{"id":117668,"date":"2014-09-22T23:43:10","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T05:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/steele-responds\/"},"modified":"2014-09-22T23:43:10","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T05:43:10","slug":"steele-responds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/steele-responds\/","title":{"rendered":"Steele responds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Steele\"
Steele<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Write-in candidate Mike Steele says it\u2019s impossible to attack an opponent who has lied in court or who has been accused in court of being dishonest.<\/p>\n

\u201cBearing false witness in a court of law is a most egregious offense, especially so by a member of law enforcement,\u201d Steele wrote in an email to The Cortez Journal.<\/p>\n

\u201cExposing it should never be called a political attack,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no opinion of my opponent\u2019s honesty or dishonesty,\u201d Steel wrote in an email, \u201cbut I do believe the subject was certainly covered by the court documents and testimony by court officials who had known him for decades,\u201d he wrote in an email to the Journal.<\/p>\n

Steele was referring to Republican sheriff candidate Steve Nowlin and portions of a 249-page court transcript from a 2008 case that his supporters say prove that Nowlin has a reputation for being dishonest.<\/p>\n

Steele said he didn\u2019t authorize his supporters to question Nowlin\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n

Steele also dismissed questions that his supporters had launched \u201cpolitical attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steele posted on his campaign\u2019s Facebook page on Aug. 26 that supporters of Nowlin were spreading rumors in an attempt to \u201cimpugn\u201d his integrity.<\/p>\n

Steele wrote that one such individual, who he identified only as a current Montezuma County Sheriff\u2019s Office employee, had stooped to a new low recently.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no knowledge whatsoever that would indicate my opponent is behind the lies that are being told, which state I am a convicted felon,\u201d Steele wrote.<\/p>\n

Steele added that he was enrolled in a POST training course, adding that he was required to pass a \u201crigid background check\u201d to be accepted into the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe citizens of Montezuma County need to ask themselves what character trait(s) allows a current or former member of a position of public trust to lower themselves to spreading falsehoods about another person for real or imagined gain,\u201d Steele posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that the qualities one wants to see in those in whom we place so much trust?\u201d Steele said.<\/p>\n

According to California Superior Court records, Steele was charged with multiple felonies in connection to a San Bernardino County bail bond kickback scheme more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Records show Steele pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection to the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe misdemeanor was ultimately dismissed,\u201d Steele told tea party supporters in July.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Bearing false witness in a court of law is a most egregious offense,\u2019 write-in candidate says<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[308,60,774],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-117668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-local-elections","tag-montezuma-county","tag-political-candidates"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117668"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=117668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}