PARIS — Bear Lake County Prosecutor Adam McKenzie will face a recall election Nov. 4 after a grassroots organization collected enough signatures to place the question before voters.

An advocacy group, Voters For Transparency, initiated the recall after collecting 1,175 signatures from concerned Bear Lake County residents. Election officials verified 938 of these signatures as belonging to registered voters, exceeding the 833 required to trigger a recall election.

The outcome will determine whether McKenzie, who was appointed rather than elected, will continue serving as the county’s chief prosecutor.

McKenzie says the recall stems from controversial prosecution decisions and disagreements over legal advice to county commissioners. He says all of his decisions have been made based on following the law and the county’s best interests.

“Sometimes as a prosecutor you have to make those decisions,” McKenzie said. “They may not be the most popular, but they are, nonetheless, cases that need to be pursued.”

Bear Lake County resident Amy Lutz founded Voters For Transparency in September 2024, initially focusing on a “don’t mark the box” campaign against Bear Lake County Sheriff Bart Heslington, who was running unopposed. That effort reduced Heslington’s vote total from 3,107 in the 2020 election to 1,913, setting up a potential future recall of the sheriff, too, Lutz said.

The organization’s current focus centers squarely on McKenzie.

Two criminal cases prosecuted by McKenzie in 2024 form the nucleus of community dissatisfaction that appear to have fueled the recall petition. Both cases resulted in jury acquittals and supporters of the recall say the prosecutions were fundamentally flawed.

Lutz said the recall effort began with her daughter RiLee’s determination to fight criminal charges brought against her — charges that ultimately resulted in a jury acquittal.

“We will fight so this does not happen to anyone else in our community, and that’s why we’re here,” Lutz said.

RiLee was a former assistant high school softball coach charged with having a sexual relationship with a student player. The trial took place in November 2024 and ended with RiLee’s acquittal.

Lutz said the ordeal was devastating to her daughter’s reputation and she criticized the investigation’s sequence.

“They charged her and then investigated six months later,” Lutz said. “It’s mind-blowing that Adam McKenzie let this happen.”

Jason Lutz was more frank, saying both McKenzie and Heslington are dishonest.

“The sheriff filed a false report that implicated the prosecutor, and McKenzie didn’t do anything about it,” Jason Lutz said. “Our community deserves better.”

McKenzie defended the prosecution, saying judges found probable cause for the charges on multiple occasions despite the eventual jury acquittal.

“It was a case that needed to be prosecuted,” McKenzie said. “It was a case that, on at least two separate occasions, judges both held that there was probable cause for the charges. The jury acquitted her, but it was a case that nonetheless had to be prosecuted and needed to be pursued.”

McKenzie also disputed claims that his office withheld evidence.

“Our office has always been transparent,” he said. “I know one of the arguments that they’ve raised is that we didn’t provide discovery, but we did give them the discovery, and in fact, we gave them evidence that benefited our case and evidence that did not.”

The second case involved Kellie Lyn Wilson of Montpelier, who was charged with three counts of possessing or accessing child sexually exploitative material after she discovered a 16-year-old girl had sent explicit photos to her 19-year-old son. Wilson’s case, described by her attorney as an “affront to justice,” also resulted in an acquittal following a trial in May 2024. McKenzie said some people supporting the recall were also dissatisfied with that prosecution.

Amy said that after people learned her family was fighting the charges rather than accepting a plea agreement, other community members approached them with their own stories about McKenzie’s prosecutorial decisions.

Dillon Rich, a small business owner and longtime Paris resident, became involved in collecting signatures for the recall petition. He said he was struck by the widespread support he encountered.

“There were guys who have never rocked the boat before that said, ‘Yeah, I want to sign that. There’s a problem,’” Rich said. “It’s kind of interesting, the shift in that older generation that has believed you always back the person that’s in charge.”

Rich said many people he approached were already familiar with the petition’s purpose.

“They said, ‘I already know what it’s about, and I want to sign it,’” Rich said. “And I’d say, ‘Do you want me to tell you a little bit about it?’ And they’re like, ‘Nope. This guy has done X, Y and Z to me or my brother or my kid.’”

Rich said the prosecutor position holds significant authority.

“The commissioners all defer to him on legal issues. He decides who is or isn’t prosecuted,” Rich said. “So it becomes imperative that you have someone who’s not only intelligent, but has a very robust moral compass.”

Sheila Clements, whose husband was terminated from his position as a Bear Lake County sheriff’s office deputy amid serious criminal allegations that were never prosecuted after expressing a desire to run for sheriff against Heslington, also supports the recall. She said the Lutz family initiated the movement because they had the financial resources to hire an attorney and fight RiLee’s charges.

Clements said McKenzie “goes after people wrongly” without sufficient evidence, forcing defendants who lack attorneys to accept plea agreements.

“Everyone I spoke to absolutely felt that we needed a change in our county,” she said, adding that people viewed McKenzie as “dishonest and not ethical in all of his dealings.”

Amy said she witnessed community support firsthand, including from a member of RiLee’s jury.

“One of her jury members saw me and literally just took the paper out of my hand to sign it,” she said. “He was like, ‘I sat there and watched this firsthand, and it’s horrible.’”

However, Amy also said fear of retribution prevents some residents from publicly supporting the recall.

“People will say, ‘I will not say anything. I won’t sign your petition because the sheriff will see that I signed it, and then I’ll be targeted,’” she said.

McKenzie said some community members oppose him not just because of the prosecutions, but because his legal advice to commissioners doesn’t align with their preferred outcomes.

“They’re not happy because the advice that I give the county commissioners is action that they disagree with, frankly,” he said. “I’m not giving them the advice that they want me to give.”

McKenzie said he initially filled in as prosecutor in 2018 after the elected prosecutor resigned. An attorney who lived in Bear Lake County was then elected but resigned after about nine months. When no one declared candidacy for the most recent election, the commissioners appointed McKenzie again. Bear Lake County is one of the smallest counties in Idaho by population, and McKenzie said no licensed attorneys currently reside within its boundaries.

“I’ve just been serving because the commissioners asked me to,” McKenzie said.

The recall election differs from a typical electoral contest. Voters will simply decide whether to recall McKenzie from office — there is no opposing candidate on the ballot.

Because McKenzie was appointed rather than elected, the recall requires only a simple majority to succeed.

If voters choose to recall McKenzie, the county commissioners would be responsible for appointing a replacement. However, Amy says Voters For Transparency has retained a Boise law firm to take legal action if commissioners attempt to reappoint McKenzie following a successful recall.

Amy said that when McKenzie was reappointed in January 2025, three candidates were presented to the Republican Committee.

“When the Republican Committee voted Adam got the lowest number of votes,” Amy said. “The commissioners then still appointed Adam.”

The lack of licensed attorneys residing in Bear Lake County complicates the search for alternatives.

Despite the uncertain outcome, McKenzie said he wants to continue serving.

“I want to continue to serve. It is and it’s always been a privilege to do it,” he said, thanking those in the community for their ongoing support. “I always try and do my very best. If there’s a decision that comes up, I always will look at the case within the confines of what the law allows us to do, and what’s going to be in the best interest of the citizens of Bear Lake County.”