | have been do
ing what | though was right. | still
believe it is right, with one exception,
and that is that l failed to charge
what properly belonged to me. All