SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioner candidate Jeff Roberts acknowledged Tuesday that the Bonner County Sheriff's Office never received a polygraph examination he previously said had been provided to investigators, attributing the issue to an email address typo made by his attorney. 

The post was made in response to Sheriff Daryl Wheeler, who shared with the Daily Bee that he never received a polygraph from Roberts that he publicly said to have taken and passed, after allegations rose of sexual abuse, dating back two years prior.  

The allegations did not result in charges. Instead, in a Sept. 14 letter to the county prosecutor's office, the Idaho Attorney General's Office said they did not believe they could prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. 

"The accusations behind this closed investigation are unequivocally false, and I fully deny these allegations. When made aware of the investigation, I immediately submitted to, and passed, a polygraph test administered by a licensed professional. This test was provided to the Sheriff’s Office shortly thereafter," Roberts said in an Oct. 8 Facebook post.  

Wheeler’s account of not receiving the polygraph was confirmed by Roberts in an additional Facebook post Oct. 13, which noted that his attorney mistyped Deputy Clevy Santos’ email address, mistyping the county’s domain as “bonnerid.gov” instead of “bonnercoid.gov.”  

Roberts said the email was copied, however, to the prosecutor’s office’s correct email address.  

“The Bonner County Prosecutor’s Office was copied at its correct, publicly listed address, and I would reasonably expect the Prosecutor’s Office and investigating detective to be communicating about this matter,” Roberts wrote in the Oct. 13 post.  

Prosecutor Louis Marshall confirmed that the prosecutor’s office was copied on the July 6th email through its general filing address. He shared that he wasn’t aware of the documents until Tuesday evening and forwarded them to the Sheriff’s Office for review.  

According to the Idaho State Bar and Marshall, investigative information such as a polygraph result is often provided to the prosecutor’s office from a local law enforcement agency, not the other way around.  

“Prosecutors do not directly control local agencies; instead, they must request reports, media, and other investigative materials from applicable agencies such as the Idaho State Police or local law enforcement,” wrote Marshall in an ISB article.  

The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.