Latah County sheriff's home to be auctioned
Rausch hasn't made payments since January
The Moscow home of Latah County Sheriff Wayne Rausch will be auctioned to the highest bidder Oct. 18 due to a default in payments, according to a legal notice published in Tuesday's edition of the Daily News.
According to the notice, payments for the Bristol Ridge home totaling $1,395 a month have not been paid since January.
Rausch said Tuesday the sale is not due to default and is a result of the home being added to his 2012 bankruptcy filing in January.
"We decided to let it go with the bankruptcy," Rausch said. "I added it to the bankruptcy in January and my attorney said not to make any more payments."
Rausch said the financial woes he has been plagued with for more than a decade are the result of his 2003-04 campaign for Latah County sheriff.
According to previous reporting by the Daily News, former Latah County Sheriff Jeff Crouch accused Rausch of campaigning and conducting other personal business while on duty. The accusations resulted in four internal investigations during a three-month period, according to a tort claim Rausch filed against the county in January 2004 after he resigned from his position upon discovering he faced a suspension, demotion and a $10,000 pay decrease.
Rausch told the Daily News in 2012 he pulled retirement money from the Public Employee Retirement System of Idaho 72 days after his resignation to make ends meet. PERSI officials told Rausch in October 2004 that he had improperly obtained the funds, as he did not wait a full 90 days after his resignation. With accrued interest, he was informed he owed $47,000 to the state.
When Rausch ousted Crouch in the 2004 election, he also resolved his tort claim with a $15,000 settlement - he was seeking $100,000 in damages, including lost wages, retirement funds, attorney fees and doctor bills due to the stress of the incidents.
Financial reasons were not the only challenges that led Rausch to let the house go, he told the Daily News. Rausch said the seller of lots around his home - which is part of a planned development called Green Acres - did not keep his promises, leading the area to go downhill and take his property value with it.
"It's rapidly becoming a rental community," he said.
Rausch currently earns $70,560 annually as sheriff and oversees a department and programming with budgets totaling more than $3.6 million.
Shanon Quinn can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to squinn@dnews.com.
