Smith

CANYON CITY — After more than a month of deliberating, a Circuit Court judge has tossed out misdemeanor charges against a former Grant County sheriff’s deputy but ruled that trial can proceed on three felony counts.

In a written ruling issued July 18, Circuit Court Judge Dan Bunch stated he would dismiss four counts of child neglect but not charges of fourth-degree assault, attempted first-degree rape and attempted first-degree sex abuse against Tyler Smith.

The ruling comes in response to a motion by Smith’s attorneys to dismiss all the charges against him, which they alleged were part of a plot by former Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, other sheriff’s office employees and Smith’s accuser to get him fired and prosecuted.

Smith was arrested on Sept. 9, 2019, and then fired by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 17, 2019, several months before having an opportunity to enter a not guilty plea on April 30, 2020.

Smith’s trial was slated to begin in late October of 2021. However, it was abruptly put on hold to give defense attorneys time to sift through hundreds of pages of discovery materials filed just one day earlier by the prosecution.

The evidence in question included documents and internal reports from the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

Additionally, there were two recorded interviews with Smith’s accuser, including one in which she acknowledged placing a tracking device on Smith’s vehicle and keeping the Grant County Sheriff’s Office informed of his whereabouts.

In his ruling, Bunch writes that Smith’s accuser created “proof problems” for the prosecution by not disclosing the alleged assault when she was asked by law enforcement whether there was reason to be concerned regarding Smith’s potential for violence.

However, the judge writes, it “simply strains logic” to believe that Smith’s accuser and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office colluded to make a false accusation of assault to further her goals and those of the sheriff’s office.

Bunch adds that he stopped short of concluding that law enforcement deliberately withheld evidence that could be used by the defense to exonerate Smith.

However, in the child neglect case, the questions become more complicated.

While the judge disagreed with the defense that internal investigations were being conducted to develop evidence in the assault case, he was “convinced” that some of the efforts in the investigation were intended to prove that Smith left his children unaccompanied.

Bunch wrote that he was “particularly disturbed” that the sheriff’s office became aware that Smith’s accuser was tracking him and continued to receive information from her.

“While the court does not believe law enforcement encouraged (Smith’s accuser) to track the defendant,” Bunch wrote, “law enforcement became complicit once the knowledge was obtained.”

Finally, the document containing Smith’s “Garrity” warning, which Palmer used to conduct an administrative interview regarding the charges of child neglect, stated specifically that the interview would not be used as part of a criminal investigation. Palmer, during the evidentiary hearing on the motion to dismiss the charges against Smith, testified that he shared portions of that interview with Gretchen Ladd-Dobler, Wheeler County’s district attorney and one of the special prosecutors in Smith’s case.

“Sheriff Palmer’s informing the prosecutor of the defendant’s story regarding his absences is clearly violative of this provision and is disturbing,” Bunch wrote. “Consequently, the court orders that the child neglect charge be dismissed in the interest of justice.”

How we got here

Smith maintains that the criminal charges against him were part of a plan by former Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, Undersheriff Zach Mobley, Mobley’s wife, Abigail, and Grant County Sheriff’s Sgt. Danny Komning, Abigail Mobley’s older brother, to have him removed from the sheriff’s office and get him arrested.

That plan, Smith asserts, was in retaliation for allegations Smith made to the Oregon Department of Justice on July 31, 2019, that Abigail Mobley had used illegal drugs and had a sexual relationship with an inmate incarcerated for drug crimes while she was a jail deputy with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith also argues that his accuser was a close friend of the Mobleys and Komning.

After a 21-month investigation found that Abigail Mobley committed eight violations of the department’s code of conduct, ranging from abuse of her position to conduct unbecoming an officer and neglect of duty, she resigned from the sheriff’s office on Dec. 26, 2021, following a 30-day suspension.

Abigail Mobley, who was on paid leave throughout the investigation, was not found to have used illegal drugs.

What’s next

Smith’s trial on the assault, attempted rape and attempted sex abuse charges is scheduled to begin on Oct. 24 in Grant County Circuit Court.

The 12-person jury trial is expected to last 14 days, according to court documents.