Tobin Bolter family disavows new nonprofit — its leader has a long criminal past

The president of a newly formed nonprofit honoring an Ada County Sheriff’s deputy killed in the line of duty last year has an extensive criminal record and multiple accusations of refusing to pay debts.

Samuel Ferrell, 35, along with his wife, Ashlie, and another woman formed the Tobin Bolter Memorial Project and Scholarship Program on March 7, 2025 according to records filed with the Idaho Secretary of State.

Bolter, who was 27, was shot and killed while trying to conduct a traffic stop in Boise on April 21, 2024, leaving behind his pregnant widow, Abbey Bolter. He’s the first Ada County Sheriff’s Deputy killed in the line of duty.

According to its website, the memorial project “exists to honor wounded law enforcement officers and their families through support, resources, and compassionate care.”

As for specific services, the organization said it will help by “covering unexpected expenses, connecting families to counseling services, or simply offering a listening ear…”

The project said it will also distribute scholarships to students attending accredited Bible colleges or who are studying to become law enforcement officers.

“It is my joy that Sam’s vision for this memorial and scholarship will continue to further the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to both law enforcement families and college students,” Abbey Bolter said in an initial statement released to the media last week.

Her initial statement said Ferrell first approached her father, Benjie Wells, “this past year” to pitch the nonprofit.

“I was truly shocked and speechless that a man who had only met Tobin one time wanted to share in our family’s legacy,” Bolter said.

But after Boise State Public Radio approached the family Tuesday, they issued a statement through their attorney Wednesday.

Bolter and Wells said they are not currently affiliated with the Tobin Bolter Memorial Project, nor do they support it. The family said they’ve also asked the nonprofit to stop using Tobin Bolter’s name.

“We are thankful for the outpouring of support which the foundation has received this past week, but information has come to our attention and, in good conscience we can no longer have our beloved Tobin’s name/image/likeness or memory used to promote this organization,” the family said.

Although they were initially included as board members, Abbey Bolter and Wells said they’ve since resigned.

They’re also working with attorneys to see if any donations made up to this point can be refunded.

Ferrell’s past convictions include lewd conduct with a child under 16, filing fraudulent checks – both felonies – as well as a misdemeanor assault as an adult in 2023.

Court records show he also served multiple felony sentences in the state’s juvenile justice system for forgery, fraudulent checks and grand theft.

Details of those convictions aren’t available because juvenile records are sealed to the public.

Ferrell initially answered a phone call Wednesday, but said he had multiple meetings to attend and to call back later. He did not pick up or immediately return that later phone call two hours after the initial conversation.

Boise State Public Radio sifted through more than 100 pages of documents related to Ferrell’s court cases, as well as his businesses, to better understand his past.

Oct. 16, 2011 was the first time police said Samuel Ferrell passed off a bad check at a Costco on Pole Line Road in Twin Falls – walking distance from the city’s iconic Perrine Memorial Bridge spanning the Snake River.

Ferrell, who was 21 at the time, ultimately wrote nine checks totalling $879.36 for unnamed items, along with receiving cash back, according to court documents.

His credit union returned all of the checks, saying they were associated with a closed account.

An officer with the Twin Falls Police Department said Ferrell voluntarily admitted to writing checks to Costco. He made that statement at the police station while he was there speaking to another detective.

At the same time, police were investigating him for having a relationship with a 14-year-old girl. Boise State Public Radio does not identify sexual assault victims.

On Oct. 24, 2011, police responded to the girl’s home in Twin Falls for a complaint of child enticement made by her mother.

The mother told the officer Ferrell was having an “inappropriate relationship” with her daughter, eventually filing for and receiving a protection order against the 21-year-old Ferrell on Nov. 4, 2011.

In speaking with detectives a few days later, Ferrell admitted to knowingly violating the protection order by meeting up with her after school on Nov. 6 and taking her to the Twin Falls Planned Parenthood clinic.

“Ferrell stated that he brought [the girl] there for a test but, would not say what kind of test,” according to the affidavit.

Later in interviews with police, the girl said she had had sex with Ferrell twice in the days after the protection order took effect.

Police ultimately charged Ferrell with two counts of lewd conduct with a child under 16 and check fraud – all felonies.

He pleaded guilty to one count of lewd conduct with a child under 16 and could’ve faced up to a life sentence.

Instead, then-district Judge Richard Bevan sentenced him to up to 10 years in prison, but suspended that for one year in favor of what’s known as a rider program.

Under the program, judges supervise the inmate over the course of a year as they receive treatment while incarcerated. After completing the rider, judges then can choose to place the inmate on probation or enforce the remainder of their original prison sentence.

“Chaos seems to surround Mr. Ferrell,” according to a letter from the Idaho Department of Correction to Judge Bevan, who’s now the chief justice of the Idaho Supreme Court.

The letter states he had five disciplinary reports while serving his rider at the North Idaho Correctional Institution, noting “in [Ferrell’s] own words, ‘I beat them all except two.’”

“This continued behavior will make Mr. Ferrell extremely difficult to supervise on probation.”

Bevan agreed with the department’s assessment and sent him back to prison.

“As Mr. Ferrell has failed to complete his programming and has failed to behave appropriately after various opportunities in a highly supervised setting this court is not convinced that the defendant could comport himself acceptably on probation - a less-supervised setting,” Bevan wrote, also noting Ferrell’s criminal history stretching back into his childhood.

An IDOC spokesperson said Ferrell was released from prison on parole in September 2020.

Samuel Ferrell first appeared in the Idaho juvenile justice system in May of 2004 in Twin Falls County.

County prosecutors charged him with being incorrigible, or uncontrollable, though no details are available because juvenile court records are sealed.

That charge was later dismissed.

Two years later, when Ferrell was 16, a Twin Falls County juvenile court judge found him to be guilty of felony grand theft and a misdemeanor petit theft charge.

He served 40 days in prison and completed 80 hours of community service.

Less than a year later, Ferrell faced 16 felony charges for writing bad checks, along with another felony forgery charge later that year. A judge sentenced him to serve 109 days.

After Ferrell left prison in the fall of 2020, several businesses filed a litany of claims against him for allegedly refusing to pay bills related to his various businesses.

Countryside Auto Care in Blackfoot sued him, along with his business, Snow Clear Solutions LLC in 2023.

Countryside said it repaired two of the company’s vehicles and installed new tires on a third, totaling $4,847. The two agreed to charge Ferrell $100 every two weeks until the debt was repaid, but his card declined.

Snow Clear Solutions’ other owner, Shaun Conley, filed for bankruptcy six days after Ferrell signed the payment agreement on April 25, 2023, adding the debt to his list of creditors.

Conley is currently serving a 15-year federal prison sentence for possession of child pornography. He was previously convicted in Idaho for lewd conduct with a child under 16 and possession of child pornography.

After earning a judgment against Ferrell on June 12, 2024, Countryside’s owner, Teri Love, attempted to collect the money, but has so far been unsuccessful.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Love said she’s since turned over collection of the debt to another company and warned the public about doing business with Ferrell.

“I would not trust him with a 10-foot pole,” she said. “If I knew of a nonprofit he was involved in, I would donate absolutely zero money.”

Another claim brought by Counter Strike Supply Company in Pocatello said Ferrell owed more than $3,000 for uniforms, “survival backpacks” and two “Thin Blue Line” rings, along with many other items.

A judge eventually dismissed the case saying the company didn’t properly serve legal paperwork to Ferrell’s business entities.

On Sept. 30, 2022, employees at a Twin Falls Rent-A-Center said Ferrell harassed them and made sexual comments to one of them.

Court records say he entered the store around 5:30 p.m., followed one of the workers into her office and told her “they could do lots of things” by closing the door and turning the cameras off.

The worker told Ferrell to leave multiple times, but he refused. Instead, he looked around the office with a flashlight and asked her about the security cameras.

At one point, the woman’s co-worker began joking with her. She told police Ferrell “ripped out a baton” and “threatened him not to talk to [her] that way.”

He then began telling the woman he knew her children’s names and other personal information.

She said she believed Ferrell was a law enforcement officer because he was dressed in a uniform, later determined to be associated with his bounty hunting business.

The woman later thought Ferrell began following her in his car after she declined to go out with him one more time.

Police charged Ferrell with misdemeanor assault, 2nd degree stalking and impersonating a law enforcement officer.

The court dropped the latter two charges after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, serving two days in jail. Ferrell completed his probation sentence last October.

The Tobin Bolter Memorial Project has garnered significant press attention over the past week after announcing its formation, earning articles from multiple outlets.

It had been participating in Idaho Gives, an annual four-day event put on by the Idaho Nonprofit Center, to encourage donations for local organizations. After publishing this story Wednesday afternoon, the Idaho Nonprofit Center confirmed it had removed the organization from its website.

On the Tobin Bolter Memorial Project's website, it says it’s in the process of receiving federal 501c3 nonprofit status, which would make donations to the group tax deductible.

It has not yet received approval from the Internal Revenue Service, but tells potential donors its status will be backdated to its founding date once accepted.

The project is also publicizing a ribbon cutting for its new office in Pocatello on April 25 put on by the city’s chamber of commerce.

On Friday, the Pocatello-Chubbuck Chamber of Commerce said it withdrew its sponsorship of the project to participate in Idaho Gives as soon as it learned of Ferrell's background. It also canceled the ribbon cutting planned for next week.

The organization said both Abbey Bolter and Benjie Wells were scheduled to attend, though that release was sent to media outlets before the family issued their statement disavowing the organization Wednesday afternoon.

Ferrell updated his LinkedIn account Wednesday, saying the project was "rebranding" to a new name "based on advice" to the "Law Enforcement Memorial Project and Scholarship Program."

However, that post appears to have since been deleted. In its place, Ferrell said he would keep the organization’s name after all.

“The Tobin Bolter Memorial Project and Scholarship Program will not be intimidated by anyone,” saying the nonprofit has applied for a trademark.

Those records weren’t immediately available in a federal database as of Thursday afternoon.

The project’s Facebook page also issued a lengthy statement Thursday morning blasting the Bolter family for their exit from the organization.

“It is reprehensible that both Abbey Bolter and Benjie Wells would find issue with faults of me or my past as those do not dictate who I am moving forward. I'm 100% sure that Tobin Bolter would he [sic] ashamed of both Abbey Bolter and Benjie wells [sic] for their conduct.”

Thursday night, Ferrell issued another statement and seemingly deleted his scathing criticism of the Bolter family, offering his "deepest and humblest apology" for his actions. He also walked back his prior statements saying he would retain the organization's name with Tobin Bolter included, saying for a second time he will rebrand.

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