Former employees accuse Dunn of being unfit for office

Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Robin Dunn says the recall election against him was part of a vendetta against him from two former employees, he said in a text sent to reporter Chelsea Brentzel on Friday.

Dunn was able to keep his seat as not enough people showed up to the polls to remove him in the election.

Lyndsay Goody is an organizer of the group “We the people of Jefferson County.”

The group claims something needs to be done and want a clean-run county. That is why they started the recall petition.

Goody and her group says Dunn is not fit for office because:

Dunn gave legal advice in a suit that Eagle Rock Sanitation filed against the county. After a judge heard the case, the county was ordered to pay back over $82,000 in legal fees.
Dunn wears too many hats. Dunn is not only the county attorney and prosecutor. He is also the planning and zoning commission attorney, represents the city of Rigby, and runs his private practice. Goody claims this creates too many conflicts of interest.
Dunn’s behaviors do not align with what should be expected of an elected official. In a Bannock County Sheriff report, Dunn pulled a knife out during a dispute at the Pocatello racetrack. He shouted obscenities and used vulgar hand gestures. No charges were given to Dunn.

Lyndsay Goody is a former employee of Robin Dunn. She left his office in June 2000.

“My husband was fired from the county,” said Goody.

Goody’s husband was fired by the county in July 2009. Goody says the county’s reasoning for her husband’s firing was for “creating disharmony in the office.”

The firing was three months after she says he was demoted for reporting prescription drug sharing between employees in the probation office.

Chelsea: “And that has nothing to do with it?”

Goody: “We were talking about that last night … and you know for me it’s really the incidents that started it, that I mentioned before.”

Goody says starting the recall and speaking out about county issues is not relevant to her previous employment with Dunn or her husband’s dismissal from the county.

Goody: “This is more about what’s been going on in the past four or five years and you know after the Eagle Rock Sanitation case, the Lawrence Blackburn issue, a bunch of these things are kind of piling on and then it was the incident at the racetrack where he was very unprofessional. He used vulgar language and vulgar hand gestures and that was the moment for me where I thought, ‘What are we doing here? This is our prosecuting attorney behaving like this in a public setting.'”

Goody isn’t the only one claiming they want change.

Shelly Allred, a supporter of the group, has been vocal about her issues saying she feels Dunn shouldn’t be in office.

“Enough is enough. That’s he is an elected official and he is giving bad advice and a lot of different things led back to Mr. Dunn as being the common denominator with a lot of the entities in the county,” said Allred.

Allred is also former employee of Dunn. She quit in 2005 after working for him for 15 years.

In 2007, Allred emailed Dunn’s office saying she was filing a worker’s comp claim.

The claim was for an elbow injury that she says happened two years before.

Dunn’s office replied in an email saying Idaho code requires worker’s comp claims to be filed within 60 days after the accident.

She dropped the claim in 2008, but not before sending an email in return saying in part “… I’m not trying to blackmail anyone. I just want you to know what is going to happen if he keeps disputing this. It is personal to him for some reason. But, believe me it is very personal to me now too. I can’t believe he would let it go this far. I just wanted my medical bills paid. Now it’s way past that.”

Chelsea: “Did you write this email?”
Allred: “Yes.”
Chelsea: “Is it relevant?”
Allred: “Um … you know I’m not even … I think at that point when you know I think it was a legitimate injury. I had to have two surgeries after that. I just wanted him, even at that point, to do what was right and he still wasn’t doing it and so at the point this blackmail word may be, I know what went on in that office for 15 years.”

When asked if the failed worker’s comp claim was a reason that she is accusing the prosecutor of not being fit for office Allred responded, “No. It’s not personal. It’s just something that isn’t right what we’ve always said through this whole thing is what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong.”

After we interviewed Shelly Allred, she called asking for us to not run this report Sunday. She said it’s not relevant to the allegations and will put a bad mark on what the group has done.

If you’re interested in learning more about the group’s reasons for starting the recall you can find more info on this document “Recall Robin Dunn.”

Goody gave us previous news articles to further explain her reasons of seeking recall. On Saturday, we reached out to her asking for other documentation proving her claims against Dunn.

The only document Goody provided us with was a copy of a report from the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office about an incident involving Dunn at the Pocatello horse race track.

At least one grand jury has convened in Jefferson County. As of right now, no charges have been filed against Dunn.