Vannatter responds to decertification

He objected to the ruling that he was decertified for lying about his past arrest from 1997 and said POST knew about the incident since the first time he applied in 2003.

Vannatter provided record that then Benewah County Prosecuting Attorney Doug Payne had sent a letter dated January 14, 2003 addressed to POST executive Director Mike Becar regarding Vannatter’s past legal issue. Vannatter said he had included that letter with his application all the times he applied for POST.

“POST is saying I lied to them on my application that I never disclosed that I was arrested which was bullcrap,” Vannatter said. “This letter was sent to POST, it was for POST. They’ve been aware of everything from the very beginning. I never lied about anything.”

Vannatter explained when he first went to POST to apply in 2003, it was explained to him that he would need to get the felony off of his record.

Following his attempt to apply, Vannatter was able to have his record expunged by former Judge Fred Gibler March 7, 2003.

Vannatter and his wife Jenny, who is also POST certified and formerly worked in dispatch, said they are disappointed in the way POST handled the case and that they were never told the reason why he received the other rulings.

“He has been completely open and honest about this all the way through,” Jenny said. “It was fine with POST all of these years until someone threw a fit about it. It’s like a stab in the back for all of the service we’ve gave this county.”

Former Prosecuting Attorney Payne expressed his opinion on the matter, saying it’s problematic for the law to punish someone for a dispute that was settled years ago. He said Vannatter was very young when he was arrested but had served his probation successfully and didn’t cause any other issues.

“When people conduct themselves that way, the law should allow them to get on with their lives,” Payne said. “I think it’s a mistake that the law is so rigid that when young people do something dumb they can never get back to living their lives.”

“It seems odd to have this late of a juncture after all these years, and now they decided something improper happened and he shouldn’t be a police officer anymore?” he added. “Something’s wrong there.”

Payne said he could not speculate on the entire decision made by POST as he did not know all the details of the ruling and at the time of interview did not have access to his past records of the case.

“Not only is it important that law allow people to become full fledged members of society again after involved with some crime but we don’t go back and dredge things up and send them back to where they started all those year ago. There is something inherently wrong with that,” he said. “As a general matter it’s a really unfortunate outcome.”

Former Sheriff Dave Resser commented on his time working with Vannatter and said he was upfront about his legal incident the entire time he worked for the Sheriff’s Office. He said POST’s ruling was an attack on Vannatter’s reputation.

“He has never denied he did wrong,” Resser said. “At no time did Brandon ever lie about anything. He has always been upfront. Young people make mistakes. What he did was wrong, and he fully admitted it.”

“We were told by a judge that if it’s expunged it’s like it never happened. Now all of a sudden, 20 years later it comes back,” he added. “This deal with POST definitely needs to be looked into.”

The Gazette Record again attempted to reach out to the Idaho POST Academy for clarification on the ruling regarding Vannatter’s decertification. POST management assistant Kelsey Woodward responded saying “POST is unable comment further on the details of this case as the information that you are requesting is exempt from disclosure under Idaho Code 74-106 (9).”