Filed under: IDAHO, Newsworthyish stuff | Tags: bong, humor, IDAHO, Idaho Falls, mayor, Mayor Fuhriman, news, post register
Mayor sorry for storing bong
Fuhriman’s son accused of possessing the drug implement
By PHIL DAVIDSON and NICK DRAPER pdavidson@postregister.com / ndraper@postregister.com
The paraphernalia, which is city property, was leftover from the mayor’s time as a DARE officer in the I.F. Police Department.
Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman said Monday he was wrong to store boxes of marijuana pipes left over from his days as a DARE officer at his home even though he kept them for educational purposes.
Fuhriman’s apology comes on the heels of the arrest of his 19-year-old son, Peyton, who was cited last week along with two friends for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia with the intent to use.
Aaron Badger, an 18-year-old who was also cited, told an Idaho Falls police officer that the foot-long bong the three were caught with came from the mayor’s house, according to the police report.
“Frankly, I was sick about it,” Fuhriman said when asked about his reaction to the allegation.
Fuhriman said he used to show the pipes to local parents as part of the drug-prevention and education duties he performed while an officer with the Idaho Falls Police Department. The mayor joined the force in 1988 and retired as a lieutenant in January 2006, when he took over as the city’s top elected official.
Though he was not sure whether the bong in question came from his house, Fuhriman admitted to having kept two boxes of at least 15 pipes and other paraphernalia on a top shelf in a storage room.
He said he forgot about the boxes, which have been in his home for 15 years, and regrets not returning them to the police department.
“It was an error on my part, and I’m going to take full responsibility for it,” he said.
Fuhriman won’t face criminal charges for keeping the items at his house, said Bonneville County Prosecutor Dane Watkins, because he only intended to use them for education, not smoking.
“I’m certain that we wouldn’t be able to meet any burden on a criminal matter,” said Watkins, adding that he made that determination along with the Idaho attorney general’s office. “To get to that intent element, it really has to encompass some other evidence to suggest that it’s being used for (smoking).”
After Fuhriman’s son was cited Aug. 12, Idaho Falls Police Chief J. Kent Livsey called Fuhriman and asked him to give the boxes of paraphernalia to Capt. Steve Roos, according to a police report.
At about 5 p.m. Aug. 14, the report said, Fuhriman delivered the pipes to Roos, who then turned them over to Evidence Custodian Zuella Nelson so they could be destroyed.
Roos noted in his police report that when Fuhriman took the paraphernalia from the evidence room in the early 1990s, there was no mechanism in place to track it.
Livsey said he let the prosecutor’s office handle any investigation into criminal charges against Fuhriman.
“We turned it over to Dane for obvious reasons,” Livsey said. “We didn’t want to appear to have a conflict.”
Fuhriman said he hasn’t given a drug presentation in two years.
In hindsight, he said, he should have returned the contraband to the police department once he was done with it. He said it was a matter of convenience to bring the pipes home.
“I should have returned them back when after I wasn’t a police officer,” he said. “That’s when I was in error.”
Did you know?
State law says it is illegal to use or possess with the intent to use drug paraphernalia.
