By Allison Manning
The Columbus Dispatch
DELAWARE, Ohio — The county sheriff’s fall from the top was swift and certain, yet Walter L. Davis III resigned from public office yesterday still maintaining his innocence, refusing to answer questions about his personal life and pointing fingers at others for what had transpired.
Davis, a Republican, was under investigation over how he spent money during the 10 weeks last summer when he was at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., and whom he spent it on.
He was reimbursed for money spent renting a car, parking at an Arlington, Va., hotel and dining out with others, according to receipts he filed with his office. He refused to answer questions about who he was with on those outings.
On Thursday, he lost the backing of his party, when the county GOP Central Committee stripped him of its endorsement.
In a meeting with reporters yesterday at his attorney’s office in Columbus, just after county commissioners appointed his replacement, Davis blamed the “media frenzy” that had become a “complete distraction.”
He said the investigation by the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which began in February, will “clearly show we didn’t do anything wrong.”
But a deal he struck with the special prosecutor in the case ends the investigation. Davis agreed to pay back the $1,331.55 in question, resign from office and pull his name from the November ballot. He’ll also never serve in elected office again, said Union County Prosecutor David Phillips, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case on March 20.
Davis is repaying the entire amount reimbursed to him for the trip, not just the money in question, Phillips said. He could be on the hook to repay more after an audit is completed.
In exchange, the investigation by BCI into several allegations, ranging from the use of a subordinate’s condo to spending county money on dry cleaning, is over, Phillips said. Prosecution will be deferred.
“Whether those would have merit, I can’t tell you,” Phillips said of the allegations. “Whether they’d rise to the level of ethics violations or criminal violations, I can’t say.”
The prosecutor said the investigation also centered on allegations that Davis spent the county money, known as furtherance of justice funds, while meeting with a deputy he was having an affair with and renting a car to visit both his wife and mistress on separate weekends.
Davis refused to address those allegations. “That’s my private life,” he said. “It’s personal. Period.”
Phillips stressed that the ending of the investigation isn’t an attempt to hide something. Instead, it allows the office to recoup the money and move on.
“I don’t want to imply that there’s more there that we’re not looking for,” he said.
In his news conference yesterday, Davis was critical of the “rush to judgment” by the Delaware County Republican Central Committee. Davis said he had been scheduled to address the committee today and deserved to be heard.
GOP Chairman Bob Mann defended the party’s action, calling it an intermediate step, rather than asking for Davis’ resignation. Mann said he attempted to contact Davis twice and, as a central committee member, he was welcome to come to the scheduled meeting and speak.
“We realize the sheriff hadn’t given his side of the story, but that was also his choice,” Mann said.
The party will solicit applications for the sheriff’s job, Mann said.
Delaware Police Chief Russ Martin said he is interested in the post.
“There are a lot of outstanding people up there, and I’ve worked with a lot of them over the course of 31 years,” he said. “I’m not intimidated by the current circumstances.”
Powell Police Chief Gary Vest, who applied for the position five years ago, said he is not interested in the job this time around and would support Martin.
Commissioners appointed Capt. Scott Vance to temporarily lead the office yesterday. As a Union County resident, Vance could not apply to take over the full term. He will lead the office until the central committee chooses someone to fill the seat, which it must do within 45 days. The committee then could add the appointee’s name to the November ballot.
The county Democratic party also will have a chance to put a candidate on the ballot. Davis had been running unopposed.
“We get a second bite at the apple to put up a candidate,” said party chairman Ed Helvey.
Write-in candidates have until Aug. 27 to submit their names.
Davis’ resignation comes nearly five years after he was appointed to replace former Sheriff Al Myers, who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor ethics violations in 2007.
After losing two Republican sheriffs to abrupt resignation in a row, Mann said the party will be thorough in its vetting of candidates.
“This is a big disappointment to everyone,” he said. “I don’t think it’s anything anyone could have anticipated.”
Though he’s left public office and avoided prosecution, Davis still faces at least four civil-rights complaints filed by current or former employees.
And three deputies charged with misuse of a police database are pushing for the felony charges to be thrown out, arguing that Davis gave special treatment to his former campaign finance director, whose wife and a friend were the targets of the searches. Davis is expected to testify in that case.
Copyright 2012 The Columbus Dispatch