Dateline: March 12, 2009

Deputy resigns after break-in investigation

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

A break-in at the historic Bugbee House last week turned out to be anything but routine mischief and has cost the Donley County Sheriff’s Office one deputy.

Sheriff Butch Blackburn said his office received a report of the security alarm going off last Thursday about 9 p.m. When authorities arrived, six college-age young women were at the house and were taken in for an investigation into the break in.

But as the investigation continued last Friday, new light was shed on the case.

“After a thorough investigation, it was decided no charges would be filed on the girls,” Blackburn said. “Also through that investigation, it was learned that some of the policies of the sheriff’s office had been compromised, which has resulted in the Donley County Sheriff’s Office’s being short one deputy.”

Blackburn confirmed that the deputy in question resigned immediately at 11 p.m. last Friday.

“The deputy in question used poor judgment that led to the girls’ being at that location at that time,” Blackburn said.

The sheriff would not identify the deputy for the record.

The Bugbee House northwest of Clarendon was the lifelong home of Harold Dow Bugbee, one of the greatest Western artists of the 20th century. Bugbee, whose works are in collections everywhere from local homes and businesses to the Smithsonian Institution, died in 1963 and left everything to his widow, Olive Vandruff Bugbee, and to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum (PPHM) in Canyon.

Mrs. Bugbee was an acclaimed artist in her own right whose patrons included President Lyndon Johnson and Governor Dolph Briscoe. She carefully maintained her husband’s estate, kept detailed records on everything, and then also bequeathed all her belongings to the PPHM when she died in January of 2003.

Since that time the museum has been working to catalog the possessions in the house and move the valuables to Canyon.

Blackburn said Tuesday that the head of the PPHM was in agreement with his office that no charges be filed on the girls. The sheriff’s office is now working to expunge the records of the girls.

“Unfortunately it takes longer to clean up a mess than it does to start it,” Blackburn said. “We are going to work diligently until the records are clean.”

Blackburn also issued a warning about those who might be interested in tampering with the house.