Sheriff says bogus message is political ploy

Belknap County Sheriff Bill Wright is warning the public that messages sent through anything other than his official email account are not from him, including a message received by New Beginnings – Without Violence & Abuse, a domestic violence shelter, through their website.

“This morning at 8:45, I received an email from New Beginnings. It was the executive director in regard to the form submission at the New Beginnings website, and she wanted to discuss services and ways we can collaborate better,” Wright said. 

Wright says he never filled out a submission form on the website and was perplexed by the message. New Beginnings' Executive Director Shauna Foster shared the letter with him. 

The letter reads as follows: 

“After reviewing the needs of the county during budgeting I have made the decision to deny your agency access to the facilities at the Sheriff’s Office. It is clear that I never had your agency’s support in my reelection campaign. Over the years I have found that your agency is ineffective and not needed in the county. Domestic violence is not a concern in our county in comparison to the rates of drug use, crime and amount of homeless people. Meeting rooms and the attendance of deputies will no longer be available to you, please plan accordingly.”

Wright stated that he does not reach out to organizations via form submissions. 

“New Beginnings is a vital part of community resources, especially for law enforcement here when it comes to domestic violence and abuse,” Wright said. “If I have an issue with a local service, I would coordinate a local meeting with them. I haven't had to do that.”

Wright added that any official electronic communication would be from his email address ending in ".gov." Who wrote the letter remains unclear.

“I believe this to be a political ploy,” Wright said, calling the letter disgusting. “Someone who is basically trying to create disruption between services and the sheriff’s office. Disruptions like this are time consuming and uncalled for.”

The New Beginnings message is the only one of its kind to surface so far, but Wright thinks there could be more.

“I can only imagine how many local businesses or services received these contact sheets pretending to be me, and writing me off as not a supporter,” Wright said. “If anyone receives anything like this that is reported to come from me, they should contact me directly.”

In a written statement to The Daily Sun, New Beginnings said they do not share form submissions with outside agencies including law enforcement in order to protect those in need of their services.

“I shared it with him because the name at the top was his,” explained Foster, who added that sharing the submission with the sender was common practice. “I shared it in an effort to provide a follow up with him.”

The nature of the message appeared to be unprecedented, according to Foster. 

“We’ve never received correspondence from law enforcement through that portal, so this was unusual right from the start,” Foster said. 

“This is not over for us,” Wright said. “I’m going to do everything I can to determine who sent this.”

"New Beginnings is aware of a police investigation into this matter," Foster wrote. "We remain committed to protecting the privacy of survivors and ensuring their critical needs are met through uninterrupted services."