Now someone had used his name after his death to support a transaction he had explicitly refused while he was alive.
I drove home slowly.
When I reached the house, I parked beside the Mustang and sat behind the steering wheel of my truck for several minutes.
Then I went inside and called the independent attorney.
I explained what the treasurer had shown me.
She listened carefully.
When I finished, she asked whether I had the original annexation document.
"No. I saw a copy."
"Good. Don't try to obtain the original through your office."
"I won't."
She was quiet.
"An agreement supposedly signed by someone after their death is a serious issue. But we need to establish what the document is, where it came from, and whether it was ever officially recorded or used in a transaction."
I nodded.
"Understood."
She continued.
"We should preserve the evidence and refer the suspected misconduct through independent channels."
I agreed.
Later that day, I notified the county prosecutor's office through the appropriate process that a potential property fraud matter involved my family's land and that I had a personal conflict of interest.
The prosecutor arranged for investigators outside my direct chain of command to review the information.
I offered to provide a witness statement, property records, and copies of the documents I'd obtained lawfully as a homeowner.
Then I stepped back.
I knew some people would criticize that decision.
They would say a sheriff should use his authority to get answers immediately.
But that wasn't how I understood the job.
A badge gave me responsibilities.
It didn't make me the judge of my own dispute.
And if I wanted the HOA president held accountable for abusing her authority, I had to be careful not to abuse mine.
The HOA president responded to my attorney's formal letter three days later.
She did not acknowledge the discrepancy between the recorded subdivision plat and the association's expanded map.
She did not identify a valid recorded declaration binding my property.
And she did not address the questionable annexation agreement.
Instead, she accused me of intimidation.
Her response claimed that I'd used my position as sheriff to threaten an HOA volunteer and her son during an ordinary compliance visit. It described the teenager's kick as an accidental contact with the vehicle and suggested that I had exaggerated the damage to punish a family that challenged me.