Adams County Sheriff Answers Critics About Speeding Violation, Suspended Driver’s License

After facing weeks of excoriation on social media regarding his previous run-ins with the law, Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner has issued a statement that he hopes will clarify any public misconceptions about his character.

Wagner's message was released on Tuesday via the Adams County Sheriff's Office's Facebook page and has received hundreds of reactions since then.

In the statement, Wagner says "a small group of individuals have taken to social media and other outlets with the apparent intent of creating division, spreading misinformation, and discrediting" him over what he claims are personal grievances, politically-motivated reasons, acts of jealousy, or a simple desire for attention.

Wagner's release acknowledges every citizen's right to express their opinion, but goes on to say "the spread of baseless rumors and misleading narratives does nothing to build our community—it only feeds negativity."

The statement comes in the wake of numerous citizen comments regarding the sheriff's driving record, which includes a recent infraction for speeding and the suspension of his driver's license.

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In the spirit of what he called transparency, Wagner's statement offered specific details related to an incident on April 3, 2023, when he was stopped by a Grant County Sheriff's Office deputy for exceeding the speed limit on State Route 26 near Royal City while off-duty and in his personal vehicle.

Wagner says he did not identify himself as the sheriff of Adams County and cooperated fully with the deputy, whom he claims to have never met and who issued him a citation for the infraction with a monetary penalty attached.

Wagner goes on to say that he paid the ticket by mail on June 16, 2023 without contesting or challenging it but adds his payment was recorded as being late, and as a result, the Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) assessed him with an additional late fee of $52.

Subsequently, Wagner claims he discovered his license had been suspended for non-payment of the fee in January, 2025 despite the fact that he was never notified by the Grant County District Court or the DOL about having been assessed the fee.

Since then, Wagner says he has paid the late penalty and all of the necessary fees to reinstate his license, and the matter has been fully resolved.

Wagner took "full responsibility for the oversight" in the statement, which also said he's going one step further by implementing a new policy at his agency that requires annual checks of all employees’ driver’s licenses to avoid such issues in the future.

As of Wednesday morning, Wagner's post had received over 150 comments, most of which were in support of the sheriff who was hailed for his honesty and for calling himself "human" in the face of an embarrassing mishap while holding the office of a public official. However, a handful of other commenters continued to echo repeated sentiments of ignominy over the incident, saying Wagner should have been better acquainted with the state's laws related to traffic citations and that he should have remunerated payment for the speeding ticket much sooner.

Wagner has made headlines in both the state and nation recently following the filing of a lawsuit against his agency by Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown over alleged violations of the state's sanctuary laws.

Last week, Wagner appeared before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security & Enforcement in Washington D.C. to provide testimony on issues related to sanctuary policies.