Hood River District Attorney John Sewell is irate that a “minor accounting error” has stalled undercover drug operations for almost three months.

“Basically, narcotics investigations in this county were derailed for $17.34,” said Sewell. “But even worse, one of the best narcotics investigators that I have ever worked with has been removed from the team (Mid-Columbia Interagency Narcotics Taskforce) for no legitimate reason.”

At issue is Hood River City Police Chief Bruce Ludwig’s decision to suspend a MINT detective for accounting errors. Sewell is also upset about the chief’s decision to remove the detective after Department of Justice probe showed no criminal wrongdoing had taken place. (The names of undercover detectives involved in this story have been withheld for security reasons).

“Everyone agrees, including me, that our officer did a good job while in MINT,” said Ludwig. “But his replacement was an internal personnel matter and I’m not going to discuss the reasons.”

Ludwig said Sewell should not be “meddling” in a personnel issue. The district attorney said the situation is rightfully his concern because it involves public safety. He is responsible to prosecute defendants arrested by MINT within the county.

“It is my job to protect this community by prosecuting criminals. And I have been denied that ability since not one new MINT case has crossed my desk since this began,” said Sewell.

The Hood River Police Officer’s Association has also weighed in on the dispute. HRPOA is aggrieved about the way that Ludwig chose the new detective. HRPOA contends the appointment was made without all officers being given an equal opportunity to apply.

“We are disappointed the administration didn’t see fit to follow the established policies and procedures that we have in place,” said Aaron Jubitz, president of HRPOA.

On Monday, Ludwig informed HRPOA that he would advertise the MINT position. Jubitz said several other issues related to the grievance remained unsolved.

MINT operates with funding and law enforcement representatives from the Oregon State Police, cities of Hood River and The Dalles, and Wasco and Hood River counties. Other agencies in the Mid-Columbia also confer on cases and lend assistance when needed. Sewell said the local detectives often confer with him while developing cases to ensure the evidence that is being gathered will be legally admissible.

Sewell said while Hood River’s detective was suspended from MINT duties, his partner from the Sheriff’s Office was allowed to keep working during the DOJ investigation. However, he could not develop local cases alone and was forced to spend most of his time in other locations, according to Sewell.

The district attorney and Ludwig agree that DOJ revealed only that MINT needed to establish better accounting practices. Their disagreement has arisen over the need to involve the state agency in the first place — and the chief’s subsequent actions.

Ludwig concurred with OSP Lt. Pat Ashmore, administrator of MINT, that DOJ needed to audit the books when discrepancies were noted. He said it was important to avoid any appearance of “whitewashing” the situation.

“We had no idea how widespread this problem was. And we had a responsibility to determine if a crime had been committed or an internal policy violated,” said Ludwig.

“We are responsible to our public to make sure that we are not covering up any wrongdoing.”

The city detective named in the DOJ investigation said a shadow of doubt has now been cast over his professional reputation. He agrees with Sewell that the state should only have been brought into the picture if the MINT board could not find an explanation for the missing cash. He said thousands of taxpayer dollars have been spent because of three lost receipts in two years that totaled less than $20.

“This whole thing has put my credibility in question. And what is a cop without credibility?” asked the officer.

A Klickitat County detective said Hood River’s MINT member was very adept at setting up drug deals that resulted in arrests.

“He was very reliable and hardworking. He put together some of the best cases the citizens of Hood River County could have wanted,” he said.

For that reason, Sewell said Ludwig should allow the experienced detective to finish out the remainder of his tenure (almost one year) with MINT as planned. He said to do anything less gives the appearance that the officer has done something wrong. In addition, he said the community is further shortchanged because it will take weeks to train a new individual.

“Given the circumstances, I am currently evaluating to what extent I will condone the chief’s involvement in ongoing cases that I’ll be expected to prosecute,” said Sewell.

He said there is no justifiable reason for what has transpired. He said the chief’s actions appear to be “punitive” because of the officer’s strong performance record.

“Basically, you have someone who is doing what they are well-suited for and the chief appears to have it out for him,” said Sewell. “To be honest, I’m not sure where to go from here in my working relationship with the chief.”

Ludwig said MINT operations were delayed longer than planned after both local detectives hired lawyers who advised them to stop talking to DOJ officials. He said the investigation would have gone much faster with their continued cooperation.

He said it was a telephone conversation with Sewell that convinced him to replace the MINT detective while things were in flux. He said Sewell pressed the issue about extending the time of the detective following the DOJ investigation. But, he decided that, because the position was already vacant, it would be timely to fill it now rather than have another service disruption at the end of the year.

“We don’t have a defined rotation cycle; it is based on our operational needs. Our detectives usually work for three years but not always,” said Ludwig.

In his response to the HRPOA grievance, Ludwig stated that “exigent circumstances” necessitated his quick assignment of a new officer to MINT. He said the decision about who the new team member would be was made by himself and Lt. David Thompson. However, HRPOA is unsatisfied with that explanation because the new MINT member left almost immediately for a one-week vacation with Thompson.

Ludwig denies that any “favoritism” was shown in the selection. He said another officer was approached first, but declined the position.

The former MINT detective claims that Ludwig accused him of “disloyalty” before putting him back on patrol. He was not given any facts to support that accusation.

“It is unbelievable to have my loyalty in question here. As a parent, and as an officer, my loyalty is to making our community a safe place for all of us to raise our children. That means getting drug dealers off of the streets and out of commission. My stats and my performance on the MINT team show that I was damn good at it. That’s something that I’m very proud of,” he said.