Subpoena of IDHW withdrawn after director retires

A special prosecutor in the investigation into a grant program from the Idaho Department Health and Welfare has withdrawn civil subpoenas in the case.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador had served the civil investigative demands to health department Director Dave Jeppesen, Deputy Director Jennifer Palagi, and Self-Reliance Division Administrator Shane Leach over concerns the Community Partners Grant had been provided to ineligible programs. The employees petitioned an Ada County District Court judge to set aside the demands.

This summer, Judge Lynn Norton disqualified Labrador from pursuing the demands but said he could appoint a special prosecutor to do so.

Labrador chose Adams County Prosecutor Christopher Boyd, who on Oct. 6, sent a notification that he was withdrawing the investigative demands.

This withdrawal made Jeppesen’s petition to the court irrelevant, so the judge dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled. The two sides are still in disagreement over whether the department employees are entitled to attorneys fees, which the court will decide later.

Boyd said he couldn’t comment on the case because there is still a criminal investigation into the issue.

Jeppesen this week announced his retirement, and said although he’d faced a number of recent challenges, those were not the reason for his decision to step down.

THE COMMUNITY GRANT PROGRAM

At the center of the civil subpoenas is the health department’s Community Grant Program, which provided federal funds for after-school programs. The Legislature stipulated in the budget bill allowing the department to distribute the funds that the grants be used to serve children ages 5 to 13.

The funds were distributed in 2021 and 2022.

The co-chairpersons of the state budget-writing committee had concerns over the grants going to programs that serve children outside the age range the law allowed, which prompted the committee to authorize an audit of the program.

The audit resulted in eight findings against how the grant program was administered, and staff referred the information to the attorney’s general office. The department disagreed with all of the findings.

Separately, the attorney general’s office had heard the concerns and began serving the civil investigative demands, which asked for information regarding the distribution of the grant and other communications and documents.

A group of more than 30 of the nonprofits that were served sued to end the demands. A judge allowed the demands to be pursued but narrowed the scope on some of them; the group appealed the case to the state Supreme Court.

Jeppesen and the other employees filed a separate petition asking to end the demands. In the stipulation regarding the withdrawal of the demands, the prosecutor didn’t specify why he decided to withdraw them.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.