KERN COUNTY, Calif. – The Kern County Sheriff’s Office has not yet confirmed which outside agency will be investigating claims against County Supervisor Zack Scrivner.
The supervisor is facing allegations he sexually assaulted one of his children. He was reportedly also stabbed by one of his other children.
No charges have been filed against Scrivner, but Sheriff Donny Youngblood made the allegations public during a press conference last week. He said detectives were going through interviews and reviewing forensic evidence.
“This may take us a little bit longer to come to a conclusion,” he said.
Evidence evaluated by detectives will go to an outside agency due to a conflict of interest. The Kern County District Attorney is Scrivner’s aunt.
Youngblood said the department would request the Attorney General’s office or a nearby sheriff’s office to take over the investigation. But as of Monday, the sheriff’s office was still reviewing evidence and gathering interviews and could not provide an update.
An attorney for Scrivner disputed the allegations in a press conference of his own. H.A. Sala said the sheriff’s department did not have reliable information for the claims. He also said he had reason to believe the sheriff's office had found no evidence to prove the allegations against Scrivner.
A message left for Sala at his office Monday morning was not immediately returned.
Sheriff's deputies were originally called to Scrivner's home last Tuesday night following a tip that he had a gun and may have been attempting to harm himself. That's when he was found with stab wounds, and authorities began collecting evidence that he may have committed a crime.
The supervisor was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Kern Medical Hospital. Youngblood declined to say whether he had been detained for mental health reasons.
Deputies seized a small quantity of psychoactive mushrooms, 30 firearms, boxes of documents and electronic devices from Scrivner’s Tehachapi home, the sheriff added.
The Kern County Board of Supervisors will meet again on May 7. It’s unclear if Scrivner will attend the meeting. He last appeared on April 23, the day Sheriff Youngblood reported the incidents at Scrivner’s home. At that meeting, Scrivner led a proclamation naming last week “Crime Victims’ Rights Week in Kern County.”
