Police chief maintains innocence

POLSON — In the midst of a disciplinary investigation by the Montana Public Safety Officer Standards and Training Council (POST), embattled police chief Wade Nash firmly upheld his innocence in an interview Tuesday, saying the charges of wrongdoing that he faces do not have any truthful grounds or legal traction.

On Dec. 20, Nash and Polson police deputy Cory Anderson met with a POST representative to discuss appropriate punitive action for their alleged involvement in witness intimidation as well as Nash’s supposed acceptance of a shotgun as a gratuity.

Following the deposition of allegations, Nash reached an agreement with prosecutor Sarah Hart to attend an ethics class sponsored by his own police department.

“This agreement is not an admission of guilt… far from it,” Nash emphasized.

“We owe it to our profession to revisit [ethics classes],” Nash said of the justification for his decision to go through with ethics training.

Chronologically, Nash said that the witness intimidation charge does not stand up, explaining that the phone call to the witness was made months prior to the start of the 2010 poaching investigation conducted by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP).

“When I made that phone call, it had nothing to do with an investigation by FWP that [at that time] didn’t even exist,” Nash said.

“How can I intimidate a witness if I don’t even know there’s an investigation?” Nash added.

Nash later clarified that the call was made by Anderson, though Nash interjected with a question for the witness, who had formerly been a dispatcher for the Lake County Sheriff’s Department. In hindsight, Nash admits it was a “bad decision” to place the 1 a.m. call.

The other charge – which claims that Nash wrongfully accepted a shotgun as a kickback from the sale of confiscated weapons – is also invalid, according to Nash.

The chief of police maintains that he bought the firearm in question back in 2004 from gun collector Denny McCrumb, four or five months after McCrumb legally purchased $9,000 worth of confiscated guns from local law enforcement agencies.

Nash says that he was fully exonerated from all wrongdoing by a Montana Division of Criminal Investigation decision in 2011.

“If [POST doesn’t] know of another state investigation, they’re not very thorough,” Nash said of the misguided legal proceeding.

“Everything that I’m accused of [by POST] has been looked into by outside agencies and I have been exonerated,” Nash reiterated.

“This has really affected my family tremendously and my reputation,” Nash said of what he insists is wrongful defamation to his name and his department.