Ex-sheriff appointed to Wichita police board was investigated for keeping donated vehicles

A former Kansas sheriff — recently appointed by the City Council to serve on a citizen board meant to hold the Wichita Police Department accountable — surrendered his law enforcement license years ago while being investigated for keeping donations made to the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office, according to an order from the state’s police regulatory agency.

The order says Gerald R. Gilkey also sold one of the ATVs donated by BNSF Railway on Craiglist.

Gilkey resigned from the citizen board Friday after finding out The Eagle was looking into the revocation.

“I did make a bad choice and I made a mistake,” he said. “It is not the super felony and it’s not the super criminal act that everybody feels that it is. It was an error in judgment like many good people make in their lives.”

When Gilkey surrendered his license in 2014, he signed an order that says he did so knowing that what he did “constitutes grounds for (Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training) to revoke (Gilkey’s) certification as a law enforcement officer.”

He said officers had done far worse and that he believed he could have retained his license had he fought it.

The whole thing, he said, was politically motivated by an opponent when he was seeking a fourth term as sheriff — even the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training investigation was political.

Asked why he didn’t realize it was a mistake until being investigated, he said: “Who knew it was a mistake until some times it was brought to light. We’ve all done things in our lives that hey, you know, it sounds good at the time, years later, it’s like, maybe we shouldn’t have done that.”

Gilkey was appointed to the Citizen’s Review

Board by council member J.V. Johnston, with the approval of the entire City Council. Gilkey said he told Johnston, his neighbor, about the incident.

“Did I tell him about all this bullstuff beforehand? Yea, I did,” Gilkey said. “He was not concerning because, you know, there are no criminal charges … the only thing that happened was I did a resignation that I probably didn’t have to do.”

Johnston said “Well, if he did (tell me), I don’t remember.”

“He could have told me,” he said. “We talk a lot between the fences and the yard, probably at least every other day. Do I remember every conversation? No, I don’t.”

Gilkey started his term on the CRB on April 1. He told the board at the April meeting that he spent about 20 years in law enforcement, including three terms as sheriff, before retiring in 2011. He started in law enforcement in April 1992 and joined the sheriff’s office in January 2001, according to the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training, also know as KSCPOST.

KSCPOST says Gilkey contacted BNSF about the donations while he was sheriff.

Gilkey reached out to BNSF on April 3, 2007, saying they needed an “all-terrain vehicle to be used by the Sheriff’s Office at crime scenes, parades, large event patrols and numerous other uses,” according to the

KSCPOST order.

BNSF agreed later that year to donate “two John Deere Gators, two Kawasaki Mules, and one Cushman two seater gas buggy.” Gilkey and a deputy used their personal trucks and trailers to pick up the vehicles.

The KSCPOST order also says:

Gilkey brought one

Gator to the sheriff’s office, one gator and two Mules to his home and the Cushman to undersheriff Jerry Osborn, who could not be reached for comment.

Gilkey told a Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent that he spent $160 of his own money to repair the Gator “and turned it into a fire suppression vehicle for his own use.”

He also replaced the engine on one of the

Mules for $400 and then sold it on Craigslist for $800. He gave the other Mule to deputy Tim Razey, who sold it for scrap metal.

Razey, in a phone interview, said he thinks the metal was worth $50. Asked why he thought it was OK to keep the money, he said: “I have no response.”

“Pretty much all that stuff we got wasn’t in good working order,” he said.

Before Gilkey left office in 2011, the order says, BNSF asked Gilkey to return the Gator.

Gilkey “did not do so at that time” but did return it in July 2012. Gilkey, in a phone interview, said the delay in returning the Gator came because he was fixing the drive belt after he broke it.

Neither Razey or Osborn faced any trouble because of what happened, Gilkey said.

“I basically took the hit for everybody involved, because I was the target,” Gilkey said.

“I’m trying to do the right thing. I could have served on that CRB board and have done a very good job for the city of Wichita,” he said. “But, like I said, (the city of Wichita doesn’t) deserve to be drug through some old politics because of a man with an ax to grind.”

The KSCPOST order says Gilkey resigned Aug. 17, 2011. The order was dated June 13, 2014.

Johnston said Gilkey is a “really good guy” and he would still appoint him despite what happened.

“I think we all make mistakes from time to time. The most important thing is if we learn from it or not.”

Gilkey said the city did its due diligence doing a background check on him for any criminal charges, which he doesn’t have.

Johnston said he was surprised to learn the details of what happened.

“I still think he would make a great member of that committee. I still do,” he said. “I thought the point of view of someone who has been shot at three or four times would be a good perspective to have on that committee … There’s nobody more critical than somebody who has been the boss before, who has had to keep people in line at the sheriff’s department. They’re going to be more critical and ask better questions than somebody who has no experience.”