COEUR d'ALENE — Kootenai County Sheriff candidate Tina Kunishige has yet to vacate her Coeur d’Alene home, which was sold May 4 in a trustee sale.

If the court has to issue a writ of eviction, Tina and Chris Kunishige could be removed from the residence by deputies employed by the sheriff’s office Tina hopes to lead.

In June, attorneys for Wells Fargo filed a post-foreclosure complaint for ejectment and restitution. The court document says Wells Fargo owns the property.

“Plaintiff was entitled to possession of the property on the 10th day following the sale. Defendants have failed and refused to surrender the property...” states the complaint.

Kunishige, running as a Democrat against incumbent Republican Sheriff Ben Wolfinger in the Nov. 8 election, said she believes she is a victim of a Wells Fargo foreclosure scam.

“Why is this happening to us? I don’t know. It’s through no fault of our own,” Kunishige said in an email to The Press. “We have never once been late on our payments, and always paid our property taxes and insurance. This is not an issue of mismanagement of our finances. It’s a matter of crimes and fraud against us. We have been fighting this wrong for over five years (before I was a candidate). Bad things happen to a lot of people, even people running for public office.”

Kunishige is running for a sheriff position responsible for managing the department’s multi-million dollar budget.

She also said the house was sold illegally at a private auction, not at a public auction, and said the bank “wrote themselves a trustee’s deed.”

“People should know about this; they should know the truth,” Kunishige said. “They should also know that, as sheriff, I will protect people’s property rights and investigate crimes of fraud and theft.”

In the event Kunishige wins the election and becomes sheriff, and an eviction is ordered, Kootenai County Prosecutor Barry McHugh told The Press the eviction process would not be handled by the sheriff’s office. The Kootenai County Coroner’s Office would handle it.

A public notice of the May 4 trustee sale was published Dec. 30, 2015, in The Press. The notice stated that as of that date, the “sum owing on the obligation” was $182,940.47. The note on the home was executed in 2003.

Attorneys for RCO Legal, the firm handling the post-foreclosure for Wells Fargo, would not comment because the case is pending.

The Kunishiges, representing themselves, have filed 12 motions, which will likely prolong the process.

The Kunishiges have attempted to contest the foreclosure dating back to 2013 when they filed a lawsuit against all interested parties including Wells Fargo, Clark's Legal Services, John Michael Clark, Kathleen Clark, John and Jane Doe 1-10,000, LSI Title Agency, Northwest Title, Northwest Trustee Services, Wells Fargo Bank NA, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.