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ND – (NewsDakota.com) Regional Truck Regulator Officer Tim Gillespie and four other peace officers initiated a felony traffic stop on Highway 281 south of Jamestown on May 20.

Authorities were searching for two men in a white Ford F350 pulling a flatbed trailer with two yellow Cat skid steers reported stolen from Bismarck earlier in the day according to State Radio.

Around 10:45am Gillespie said he spotted a vehicle that he thought matched the description on Highway 281 south of Jamestown.

Nearby officers told Gillespie to wait before making the traffic stop. At 10:55:35am a Stutsman County LEC Dispatcher said “Go Ahead” so Gillespie and four other officer’s initiated the stop with weapons drawn and told the driver a 17 year-old boy from Gackle to get out of the pickup. Meanwhile another officer ordered the passenger a 19 year-old woman from Gackle to get out of the vehicle and drop to the ground. The two were hand-cuffed.

Two minutes later Gillespie and four other peace officers conducting the traffic stop realized they made a mistake and had the wrong people in custody. The two were released and allowed to drive on.

Gillespie and the other peace officers pulled over a blue pickup that was pulling a yellow pay loader.

According to Deputy Matt Thom’s lapel microphone 10 seconds after LEC gave the go ahead to initiate the stop. At 10:55:41 Deputy Thom said …”This is not our skid steer”….and at 10:56:13 Deputy Thom said…”This isn’t it.”

After officers realized it was the wrong vehicle and released the two individuals at 11:01:02am Deputy Gillespie said “Well…I couldn’t see it you know. It looked like that so…alright.” At 11:02:02am Deputy Thom said “Well ok…it look just like it.”

Most of the documentation and testimony for this report was obtained through an open records request by Valley City and Jamestown news media outlets.

Meanwhile, Richland County deputies arrested 36 year-old David Koapke of Bismarck and 37 year-old Benjamen Wayne Smith of Williston on May 20 in a white Ford pickup pulling two skid steer loaders on a trailer. The men now face two felony counts of Theft of Property and one felony count of Possession of a Controlled Substance with intent to deliver charges in Richland County. 

In his report, Gillespie told Sheriff Chad Kaiser that “He let everyone know the suspected vehicle was being pulled by a blue Chevy or GMC type pickup, no  one corrected me, or informed me that would be the wrong suspect vehicle, dispatch was aware of the vehicle description as well.” He added, “I  believe the stolen Cat Skid steer could have been transferred to another vehicle or trailer in the area just as easily…Deputy Thom informed me it was not the skid steer in question when he looked into the trailer, determined it was a small pay loader, from a distance, inside the trailer it looked like a cat skid steer, and fit the description of the stolen item. I unhand cuffed the driver and apologized for the inconvenience.”

Two days later on May 22, Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser wrote a letter to Dave Schwartz, Chairman of the Road Weight Enforcement Board. “This letter is to inform you and members of the board that effective immediately Deputy Tim Gillespie will not be authorized to act as a deputy for the Stutsman County Sheriff’s Office…Deputy Gillespie responded to a call for service that was handled in a manner that can only be described as an embarrassment to Stutsman County and a disgrace to the Sheriff’s Office. Under no circumstance would I ever allow an employee of this office to display such an inept understanding of basic law enforcement protocol without swift administrative action against the employee. To complicate matters further Deputy Gillespie has attempted, both verbally and in his written report, to deflect the blame for his actions onto others.”

Gillespie’s attorney Joe Larson responded by saying job one of a county sheriff is leadership.  Here, there is a conspicuous lack of leadership and professionalism by Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser and Barnes County Sheriff Randy McClaflin.

Larson said Gillespie participated in a felony investigation stop with 5 law enforcement officers involved in stopping the wrong vehicle.

Larson said on May 22, two days after the incident Gillespie’s deputy status in Stutsman County was revoked by Sheriff Kaiser. No action was taken against the three Stutsman County deputies and the North Dakota Highway Patrol trooper. Sheriff Kaiser made Gillespie the scapegoat out of 5 officers stopping the wrong vehicle.

On May 29, Barnes County Sheriff Randy McClaflin placed Gillespie’s license in the inactive status for the reason that he is not a resident of Barnes County.

Larson said it was understood from the onset that residency in Barnes County was not a condition of employment as the Regional Truck Regulatory Officer who serves four counties. Therefore, to deactivate his license on the basis of residency is a reckless disregard of the facts and a sham. He said leaders don’t use scape goats.

Larson said it may be convenient for Sheriff Kaiser to use Gillespie as a scape goat and for Sheriff McClaflin to act on fake pretenses. But doing so is not leadership and it’s not professional.

Larson said the facts and events involving the stop of the blue pickup reflect all 5 officers exchanged information and dispatch monitored this exchange. Although the end result was that the wrong vehicle was stopped, no individual person is at fault.

A member of the Fraternal Order of Police said, “We believe in the justice system, we believe in due process and we believe that the truth will come out in this and that Tim Gillespie would be vindicated on this, that there was no wrong doing, we are basing everything we are saying off of the facts, that we know of that was presented to us. We don’t see any wrong doing on Tim’s part or any of the other deputies or other law enforcement officers.”

One month after the May 20th felony traffic stop a Barnes County Grievance Committee hearing was held. The committee recommended returning Tim Gillespie’s peace officer license and to have his written reprimand stricken from the record being procedures concerning the reprimand were not correctly followed according to the committee.

Grievance Committee Chairman Mike Metcalf said the letter of reprimand originated from Stutsman County Sheriff Chad Kaiser who emailed a copy to Barnes County Sheriff Randy McClaflin who then placed the letter in Gillespie’s file.

Metcalf said the grievance committee ruled that the procedure was not proper. The Barnes County Commission agreed. Sheriff Randy McClaflin has the authority to accept or reject the recommendation.

Meanwhile, the Barnes County Commission voted to have the county drop out of the Regional Truck Regulatory Group during a July 7 county meeting. Barnes, Dickey, LaMoure and Stutsman Counties make up the truck regulatory group.

Barnes County Commissioner John Froehlich said the issue will be addressed during the upcoming Truck Regulatory Commission meeting on July 22.