By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

A former Kootenai County sheriff’s captain who said he was pushed out of the department has accused Sheriff Ben Wolfinger and his command staff of misappropriating drug forfeiture money.

In a lawsuit against the department, Dan Soumas, who left in September 2017, said he was purposefully targeted and made to resign after he raised questions about the illegal use of money the department receives from drug seizures.

The Sheriff’s Office has denied the claims.

Filed last year in U.S. District Court by Soumas’ attorney, Larry Beck of Hayden, the wrongful termination lawsuit asks for $5 million in damages and a jury trial.

Wolfinger, who is named in the lawsuit along with Kootenai County, did not return a phone call seeking comment Thursday, but in court documents, through his attorney, Bentley G. Stromberg of Lewiston, he has denied the bulk of the claims in the suit.

According to the complaint, Soumas, who was in charge of documenting expenditures of drug forfeitures for the U.S. Department of Justice, noticed in the spring of 2017 that he was being kept out of the loop when forfeiture money was used by the department. Fearing liability, Soumas objected to being kept in the dark, the complaint says.

In June 2017, Soumas learned about a $30,000 expenditure to pay a salary at Coeur d’Alene’s Child Advocacy Center. The expenditure was illegal under the Department of Justice’s rules for using drug proceeds. The money may be used for a variety of police-related practices, but paying salaries is not permitted under the DOJ’s equitable sharing rules and no more than $25,000 annually can be used to support community-based organizations, according to DOJ guidelines.

Soumas objected and alerted the Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office, which provides counsel to the department.

Soumas understood “that senior command staff was not happy with him for contacting the county attorney to discuss the legality of the proposed expenditure from the fund, and that they further intended to keep him out of the loop,” the lawsuit claims. “… Wolfinger and (Undersheriff) Mattos were very unhappy with (Soumas) for raising the likely illegality of the expenditure.”

Soumas learned from another member of the staff that Mattos had referred to him as an obstructionist, and had said, “He better get on board or he would be gone from the KCSO,” according to the suit.

Soumas alleges Wolfinger in the following months personally changed his employment status to “at will,” meaning he could be fired for no reason. Soumas further claims that by July, the asset forfeiture program was taken out of his hands and away from his oversight, although Soumas was still responsible to the Department of Justice for expenditures, according to the lawsuit.

He alleges he learned of another potential violation of DOJ rules in July that year. Soumas was offered a buy-out in August and when he did not accept it, he learned he was the subject of an internal investigation, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that on Sept. 26, Soumas met with Wolfinger, who gave him the option of being “terminated immediately and not receive his badge, gun and ID,” or he could be placed on administrative leave and retire in October, after signing an agreement releasing the department of liability for his separation. Soumas chose the first option, according to the suit.

After 27 years on the force, the former captain alleges he was illegally terminated under the guise of department restructuring.

In a stipulation filed this week, the parties have agreed to mediation being scheduled in this matter. Several depositions are scheduled to be filed before a May 10 deadline. Both sides have agreed that a settlement cannot be reached until the court rules on some of the case’s legal issues.

“It is clear to the parties and their counsel that significant settlement value can’t be arrived at until such time as the purely legal liability issues are ruled on by the Court at summary judgment,” according to documents filed in the case.