Five resign at the Ness County Sheriff’s Office

NESS CITY, KAN. — The Ness County Sheriff’s Office has announced that the undersheriff, three deputies and a dispatcher have all resigned from their roles with the Ness County Sheriff’s Office effective immediately.

According to the Ness County Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page, Undersheriff William Sutton, Deputy Cole Stoecklein, Deputy Jonathan Rahe, and Deputy Jim Lutters and dispatcher Rashel Hagans, all resigned at 10:50 a.m. on Tuesday morning.

Ness County Clerk Renee Kerr has assumed the duties of Sheriff, per K.S.A. 19-804a after the resignation of the undersheriff and the others in the office staff. According to the release, Kerr has appointed Brandon Mitchell, Republican Nominee for Sheriff, as her undersheriff and Travis Rothe as deputy. 

The sheriff’s office has already hired two full-time deputies and one part-time deputy and Kerr hopes that the staff will be fully staffed here shortly.

The Ness County Sheriff’s Office has been in the news a lot lately, as Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly selling a gun to a person who was prohibited from possessing a firearm in mid-October. The plea agreement called for Whipple to resign his position as sheriff and to surrender his law enforcement certification from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training.