BOISE — The Idaho town of Preston, made famous by the 2004 independent film "Napoleon Dynamite," has lately been looking a little less like the movie's nerdy protagonist, as two former town officials have gotten into serious legal trouble.
First, its former police chief was labeled a "crooked cop" by a judge in Idaho's 6th District Court, where he was sentenced Thursday to up to five years in prison after a criminal misconduct conviction.
A day later, the Idaho attorney general filed separate felony fraud charges against Preston's former mayor, accusing him of double-booking $1,300 in travel expenses to Washington, D.C.
Town residents who have been somewhat astonished by the attention they've gotten from the film — local "Napoleon" extras will be featured in the annual "Festival of Lights" parade Nov. 25 — have now grown a little concerned that what used to be the ills of the rest of the world have descended on their 4,000-soul, mostly Mormon burg near Utah's northern border.
As Napoleon might have said: "Freakin' crazy."
"I think what's happened to us is, 'When it rains, it pours,' " Ben Robinson, a local real-estate salesman and member of the Preston Chamber of Commerce, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "There's never been a big scandal in town before. This community has been pretty straight, and all of a sudden, 'Whamalama!' We've got two."
Last week, ex-Police Chief Scott Shaw agreed to decertify himself as a law-enforcement officer following a 28-year career.
He's headed to prison for one to five years, after a criminal misconduct conviction for receiving an $882 check in 2003 to attend an FBI training academy — and then never going. Shaw also lied to an attorney general's investigator, claiming falsely he'd slipped the check into his desk to pay confidential drug informants.
When the Preston City Council voted not to renew Shaw's contract two years ago, it accused him of mishandling property seized in a 2003 drug case: He'd allegedly been seen on a 1978 Harley Davidson motorcycle seized from a man arrested and later convicted of selling methamphetamine. In addition, the council cited a female informant's complaint that he coerced her into an "inappropriate sexual relationship."
Efforts to reach Shaw were not successful. His phone number is no longer listed.
On Friday, investigators with the state attorney general's office filed documents claiming that Jay Brent Heusser, Preston's former mayor and an ex-Idaho Department of Correction probation officer, submitted a travel-expense claim for a trip to the U.S. capital in November 2000 — even though he allegedly knew it had already been paid by a Franklin County drug-enforcement fund.
Heusser, who didn't answer phone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment, is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 18. In Napoleon parlance, it could be "the worst day of his life": Heusser faces up to five years in prison, if convicted.
Town residents who've been warmed by Napoleon's glow for more than a year ask reporters not to go too hard on the place for a few legal foibles. They say a couple of cases involving allegedly slippery characters is no reason for Preston to revert to its original name when it was founded in 1888: Worm Creek.
"Probably there's more people that are saying, 'I'm disappointed,' " said Rep. Larry Bradford, R-Franklin, who last year in the Idaho Legislature was instrumental in passing a resolution commending "Napoleon Dynamite" for raising sleepy Preston's profile. The film has earned some $50 million.
"We've always read in the paper about other places having problems," Bradford said. "Now it's hit here. We're concerned about it, but humans are humans."