Eagle County Sheriff Receiving Mixed Reviews
As he supervises the investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Laker guard Kobe Bryant, Eagle County Sheriff Joseph Hoy has been portrayed as incompetent (by the community newspaper) and as a moral compass (by his veteran predecessor).
Hoy has been bombarded by criticism in the Vail Daily, with the managing editor writing, “the kindest observation of our new Sheriff, still fresh from road patrol, is he’s in over his head.”
The editor, Don Rogers, first criticized Hoy in a Tuesday commentary that said Hoy “went cowboying off a protocol” by going to a judge for an arrest warrant instead of going to Dist. Atty. Mark Hurlbert.
A Vail Daily assistant editor, Rogers wrote, learned of the Bryant investigation July 1 -- the date the alleged incident was reported to sheriffs -- but chose to report on it only if a warrant was issued or an arrest was made. Two days later, Rogers wrote that Hoy, in a conversation with that assistant editor, pretended to have never heard of Bryant -- even though he had arranged for the player’s July 4 arrest.
Rogers continued his criticism on Wednesday, characterizing Hoy’s handling of the case as “ready, fire, aim.”
On Thursday, Rogers said Hoy’s “premature arrest” of Bryant has resulted in a media frenzy, paraphrasing Hoy’s thoughts as, “Golly gee, will ya look at all those folks with cameras, microphones and notebooks? Didn’t think it would be like this. Didn’t think.”
Yet, Arnold “A.J.” Johnson, the man whom Hoy replaced as sheriff, said his successor “grew up under a core of strong ethics and values in the organization, and I could not see him doing anything other than what was in the best interest of the people.”
Hoy was out of his office Thursday and unavailable for comment.
Hoy’s 14 years in law enforcement have included stints in the department as a patrol officer and a drug-abuse resistance education supervisor. Before that, Johnson said, Hoy was a private business owner.
“Joe did a good job for me,” Johnson said. “He was a very sincere and competent officer and a very compassionate person.”
Johnson scoffed at comments by Bryant’s attorney, Pamela Mackey, who said the sheriff’s department overreacted because it’s not familiar with high-profile crimes -- what Mackey labeled “a complete bias.”
“I have never seen any biased-type activity by Joe or anyone else from the county,” Johnson said.
Hoy, Johnson said, properly followed protocol in sexual assault investigations.
“You have a complaining victim, so you listen to her story, listen to his story, make a decision on the evidence you have before you and seek an arrest warrant if you believe you need to,” Johnson said. “Look, the judge reviewed the request and signed the affidavit. Joe is credible.”
