The Dillon Keystone Police Department’s investigation into reports of improper conduct regarding campaign signs concluded that there was no probable cause for the potential crimes it investigated.

A police report about the incident stated officers investigated two possible misdemeanor crimes: interference with distribution of election material and electioneering. They investigated then-mayoral candidate Joshua Samuel after several people reported campaign signs around town had been removed, including reports from fellow mayoral candidate Renee Imamura and Town Council candidate Ariel Strickler that Samuel had removed some of the signs, according to the report.

The reported incidents involved Strickler’s signs being removed from two locations, the report stated. An officer spoke with Imamura and Strickler, and according to the report, Strickler told police Samuel had removed her signs near Corinthian Hills but did not know who removed her signs near the Dillon Ridge Apartments.

Strickler placed the signs at Corinthian Hills on March 19 after receiving support from homeowners there, according to the report. Later that day, she heard Samuel had removed the signs and texted him asking for them back and saying it was illegal for him to remove them. The report stated Samuel responded that he removed them because he is the president of Corinthian Hills’ homeowners association and the property manager asked for them to be removed.

Police told Strickler that, even if she had permission from some homeowners in a complex, she needed permission from the property owner to put up signs. The property owners of Corinthian Hills and Dillon Ridge Apartments are the Corinthian Hill Property Owners Association and Dillon Ridge Apartments LLC, respectively, and the report stated Strickler had not gotten permission from those entities to put up her signs. The property owners made no reports of Strickler trespassing in order to place the signs, it stated.

Samuel spoke with police as well, according to the report, and told them that he had noticed Strickler’s signs at Corinthian Hills on March 19 and texted one of the homeowners association’s property managers to ask if they were placed with proper permission. The property manager replied that the association had not given any candidate permission to place signs, the report stated, and when Samuel asked if he should remove them, the manager said yes and that they would if Samuel did not.

When Samuel saw signs for Strickler in another part of Corinthian Hills managed by a different property manager, he called them to ask if he should remove the signs, according to the report. The manager gave him permission, as Samuel is the homeowners association president.

Samuel then took the signs to Dillon Town Hall because, according to what he told police, town manager Nathan Johnson had told him to bring any removed signs there. When he arrived, the town clerk told him to leave, so he kept the signs in the Corinthian Hills dumpster enclosure until Strickler contacted him and came to get them back.

Later that day, according to the report, Imamura contacted Samuel and accused him of removing her signs, which he denied. 

The next day, Samuel received Facebook messages from an account he did not know which told him to stop stealing signs or face prosecution, the report stated. The messages also said if he did not stop, “we can get dirty,” according to the report. Samuel did not respond, and the messages stopped.

After investigating, officers determined there was no probable cause to make charges in the case, according to the report. The listed reasoning included that Strickler did not have permission from relevant property owners for her signs placed at Corinthian Hills or the Dillon Ridge Apartments; that Samuel got permission from property owners before removing any signs; that Samuel did not intend to display or distribute signs when he brought them within 100 feet of a ballot drop box at Town Hall; that Samuel returned Strickler’s signs to her; and there was no evidence that other signs had been removed illegally or by anyone but the relevant property owners.