The Star’s big story this week about Sheriff Mike Sharp’s demise said intimations of his terrible judgment and obsession with sex cropped up in the 2016 election campaign, before he was elected to his third term as sheriff.
Ah, but The Star didn’t go far enough back in its morgue…There were strong indications of his unprofessionalism as far back as 2008, before he was elected to his first term.
As soon as I saw the Star’s story, I was sure I remembered indications of problems long before 2016. It just took me a while to run it down, and today I found it.
Back July 31, 2008, the week before the primary election, Kevin Murphy, my former running mate when we both covered City Hall back in the early 2000s, wrote a story about Sharp acknowledging “that he was once part of an email exchange among city and county law officers that included images of nude women.”
Sharp
Before he ran for sheriff, Sharp had been a reserve officer with the Kansas city Police Department. Murphy said that in 2003, Sharp had been part of a group of about 35 KC police officers and Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies who shared sexually explicit emails.
Murphy wrote:
“One email, which had an attached video showing a woman in a sex act, went to Sharp and about 12 Kansas City officers and 25 Jackson County deputies, sergeants and other officers. Although not illegal, the sexually explicit emails are prohibited by city and county personnel rules.”
Murphy, who left the paper several years ago, had obtained several of the emails from someone who had received them. He quoted Sharp as saying he regretted his actions.
“In retrospect, it was probably not the best thing to do,” he said. “It was an email list with some buddies of mine. If I had it to do all over again, I would never have done it.”
…Note his comment “not the best thing to do.” Obviously, he didn’t think it was extremely bad, just something he probably should not have done.
That attitude in itself shows his only regret was getting caught and was certainly nothing to disqualify him from becoming sheriff.
Yet, both agencies — the PD and the Sheriff’s Office — had years earlier explicitly and clearly prohibited employees from viewing or transmitting sexually explicit images through email or on the internet.
Perhaps even more amazing than Sharp’s casual downplaying of the law enforcement group’s email follies was the reaction of his top competitor in the 2008 primary.
Murphy paraphrased John Bullard of Buckner as saying that while sex-related emails should not be exchanged among law officers, email exchanges dating back five years should not be an issue in the campaign.
Another Democratic candidate had it right, though. Murphy quoted Mike Mauer, a Blue Springs resident, as saying: “It’s outrageous. I’d think women in the community would be quite upset about this. And if you are talking about the top law enforcement officer in Jackson County, it says something about his integrity.”
Unfortunately, the race was virtually a foregone conclusion even before the filing deadline. Sharp had wrapped up the support of the county’s leading Democratic organizations and donors. The juggernaut behind him included the Committee for County Progress and mega-donor James B. Nutter Sr., who died last year.
None of Sharp’s three challengers for the Democratic nomination stood a chance. When the votes were counted, Sharp took 55 percent of the votes to 25 percent for Bullard, with Mauer and Tom Krahenbuhl of Lee’s Summit trickling it at less than 10 percent each.
With that election, Sharp was on his way to being elected in the general election and then being re-elected twice. He was on the taxpayers’ dime nine years in all, and who knows what kind of antics were going on in the Sheriff’s Office during that time.
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In retrospect, it’s too bad that in that 2008 campaign none of his opponents questioned his commitment to law enforcement. Although he had extensive experience in law enforcement — having been a full-time officer with KCPD and a reserve officer for many years — most recently he had been owner of Wholesale Carpet Warehouse in Lee’s Summit.
To me, that would have been one indication that his best days in law enforcement were behind him.
Of course, the best indication that he was no longer cut out for law enforcement was his role in the email follies.
Great digging; an advantage of being around for a while.
Institutional memory, who would have known that had any value? Well, at least this time, according to reports, the Sheriff’s wife got to share in the frivolity and sexual escapades provided by his mistress. And, credit, where credit is due,unlike Greitens, this guy actually rewarded his mistress with the highest paying civilian job in the department and several holiday getaways to exotic places. So who says chivalry is dead? Of course,you good Jackson County folk picked up the tab, so you do have that going for you.
I sent Mike Hendricks a text as soon as I saw the first story go up and told him I was quite sure Sharp’s peccadillos predated 2016. I guess he didn’t find that Kevin Murphy story. Or maybe we’ll see a bigger, farther-reaching story this weekend.
Probably not, Sharp resigned (don’t know about the bimbo, but I’m betting her career will be short lived) and so nothing left to see particularly since Greitens now has a new felony charge against him.
Knew about it. Never got your text.
Mike, so what happened to the Sheriff’s lady friend? Still working there?
Wow, thank you for the incredible digging. I should like to add I would not, to semi-quote another colorful commenter, so lightly disparage the woman as a garden variety bimbo. Based on the reporting in the Star, she strikes me as more of an opportunistic sexual predator. I shudder to think what the work environment in the Sheriff’s office must have been like.
Whether bimbo or calculating predator, she was not your standard workplace disruptor. But the sheriff is fully to blame; he encouraged an untenable workplace environment by avidly seeking the woman’s companionship.