Jerome County Commissioners moved to appoint a new prosecutor Monday after the previous prosecutor resigned amid domestic violence charges.
The commissioners’ choice, current deputy prosecuting attorney Sam Bues, was not present at the county meeting Monday, but will officially be sworn in within the next week.
Jeromy County Commissioner Charles Howell said he checked Bues’ background with several sources.
“City administrators, local judges, local attorneys, Twin Falls attorneys,” he said. “And I have yet to get a bad reference back for Sam.”
Bues has been Jerome’s acting prosecutor for the past several months. That’s because previous County Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Bradley Calbo, who resigned in September, has been serving a jail sentence in Oregon on domestic violence charges, after he entered a “no contest” plea. He was first arrested in June.
Howell said commissioners nearly asked a judge to remove Calbo for not serving in his elected role for the 90-day vacancy threshold, but he ended up submitting his resignation.
“He disappeared, approximately, for a month, or six weeks, or so. There was no communication, we couldn’t find him, he would not respond to emails or text messages or phone calls,” Howell said in an interview.
The county’s Republican Central Committee failed to identify a qualified candidate to replace Calbo. This left Jerome County Commissioners open to appointing an out-of-county prosecutor. Bues lives in Twin Falls.
According to Idaho code, he can serve the remainder of Calbo’s term, but if elected by voters next year, he’ll have to move to Jerome by January 2025.
Find reporter Rachel Cohen on Twitter @racheld_cohen
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