Sheriff Kent Tibbits

The Huron County Prosecuting Attorney's Office is continuing the investigation into the possible use of a County-owned vehicle by Tibbits for personal use.

Gaertner is looking into the criminal side of the case while Huron County Corporate Counsel Steve Allen is investigating the civil side of the case.

"We have to look into the personal use of his (Tibbits) county vehicle to take his family to Florida for a vacation; we have to determine if it is a misuse of County property," said Gaertner in an earlier statement.

Gaertner does not want the residents of Huron County to feel this is an isolated case, and, therefore, he is taking precautions to prevent any favoritism.

"We had an Oakland County Judge sign the search warrant so there does not show any signs of favoritism nor a witch-hunt going on," said Gaertner.

The search warrant entitles a law enforcement officer to search for evidence of a possible crime and seize the informational evidence for the investigation of the case.

"What is important here; a Judge has made a determination that a crime has occurred by a person (by signing the search warrant)," said Gaertner.

Law enforcement officials seized computers and other records last Friday and took the weekend to conduct the investigation and determination of the records and computer information. The equipment and findings will be turned over to Gaertner the first of this week.

"We already do have evidence with travel records, so evidence already exists; we want to further our investigation by looking at all evidence and aspects of the case," said Gaertner. He added, "Clearly the vehicle has been used for personal use, not just an isolated occurrence to Florida."

This is not the only possible travel being investigated by the Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

"We are also looking into the prior County vehicle use that the vehicle may have been taken to Canada for fishing trips," said Gaertner.

He added, "One of the big issues is the liability to the County of Huron could have walked into, with the vehicle being taken into another state and a foreign country, if someone would have been injured in an accident, that could have bankrupted the County."

According to Gaertner, no accidents, to his knowledge, have occurred by the Sheriff and the use of his County vehicle.

"There are a few charges we will look at including misconduct of office; this trip to Florida is not an isolated incident," said Gaertner. He added, "It is difficult to conduct an investigation into someone that I work with professionally; I have been asked by some to sweep this under the rug, I will not do that."

On the civil side of the case, The Huron County Board of Commissioners will be meeting with Allen soon to discuss what their options are; "on the civil side to basically see to it that this doesn't happen again," said Gaertner.

Gaertner noted that Tibbits has not been officially charged with any crime and the investigation is continuing.