One of the two candidates running in this year’s Spokane County Sheriff’s race has dropped out.
Chamberlin was the public face of the sheriff’s office for years. But he was fired in February, after an internal investigation into a character reference Chamberlin wrote for an acquaintance who had been arrested on child porn charges.
According to records from the sheriff’s office, Chamberlin was disciplined for misleading his supervisors about the letter, and for conduct unbecoming of an officer.
Chamberlin was fired by current Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich. Knezovich has maintained the firing was not politically motivated.
In a Facebook post announcing he was withdrawing from the sheriff’s race, Chamberlin said he wasn’t aware of the child porn charges and believed his acquaintance was trustworthy person.
Chamberlin’s withdrawal means that Undersheriff John Nowels is now running unopposed for the top law enforcement job in the county. Knezovich endorsed Nowels in February.