The County Treasurer Who Walked Out of Custody
With $2,063 missing from Port Angeles accounts, ex-Treasurer M. J. Clump slipped away from a deputy and inspired a reward nobody expected to collect.
Port Angeles, Feb. 6.—Special.—Numerous rumors have been afloat to the effect that ex-Treasurer M. J. Clump, who escaped from the custody of a deputy sheriff, is still in this county, and Sheriff Dyko and his deputy have been kept busy tracing up these reports. Clump’s reason for remaining in this locality would be the hope that his bondsmen would effect a settlement with the county commissioners and then the complaint would be withdrawn. The sheriff has offered a reward of $100 for information leading up to Clump’s arrest, and the commissioners may give an additional reward, yet the general opinion is that he will not be captured. The county auditor and his deputies are still engaged in an examination of the ex-treasurer’s accounts, and yesterday they discovered over $500 in his favor, leaving the deficiency $2,063.
“The sheriff has offered a reward of $100 for information leading up to Clump’s arrest … yet the general opinion is that he will not be captured.”
Public officials who flee after an audit still turn local scandals into manhunts and reckonings over public trust. The Clump case shows how a county treasury, a bondsman and a sheriff’s reward can turn a ledger shortage into a disappearance.
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