Eric Snow, a Teton County Sheriff’s Office deputy and Republican sheriff candidate, has been put on paid administrative leave as of Wednesday, Oct. 21, 13 days before the election.
Snow did not immediately return a request for comment.
Teton County Sheriff Lt. Mark Priest, second in command at the sheriff’s office who oversees the patrol division, said he placed Snow on leave. Sheriff Matt Carr, a Democrat, is also running for reelection and had been removed from the decision, Priest said.
Carr told KHOL he was “completely removed from the decision-making process due to the nature of the election.”
Carr and Priest made no further comment on a personnel matter. County Attorney Dick Stout said he also could not comment on the personnel matter.
The leave follows an arrest Snow made while on patrol early Wednesday morning.
Court records show Snow pulled over an Idaho woman just after midnight after observing her driving 74 mph in a 50 mph zone. After being told by dispatch that the woman was on release orders for a June DUI charge in Wyoming, he requested a portable breath test. The blood alcohol reading came back at 0.202%, about two and a half times the legal limit of 0.08%.
The terms of the woman’s release orders forbade alcohol or intoxicating substances. Snow arrested her for violating her release orders, the affidavit states, and booked her into jail.
Teton County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mackenzie Cole did not comment on the personnel matter during a hearing for the woman’s release from jail on Thursday.
She told Circuit Court Judge Erin Weisman that “there was certainly a potential DUI” from the Oct. 21 arrest, but “a DUI investigation was not performed.”
Snow’s attorney and former federal prosecutor Mark Jackowski declined to comment on the arrest, but said the candidate’s leave placement was “unfair, unwarranted and improper.”
Administrative leave may be granted for reasons that include the completion of an investigation, assessment of a potential “inappropriate” behavior or “questions of fitness for duty,” according to the county’s policies.
Snow’s removal appears political to some.
“Isn’t it interesting that this is all happening 12 days before the election?” said Teton County GOP Chair Kat Ruckert when reached via text.
This is not the first time Snow has been the subject of scrutiny during his campaign.
The FBI declined a civil rights case over a dismissed DUI arrest Snow made in July. The Jackson Hole News&Guide reported that while a Jackson resident had been speeding, a field sobriety test and drug-recognition expert found no evidence of drugs or alcohol.
The Sheriff’s Office referred the arrest to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, which referred it as a potential civil-rights matter to the FBI. The FBI declined after determining that Snow’s arrest did not meet its threshold for a federal civil rights violation, according the Jackson Hole News&Guide.
Wyoming Highway Patrol is still conducting an independent personnel review, which is not a criminal investigation.
This article has been updated to include comments from Snow’s attorney. — Ed.
