A former Shasta County sheriff's captain verified to the Record Searchlight Thursday that a whistleblower document raising "serious misconduct allegations" by the former sheriff and other county officials is authentic.
The 13-page document was uploaded to the website Scribd by a user identified only as "Shasta." It was originally on then-Capt. Pat Kropholler's attorney's letterhead, Kropholler said, and was sent on April 8, 2021 to a third-party investigator hired by the county to look into allegations of problems in then-Sheriff Eric Magrini's administration.
Ellis Investigations Law Corporation, the contract investigator, was hired by the county on March 17, 2021 in an agreement signed by County CEO Matt Pontes and charged with reviewing a set of concerns raised by the Sheriffs Administrative Association. The Ellis investigation ultimately found 11 allegations were "not sustained" and four were characterized as "inadvertent mistakes." The specific allegations and findings have not been publicly released.
Kropholler denied he posted his whistleblower letter but said he reviewed it online and confirmed it is only missing the letterhead and a section about Magrini's college education.
Among Kropholler's claims, some of which the letter called "clearly criminal in nature," he accused Magrini of illegally using an official database to obtain incriminating information about Pontes, who at the time was applying for the County CEO position. In the letter, Kropholler said he...
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