![]() With them, the Reflector began a new Republican Party affiliation. Cooper as president and Richard Waring as business manager. On February 23, 1888, the Reflector was purchased by the Reflector Publishing Company consisting of John J. Strother retired from the newspaper for health reasons. Henry Litts took over his half of ownership and assumed full editorial responsibilities in March 1887 when B. Strother left to join the Kansas City Times. The founding editors of the Reflector were brothers Berzelius L. In its own words, the paper was “conducted in the interest of the Democratic party, believing the party in its wisdom in the choice of candidates, from county offices to national, is greater than personal feeling or prejudice. The Reflector retained this status throughout its tenure. In March 1888, the Reflector became the official paper of Dickinson County, seizing the title from the Abilene Gazette. The sheriff’s office did have 21 pages of policies - which Davis said he’s revising - for items in its courthouse property room, including one that said cash or coins worth more than $100 were to be counted by the deputy who seized the money and a second officer before being sealed in tamper-proof packaging.Īs for the missing cash, Homman, the county administrator, said it would be nice to get it back.The Abilene Reflector, founded in the latter half of 1883, was an eight-page newspaper published every Thursday. He questioned local officials’ evidence-handling policies. The letter from Assistant Attorney General Michael Serra suggested that a case could not be proven to a jury, though an investigation remained open. The state found “insufficient evidence” for charges.Īlso involved was Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office, which notified Purvis in July 2019 that it wouldn’t file criminal misconduct charges in Dickinson County. Graham’s letter said the KBI spent about 18 months investigating the missing money and more than a year investigating allegations involving Hoffman and his employees. The letter, now public because of the open-records lawsuit the newspaper filed days later, wasn’t more specific about what Purvis wanted investigated.Ī KBI agent filed an offense report in October 2018 saying $72,020 was missing in a potential “Theft of property or services.” The report’s front page - the only page typically released in Kansas - does not name suspects. Local officials’ requests for KBI investigations were confirmed in a September 2020 letter to the Reflector-Chronicle’s attorney from Graham, the KBI’s general counsel. The sheriff has an evidence room in the county courthouse.ĭickinson County Commission Chairman Lynn Peterson believes people were satisfied then with the sheriff’s leadership and notes that it was the sheriff’s office “that uncovered the fact that money was missing and started gathering information.”īut in May 2018, nearly a year after the sheriff’s office sought KBI help, Purvis asked the state agency to investigate “possible evidence destruction and interference with law enforcement” by Hoffman or his employees. The KBI said that the sheriff’s office asked it in late May 2017 to investigate the $72,000 missing from its property room. The officer later pleaded guilty to felony theft in a case that has prompted questions about how Hoffman ran the department. “One deputy was advised by commanding officers that he would be fired if he spoke about a theft,” the KBI officials said.Īny picture of what happened is clouded by separate allegations in early 2017 that a lieutenant improperly borrowed $25,760 over 4 1/2 years, most of it from a property room in the basement the county attorney’s office building. Thompson and Graham said officers wouldn’t help the KBI if they knew their statements would become public. They were defending the KBI’s refusal to release records five months after the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle’s parent company sued for disclosure. Some details emerged when a lawsuit forced KBI Director Kirk Thompson and General Counsel Laura Graham to answer questions in writing in late February. ![]()
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