Patrol Vehicle Vendor Faces Allegations in Multiple States
A vendor supplying patrol vehicles to law enforcement agencies is facing allegations across several states
Source: Daily Inter Lake ↗
A government vehicle supplier that sold six fully outfitted Dodge Durangos to a Montana sheriff’s office has yet to deliver half the order and is now the subject of lawsuits in two states, a dissolved business registration and a tax warrant in Kansas.
ESU Pursuits, LLC, is at the center of the dispute. Mineral County commissioners voted May 22, 2025, to authorize Sheriff Ryan Funke to spend $353,688 on six patrol vehicles from the company. Funke said several vehicles in the fleet were approaching 100,000 miles and that ESU Pursuits gave him until June 8, 2025, to commit. Three of the six vehicles have not been delivered.
“He said he can build six cars in six days,” Funke said at the May 2025 commission meeting.
Sames Laredo Chevrolet, Inc., a Texas motor vehicle dealership, sued ESU Pursuits in Kansas on Jan. 16, alleging the company failed to deliver $810,600 worth of 2025 Tahoe 2WD vehicles that were due in October 2025. The dealership found that the vehicle identification numbers on the ordered units either belonged to another entity or had been sold to other agencies, possibly including law enforcement agencies, according to court records. A second lawsuit, filed Feb. 18 in Jasper County, Missouri, by Arkansas-based emergency vehicle outfitter M&M Public Safety and Technology, LLC, claims ESU Pursuits owes $135,590 in unpaid services. Attorney Kevin Case represents both plaintiffs and said several additional law enforcement agencies have contacted him with similar grievances against the company.
The lawsuits allege that ESU Pursuits registered owner Richard Todd Berry, 51, sold vehicles in Kansas and Missouri without a valid vehicle dealer license. Berry has two prior theft convictions in Kansas, in 2002 and 2007, and was released from Hutchinson Correctional Facility in 2011, according to state records. Kansas state records show Berry dissolved ESU Pursuits on June 23, roughly three years after registering it on Oct. 5, 2023, listing “health” as the reason. The Kansas Department of Revenue filed a tax warrant against ESU Pursuits on Sept. 29 for $932 in unpaid consumer compensating use taxes.
Mineral County Attorney Debra Jackson opened her own review after the delivery shortfall and told county commissioners on Sept. 24 she is still working through records from Funke’s office that she received Sept. 14. Those records, which Jackson had requested July 28, arrived on a thumb drive more than a month after her request. Funke had attributed the delay to an active FBI investigation into ESU Pursuits on fraud allegations; an FBI spokesperson said the bureau could neither confirm nor deny any investigation.
The $353,688 was loaned from a $2.9 million federal Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund grant the county received during the pandemic. About $2.5 million of that grant remains, according to Mineral County Clerk and Recorder Kelann McLees. The funds are designated to help reconstruct the 106-year-old Mineral County Courthouse, including a detention center roof replacement, HVAC work and a courthouse entryway renovation. The loan requires repayment in four annual installments of $88,422, beginning July 15, 2025. McLees said the first installment was paid in the 2025-26 fiscal year, with a second scheduled for the 2026-27 fiscal year.
