Fact Checking Sheriff Butler

On September 13, 2023, Sheriff Mark Butler sat down with Mike McCool in a “Meet the Candidate” interview titled ‘Sheriff Mark Butler on Challenges, Community Policing, and Election Goals’ (https://royalexaminer.com/sheriff-mark-butler-on-challenges-community-policing-and-election-goals/). At the 30:57 mark in the video, Sheriff Butler is discussing how a lot of the funding at the Warren County Sheriff’s Office is from grants. Sheriff Butler says:

“I’ve been come after about my K9s — ‘Well Sheriff, you spend all this money on K9s,’ — Did I? Not really. Our two bloodhounds that have already saved lives, we wrote, I actually wrote that grant, and we got two for free, two for free,” the sheriff repeated to make his point.

Having previously been an employee at the Warren County Sheriff’s Office I knew this to be false, or at least inaccurate, information.

In February of 2020, an application, NOT a grant was completed for a bloodhound to be DONATED to Warren County Sheriff’s Office. Based on a FOIA request received from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office, on Monday, February 17, 2020, Mark Young with the Jimmy Ryce Foundation sent an email to Mark Butler advising him that they have passed along his information to the breeder located in Louisville, KY who would be contacting him to make arrangements to pick up the puppy. On Tuesday, February 18, 2020, Mark Butler sent an email to Mark Young asking for the breeder’s contact information, which Mark Young provided to be Blue Grass Blood Hounds (https://bluegrassbloodhounds.com/).

A search of the Blue Grass Blood Hounds Litters shows that Litter S (19): Storm X Clyde: one of the puppies was for Warren Co SO VA (https://bluegrassbloodhounds.com/our-litters). On their services page they also state: “We have also partnered up with the Jimmy Ryce Center. They provide bloodhounds to law enforcement free of charge.”

After receiving the requested FOIA information, a follow up email was then sent to the owner of Blue Grass Blood Hound, and Mark Young from the Jimmy Ryce Center. Both confirmed that the bloodhound was donated to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office through the Jimmy Ryce Center.

March 20, 2020, Warren County Sheriff’s Office posted on their official Facebook page an introduction to their newest addition, K9 Ash, an 8-week-old bloodhound. Within the post there is a photograph of Sheriff Butler presenting a shadow box with a Certificate of Appreciation, a patch, and a picture of K9 Ash and her handler. Based on the image provided I was able to identify the gentleman in the photograph that Sheriff Butler was presenting the shadow box to as Ronald Greleski. Contact was then made with Mr. Greleski on September 27, 2023. Mr. Greleski advised that he is a private breeder who will provide K9’s to Law Enforcement free of charge. He advised that he was contacted by the ALIE Foundation, Inc. to see if he had a K9 to donate to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Graleski advised that he did, and personally delivered the K9 to the Warren County Sheriff’s office. Mr. Graleski stated that he provided the bloodhound for “000.000 dollars”.

So the biggest question is why lie — or does the Sheriff not recall how he actually got the bloodhounds? Why not state that the bloodhounds were donated through the Jimmy Ryce Center and the Alie Foundation, and give them the credit that they very much deserve?

It’s these lies or misstatements that call into question Sheriff Butler’s credibility or ability to do his job; in addition to the partially released Internal Affairs Investigations completed by Herndon Police Department. Between misinformation regarding School Resource Officers, Animal Control Officers, narcotics seizures numbers and locations, the budget he can’t personally explain, and the inability to explain the poor retention issues, what are we to believe?

And below is an introduction to these two organizations that provided the K9s at issue to the sheriff’s office, for that and the other work they do to try and help stem the predatory criminal targeting of children.

Jimmy Ryce Foundation: https://jimmyryce.org/jimmy-ryce-center/

The Jimmy Ryce Center does the following work:

Distributes pictures of children abducted by predators and tries to get media coverage;

Increases public awareness of sexual predators and predatory abductions through speeches, brochures, newsletters, radio and television appearances;

Provides information to teachers and parents on how they can teach their children to be more predator smart and thus more predator resistant;

Identifies legislation and programs designed to better protect children from sexual predators;

Provides AKC bred bloodhounds free to law enforcement to find abducted and lost children;

Assists law enforcement in developing more effective procedures for handling predatory abductions;

Counsels and provides support to parents of children abducted by sexual predators;

Works to improve coordination and cooperation among state missing children clearinghouses, missing children nonprofit organizations, and law enforcement.

The Jimmy Ryce Center provides bloodhounds FREE to law enforcement, it does not require a grant or grant application. In order to be considered for a bloodhound, a simple application (https://jimmyryce.org/application-for-membership/) can be completed and mailed or emailed to The Jimmy Ryce Center C/O Mark Young.

The ALIE Foundation is registered as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation in Denver, Colorado. It was founded on June 10, 1993 in memory of Alie Berrelez, a month after her abduction. The “ALIE” acronym is for Abducted, Lost, Innocent, Enough.

“Our main priority, which is also our mission, is to communicate our message of concern to children, parents, families, law enforcement, and the general public. Child abduction awareness and prevention can save the innocence and lives of children. As a rule people do not think about the dangers of child abduction on a daily basis. It is of great importance to talk to children often about the dangers and how to react should something happen.”

The ALIE foundation works closely with Law Enforcement to provide Bloodhounds for search and rescue purposes. Close to 500 bloodhounds have come through the Foundation to be delivered to law enforcement all over the country.

Kristin Hajduk
Front Royal

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