Did sheriff use inmates to remodel his house?

Beaver County Commissioners say they expect to meet Monday to discuss recent allegations the sheriff used jail inmates to help remodel his house.

Two former county jail inmates claim Sheriff Ken Yardley took them out of jail to strip wallpaper, pull up carpet and tear out cabinets in his Beaver home. FBI agents were recently in Beaver, questioning county officials on the allegations.

"That was one of the issues, but I can't comment on it," said Beaver County Commissioner Chad Johnson, who was interviewed last month by agents. Asked what else the interview centered around, Johnson told the Deseret Morning News, "It was quite a few things, primarily revolving around the sheriff's department."

Other county officials declined to comment about what the FBI wanted. FBI agents would neither confirm nor deny that an investigation was under way into Yardley's activities as sheriff.

"I can't really comment," FBI Special Agent Bob Wright said Wednesday. Sheriff Yardley did not return calls from the Deseret Morning News.

Former inmates Chett Pearson and Clayton Myers could not be reached, either.

But they told The Salt Lake Tribune that they and other inmates were pulled from the Beaver County Jail in 2000 to help refurbish Yardley's home. The former inmates claimed that Yardley would take them from their jail cells in the morning, transport them to his house and pick them up in the evening. They worked without supervision.

"He just come in and got us and hauled us up there and said, 'This is what we're gonna do,' " Pearson told the newspaper in a copyrighted story Thursday. "We didn't care. It got us out of the jail cell."

This is not the first time Yardley has been investigated for alleged wrongdoing involving inmates. In 1998, a Beaver man working in the jail yard hanged himself from a telephone pole. Troy Neil Bradshaw, 22, was waiting to be booked into jail on a warrant. He was asked by Yardley to help work on a truck in the jail yard, then-Beaver County Attorney Leo Kanell said at the time. A wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Yardley and Beaver County but was dismissed in 2000, according to federal court records.

Investigators believed Bradshaw found some cord and hours later was dead. Kanell said at the time no regulations were broken by the sheriff, but booking procedures would be reviewed.

Officials with POST, the agency that certifies police officers and investigates misconduct, said Thursday they were not aware of any complaints or sanctions ever being issued against Yardley.

"We are not looking at him at this time," said Jeff Nigbur with the Department of Public Safety, which oversees POST.

The Beaver County Commission is not taking any action against Yardley, Johnson said. They were expected to meet with the sheriff during their scheduled Monday meeting.

"I've talked to the sheriff and he's saying he's waiting to see what the investigation produces," Johnson said. "I think the sheriff, to be fair, knows that he has made some bad judgment calls."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com