Sheriff to seek third term

Continuity, department retirements a concern

NEWPORT — Two-term Pend Oreille County Sheriff Glenn Blakeslee says he will run for another term in 2026. He had previously said he would only serve two terms.

“There’s a lot of staff retirements between now and the end of ‘26,” he says. “So that’s part of it. Making sure there’s stable leadership and that there’s a succession plan, that there’s things in place to fill that.”

He said when several people in key leadership positions are leaving, there must be a plan to replace them.

Blakeslee says that he has about 40 employees under him in the Sheriff’s Office, working as corrections officers, deputies, investigators, dispatchers, in emergency management and administrative support. When he started his second term two-and-ahalf years ago, he anticipated as many as a dozen leaving for retirements.

Some have already retired, one died and some decided to put off retirement, but he says he has five people who have 35–40 years on the job and are ready to retire.

When he first decided to run for office in 2018, he and his wife thought two terms would enough as the county’s top cop. He said he recognized the toll being the county’s top cop takes on people.

“I don’t want to die on the job,” says Blakeslee, 56. “I’m a young man.”

But for both professional and personal reasons, he and his wife decided he should seek another term.

Blakeslee say staffing has been a challenge throughout his time in office. He asked the county commissioners for a budget of about $1.2 million this year and received about $200,000 for additional staffing and $120,000 for equipment upgrades. He says the commissioners gave him as much as they could, considering the requests of other county departments.

“In fairness, I think they were as generous as they could be,” he says.

The Sheriff’s Office has funding for more people and is on the way to being fully staffed. He has two new openings in the jail. When fully staffed, the jail would have nine people.

“It’s been quite a while since they’ve been fully staffed back there,” Blakeslee says. “I was just talking to the jail captain the other day and he said that overtime slips have been virtually non-existent.”

That’s a change from last year.

“Basically, they were working an overtime shift every day all year long last year,” he says. “This year there’s very few overtime slips coming through.”

One of the corrections officers is on his way to becoming a deputy, so there will be three openings soon, counting the two new positions. It’s common for corrections officers to move into deputy positions.

The lack of jail staff was a contributing factor to two of the three deaths that have occurred in the jail under Blakeslee’s tenure, according to Unexpected Fatality Reviews filed with the state Department of Health. The sheriff is responsible for the jail. The reviews are required under state law when someone dies in a jail or prison.

The first death occurred in 2022 when Franz Kroll, in jail for murdering his wife, hung himself in the jail. The UFR noted being short-staffed. Kroll died in the morning and there were only two corrections officer on duty.

The second death occurred in 2023, when a man who killed his mother, Jacob Mitchell, died from complications of diabetes. The UFR recommended more staff as part of the conclusions following that investigation.

The third death happened this year when Krisstarah Tianna Bennett died from a drug overdose. Another female prisoner is charged in her death, alleged to have smuggled drugs into the jail.

A $3 million civil rights lawsuit was filed against the county and individual jailers, named and unnamed, over the man who died from diabetes complications.

Blakeslee says that because it’s ongoing, he can’t talk about the lawsuit. But he says he has taken actions to prevent jail deaths.

The additional staff will help. Prisoners have access to phones in jail and following the hanging from a phone cord, the cords were shortened. More recently, the jail has changed the way prisoners are monitored at night. There has been technological change as well.

“We’ve made changes to the way that we’re monitoring some of the cells and checking folks at night,” he says. About a year ago a “signs of life” monitor was installed in some of the cells that detects whether there is a change or stopping of breathing or heartbeat. “It’s a sensory device that a lot of the jails are now going to.”

He said some of the bunks have been changed so there isn’t a way to attach something from which to hang.

Blakeslee made a trip to Washington D.C. in April with some other sheriffs to call attention to the discrepancy between the state law regarding undocumented immigrants and federal law. The county paid for the trip and his lodging, which cost about $2,000.

The Keep Washington Working Act requires that state law enforcement not notify federal agencies of suspects’ immigration status.

He says when his deputies contact someone they believe is undocumented on a traffic stop or have them in jail, they are prohibited from telling federal authorities.

“We can’t share that information, none if it,” he says. “Vehicle, location, a name, we can’t share any of that information with ICE or Border Patrol.”

If Immigration and Custom Enforcement or Border Patrol finds out if someone is in jail, he has to get written permission from the prisoner before he can allow it.

“I’m not their attorney, that’s not my job,” he says. People are told they have the right to remain silent and that applies to questions from federal authorities. He says he’s caught between federal law and a presidential Executive Order that says law enforcement has to cooperate with federal law enforcement and state law.

“So, law enforcement is caught in the middle,” he says. “What I’m looking for is clarification on that.”

He wants it to go to the Supreme Court so that there is clarification.

He says he thinks the federal government is righter. He also says having federal authorities come for a prisoner is safer than releasing the prisoner and having them picked up elsewhere, where they may be more likely to resist.

Blakeslee’s wife, Marylos, immigrated from the Philippines about 40 years ago. He says many in the immigrant community feel they came to the country legally. Some resent immigrants who came illegally.

“How is that fair, how is that equitable?” he says.