Washblog

Well not really, Douglas County Commissioners Mary Hunt and Ken Stanton saw Dane long enough to take his county paid cell phone away from him. Not because he had been in two accidents in less that two hours neither which he reported to authorities but because he was a workaholic and he needed time to rest because of his bad knee acting up .

Not only were they there to help Dane out but Jim Barker the head of Douglas County Land Transportation and Robert Knowles who  is apparently a friend of Dane's and (text excised by NM. See note below.) were also conveniently hanging out at the courthouse when Dane arrived in his banged up county owned SUV.

Barker was good enough to check the vehicle for open containers or prescriptions bottles and reported that he saw none in the vehicle. Why Barker and not a deputy did the checking seems to be a mystery. While Barker was pretending he was an officer of the law and/ or a CSI Knowles loaded up Dane and headed out.

Apparently when they left they forgot to tell the other commissioners, Barker or the law where they were headed. Too bad Dane was such a workaholic because if he hadn't been the other commissioners would not have taken his phone and the law could have called and questioned him, maybe that is why they took the phone...naw they would not have helped Dane evade questioning now would they?? What ever the reason Dane and Knowles disappeared into the sunset.

With Dane incommunicado Deputy Button went to Dane's place of residence to find and question him. Surprisingly Dane had not gone home either, even though his painful knee was allegedly the reason for the accidents. Not only was he not home his wife didn't know where he was or when he would be home. She told the deputy she didn't know where he was "because they are going to bury him." Now if this had been any one but a Keane or county commissioner Keane's wife would have probably been booked for obstruction of justice and harboring a fugitive but this being Douglas County and all...

Dane did finally turn up, in a rehab clinic, but he is still not talking.  Since Barker and the other commissioners all seemed to infer that Dane was not under the influence one has to wonder why Dane checked himself into a drug and alcohol rehab center. His wife later told Deputy Button that "he is only there for pain control".  HMmmm...

We have to wonder why if he was in pain but not under the influence he did not stay and wait for a deputy to show up and take his statement.

While we wonder what really happened, Dane is in an upscale rehab clinic
 (the second time in 5 years. He just got off probation for his first DUI in June 2007)
 and still drawing his commissioner's salary while taxpayers are paying to have his vehicle repaired and county guard rails repaired or replaced. Luckily he only nearly hit the two occupants of the vehicle he was veering towards. Had he hit them it would have been a lot more difficult for such efficient damage control.

Text has been removed from this post, as noted above, in the interest of protecting information about people's personal lives. NM