Judge tosses one of three IDHW lawsuits

One of the three court cases regarding Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s civil subpoenas over a grant program was dismissed Sunday.

Former Idaho Department of Health and Welfare employee Ericka Rupp petitioned the court on March 27 to set aside civil investigative demands served by Labrador’s office as it investigated the health department’s administration of its Community Partners Grant over concerns the money likely went to ineligible programs.

Ada County District Court Judge Lynn Norton dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning the case can be brought back, court documents filed Monday morning show.

After Norton previously ruled that Labrador and his employees may not oversee the civil demands because they are conflicted, a special prosecutor was appointed.

Christopher Boyd, who is the Adams County prosecutor, took over the case. On Oct. 6, Boyd sent a letter to Rupp’s attorney notifying her that the civil demands, known as CIDs, were no longer needed because most of the information that had been sought in the CIDs could be found in an audit completed by the Legislative Services Office (LSO) and released on Aug. 21.

“To conserve state resources, I am withdrawing the CID so that I may determine what, if any, documents I need to complete the investigation,” Boyd wrote.

The audit report included eight significant findings and a referral to the attorney general’s office for a potential criminal investigation. The department disputed all of the findings.

Boyd will continue to investigate the grant program and “make charging decisions or recommendations where appropriate,” he said.

“(Labrador) has requested that I continue to keep politics out of the decision-making process,” he said.

Boyd said he has requested a special inquiry judge, in which a magistrate judge may be appointed to oversee the case to “conduct an inquiry into the existence of suspected crime or corruption within his jurisdiction,” according to Idaho code.

Another lawsuit, brought by health department Director Dave Jeppesen and other employees who were served CIDs, was also recently dismissed because the CIDs were withdrawn.

A third court challenge related to the civil demands is still in the works. More than 30 of the nonprofits that received the grant funds had joined together and sued to end or narrow the demands.

A judge had already ruled on this case, allowing many of the demands to continue, ending some and narrowing the scope of the others.

The group said it will appeal the decisions to the state Supreme Court.

The attorney for the group of nonprofits, Greg Chaney, said Monday that he hadn’t received an offer from the attorney general’s office to settle their case.

“We have a completed order from the judge which places us in a different posture,” Chaney wrote in an email. “As of right now, I’m unaware of any way that this will affect our appeal.”

BACKGROUND ON COMMUNITY PARTNERS GRANT

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-chairpersonss 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 Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee removed the department’s spending authority for another federal grant that provided funds to child care providers and gave it to another state agency.

After the audit findings were published, the director told legislative staff that the department did not agree with the findings and wouldn’t be submitting a corrective action plan.

“The department has already provided our response on the recent LSO accountability report and corrective action plans,” Jeppesen wrote in a Nov. 2 email. “As you know, the department respectfully disagreed with all of the findings and thus did not provide and does not plan to provide a corrective action plan.”

The director continued to say that the department is “continuously working on updating policies and controls.”

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.