Without going through his press release sentence by sentence, my general impression is that Morgan is well aware of what’s on his record.  I welcome him to truthfully explain what appears to be, at the very least, a pattern of seriously concerning behavior.  Simply because there was insufficient evidence for charges, or because a victim doesn’t press charges doesn’t diminish the public’s right to know of his past when evaluating him for the position of Sheriff – charged with ensuring the community’s safety, upholding laws and protecting people’s rights.  Mr. Ballis has chosen to cherry-pick a juvenile crime to share publicly, implying he has only committed this single crime, and this is very misleading. 

We cannot verify if Mr. Ballis, in fact, attempted to report a defamation claim.  We can tell you that nobody from law enforcement (including ISP) has contacted us, and upon proactively reaching out to ISP to inquire if an investigation was pending, we were told it was not.

Unfortunately, sometimes in political campaigns, candidates attempt to intimidate opponents into silence by threatening legal action, and that is what is happening here.  I have simply brought public documents to light and exercised my constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression, which Ballis has failed to establish is anything but truthful or opinion based. I will not be coerced into silence and let the threat of legal action detract from the key issues at stake in this election.