Lincoln County Treasurer Jerry Greenfield has been cleared of any allegations of illegal behavior regarding the Lincoln County Justice Center proposal.

Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson spoke about the Greenfield investigation findings at the Tuesday, June 15 meeting of the Lincoln County Commissioners.

During the investigation, the Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) examined five different areas in relation to Greenfield’s alleged involvement with the justice center proposal. Those areas included bribery, compensation for past official behavior, soliciting unlawful compensation, conflict of interest and misconduct. DCI worked with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office and Sweetwater County Attorney’s Office on the case.

The decision announced following the investigation was to decline prosecution.

Greenfield is a part-owner of property that once was under consideration as a building site for the proposed justice center. A number of additional properties were also being considered as potential locations for the new justice center.

The proposal to build a new justice center came under fire from the public for being an unwise use of taxpayer dollars in a time of economic downturn. Other complaints from the public included concerns with how quickly the justice center proposal moved through the governmental approval process.

Throughout the DCI investigation, Greenfield maintained that since he is not part of the decision making body with regards to the justice center project proposal, a conflict of interest never existed. The recently concluded DCI investigation supports that idea.

For additional information regarding the DCI investigation findings, see the Thursday, June 24 edition of the Star Valley Independent.

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