The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1911-11-24
R|DENHOUR WILL
CONTEST REPORT
According to Report of Special Exam
iner Accounts of Sherift's Office
Are Shown to Be Long.

y In view of the fact that the county
y commissioners have ordered suit
! brought to collect the amounts alleged,
y 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 The sheriff engaged a special
examiner to go over his books and by
he report of this examiner the county
owes the sheriff instead of Ridenhour
i owing the county According to ]. S.
Thompson, an attorney of Oklahoma
City, who made the special examina
ton 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 $1,000
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 $3.50 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 S1,SOO
from his own pocket for clerk hire. By
'~Nthe Thr mpson report the county owes
the sheriff about $500. The following
is the sheriff's statement:
Vinita, Okla, Nov. II, 1911.
To The People of Craig County, Okla
IA homa:
II 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, l shall deny payment EN-
phatically and absolutely. None oi
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, III this vicinity
for many years. I am consequently
acquainted with most of the sheriff:
Of the state | have always attended
their meetings, regularly, and made i
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 tht
sheriffs in old Oklahoma for the pas
- twenty years. | am aware of the fac
that simply because these sheriff
have been charging certain fees, doe
not necessarily make them legal bu
I wanted 20 show that I have been dc
ing what l though was right. | still
believe it is right, with one exception
and that is that | failed to charg
what properly belonged to me. A
this will come out in the trial of tn
case.
When l first heard of the result c
the examiners report, l did not thin
it would ever be necessary to go
court l employed an expert accoun
ant and attorney, in fee and salar
cases. He went over my records, tho
oughly. and submitted his answer
the examiners report to several men
bers of the Vinita bar. My attorne,
w. p. Thompson, approved of the al
swer, and went before the board {
county commissioners and asked to t
heard along the lines mapped out b
the counter report. The records wi
show that he was denied hearing.
In view of all this, I want my cas-
tried, and if agreeable to the oth'