Amid claims that his recent purchase of a home in Arizona and a six-week absence from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office were indicators of an early retirement and potential abdication of duties, Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza said Monday that he has no intention to vacate his office before the end of his elected term in 2026.
He said his recent absence from the sheriff’s office was the result of medical reasons and a long vacation.
“We are not moving any time soon. We’re not going to leave and abandon the county, and I have no intentions of retiring, resigning, any time before my term is up,” Snaza told The Chronicle on Monday.
Snaza made the comments following editorials published in a Winlock-based weekly publication speculating on the reasons for Snaza’s absence and his purchase of a property in Arizona.
Citing unnamed sources, “concerned whispers” and unfulfilled public records requests, the publication most recently asserted that Snaza had taken on new employment in Arizona after purchasing a home there. The publication hasn’t spoken with Snaza regarding its claims.
“They made it sound like, ‘Oh, you just abandoned (Lewis County),’ and I just want to say that, you know, I’ve been with the county for 30 years, I have been the sheriff for the last … 10 and a half years, and this is a vacation that I have taken,” Snaza said.
The first week-and-a-half of Snaza’s six-week absence from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office was personal leave for unanticipated medical reasons, and the remaining four weeks was a planned vacation, Snaza claimed.
Snaza said a property that he recently purchased in Arizona is a vacation home.
While he was not physically in the office during his time off, Snaza said he maintained “constant contact” with Lewis County Sheriff’s Office staff.
“There was no time where the phone was ever shut off … There was no time where I was ever not involved in what was going on,” Snaza said.
Snaza said long vacations are not typical for him, but added it is not uncommon for other Lewis County Sheriff’s Office employees who have vacation time saved up to take the occasional month-long vacation.
“Being here 30 years and then taking that kind of time off, I didn’t see an issue with it. I didn’t know it was going to be such a big issue,” Snaza said.
Snaza added that he understands why his constituents would be concerned if he was gone for that length of time without maintaining contact with his staff.
“Everybody has the right to say, ‘Geez, did Rob turn off his phone? Did he quit talking to people? Is he just abandoning (us)?’ That is far from the truth,” he said.
Snaza added that day-to-day operations within the sheriff’s office ran smoothly while he was away.
“They say, ‘Well, if the sheriff’s gone, the whole office is going downhill.’ If that was the case, then, No. 1, I wouldn’t be a very good sheriff, and, No. 2, I wouldn’t have good administrators. I think when you put people in leadership roles, their job is to run day-to-day operations,” Snaza said.
Snaza said he is committed to his elected position.
“There is no … stepping back from what I do as the sheriff,” Snaza said.
“I’m as engaged today as I was when I first started in 2015, and I think there’s so many things going on in our communities that we need to be a part of and be proud of the accomplishments that we’ve done at the sheriff’s office.”
The position of Lewis County sheriff will be back on the ballot in 2026. Snaza hasn’t publicly announced whether he will pursue another term.
Snaza most recently won reelection in 2022, defeating Republican challenger Tracy Murphy, a 30-year veteran of the Centralia Police Department and leader of the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team.
During the campaign, Snaza fell under heavy criticism for his office’s handling of operations within the sheriff’s office and a number of investigations, most prominently the killing of Portland man Aron Christensen, who was fatally shot by 19-year-old Ethan Asbach on the Walupt Lake Trail in East Lewis County in 2022.
Asbach’s family has since settled a $3 million lawsuit filed by Christensen’s estate. Lewis County is also facing a lawsuit for its handling of the case, which never resulted in criminal charges for Asbach.
Lewis County Prosecuting Attorney Jonathan Meyer has claimed the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office’s handling of the investigation was the primary reason why his office did not file charges against Asbach.
