Trouble always seems to find Barry Sheriff Dar Leaf

Dialogue from a scene in the 1956 movie, “The Lone Ranger”:

The Lone Ranger: “Try to stay out of trouble, Tonto.”

Tonto: “Tonto no go looking for trouble, but trouble always seems to find Tonto.”

I quoted this scene in a column I wrote several years ago about former Major League baseball player Chad Curtis, now a free man after having been released from prison for sexual assault charges.

But his story is a lot like what I’ve been seeing and hearing lately about neighboring Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf, who last night garnered national attention on Rachel Maddow’s TV show on MSNBC. A representative of Leaf’s office, in an e-mail to Trump attorney Sidney Powell suggested that Leaf seized voting machines after the 2020 general election in Barry County.

Leaf has denied he did such a thing, but there is no question he tried it in early December 2020. There is no evidence of a seizure. Leaf claimed there was voter fraud during the election and filed a suit to enable him to seize the machines, but was denied almost immediately by a federal judge.

As part of the Barry County Sheriff’s Office investigation, election clerks were questioned by a private investigator. Leaf assured the Barry County Board of Commissioners that county funds were not being used to pay the private investigator.

His lawsuit detailed a lot of speculation, without proof, that there was a scheme by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and the State Board of Canvassers, along with co-conspirators, that resulted in the unlawful counting, or manufacturing, of hundreds of thousands of illegal, ineligible, duplicate or purely fictitious ballots in Michigan.

Since then Leaf posted on Facebook that he intended to form a Barry County Posse. Legal experts have acknowledged that Leaf has the power to do so under common law, but described the concept of a posse as “obsolete in this day and age.”

Leaf, a member of the Constitutional Sheriff’s and Peace Officers Association, has been criticized for using county funds on a recent trip to a conference in South Dakota in July. He submitted a bill for $165.14 for fuel and food in travel expenses for the Constitutional Sheriff’s and Peace Officers Association conference. It also was reported he refused to fly because he did not want to wear a mask.

The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, with the motto “Protect, Serve, Uphold and Defend (the Constitution),” selected Leaf as “2016 Sheriff of the Year” at its national conference in Maryland.

He also was the center of much controversy a couple of years ago when he defending the right-wing Wolverine Watchmen militia members charged with a plot to kidnap and kill the governor.

He said in an interview with Fox News, that the militia only tried to make a citizens’ arrest of Whitmer because of her COVID-19 lockdown policies in 2020. He added that he was shocked to learn of charges against the Watchmen, some of whom he was acquainted with.

Leaf also spoke at a May 2020 rally with William Null, one two brothers from the Prairieville and Orangeville areas facing state terrorism charges. He has not expressed any regrets about his comments, nor his appearance with Null.

Then there was a bit of a ruckus at the Leighton Township voting site on Nov. 3, 2020, when attorney Katherine Henry of Hudsonville set up a booth for petition signing nearby before being ordered to leave by Clerk Mary Lou Niewenhuis. Henry said she and Leaf are both members of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, which asserts county sheriffs are America’s “last hope” to turn the country around and get it back “on the freedom track laid for us by our Founders.”

But Leaf’s many activities haven’t gone unnoticed.

A Delton man has called on Gov. Whitmer to remove Leaf from office, contending he has abused his power as sheriff by investigating unsubstantiated election fraud claims. Furthermore, there have been petitions circulated.

However, since Leaf first was elected in 2004, unseating incumbent and former Wayland State Police Commander Steve DeBoer, he is generally regarded as virtually invincible at the polls and is perhaps Barry County’s most popular public official. Closer to home, he has received public expressions of support by Martin Township Clerk Rachelle Smit, who is running for State Representative, and Watson Township Trustee Michelle Harris.

There is an old saying that negative publicity is far better than no publicity or being ignored. Former President Donald Trump and Barry County Sheriff Dar Leaf are living proof.