JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Sheriff candidate Slade Ross told Buckrail he wants to clear the air on why he left the Sheriff’s Office in February 2017 after 19 years with the department. On the campaign now for the top cop job at the TCSO, Ross says he’s often asked about what happened.
“Sheriff [Jim] Whalen and I had reached a point we were no longer working well together. We did not agree on many issues facing the sheriff’s office,” Ross said. “I approached another agency, in confidence, about the possibility of a position within the agency. Sheriff Whalen subsequently found out about this conversation and he chose not to believe the reasons I was inquiring about the possibility of a job.”
According to Ross, the relationship went from strained to severed when Whalen found out. He fired Ross and demoted 13-year veteran Lt. Tom Combs to Sergeant. Combs left the department two months later.
At the same time of the office shakeup in mid-February 2017, Whalen also promoted Matt Carr to Lieutenant. Whalen recently named Carr Undersheriff and extended his political endorsement to the candidate for his own job.
Ross explored legal options but was told by a lawyer that although he had a good case, it would be costly and messy. Ross ultimately decided not to put the Sheriff’s Office through that.
Ross left law enforcement and has been in the private sector since, working for Wyoming Landscape Contractors.
“It has been a refreshing change,’ Ross said. “I have seen law enforcement from a different perspective than I had the previous 19 years. I have met some great new people, made many new connections and developed some new ideas on how to make the sheriff’s office more relatable and ultimately more effective in serving our county.”
Ross added that experience shook his family but, in the end, feels it has strengthened his resolve to become sheriff and helped make him better suited to job, which he has always said should be a nonpartisan position.
Sheriff Jim Whalen declined to comment on the story, calling it a personnel matter that he cannot discuss publicly according to statute.
