DEADWOOD, SD — It seems that a chapter in the book of Blake Joseph, former Deadwood City Commissioner, has come to an end, with his successor Mark Speirs taking office Thursday evening.

Joseph’s run in the public spotlight is a bit over a year long, and his story overall is long and eventful, with several incidents leading up to the former Commissioner’s recall. For the sake of maintaining a focused scope however, the story starts following Joseph’s successful 2024 run for a Commissioner position in Deadwood.

In an alleged incident, the Commissioner was arrested, charged with traveling through a roadblock as well as reckless driving, after allegedly hitting a firefighter with his vehicle during the Days Of ‘76 Parade. During the arrest, it was additionally noted that Joseph allegedly had an open container of alcohol in the vehicle with him. One of these charges (traveling through the roadblock) was dropped.

However Joseph soon landed himself in further legal trouble when he failed to appear in court after his alleged violation of a no-contact order. This resulted in a warrant issued for his arrest, which was seemingly carried out on that same day. After this, Joseph was released on the condition that Joseph not contact the individual involved with the case. He violated this no-contact order on November 20th, by responding to a comment on Facebook with a thumbs-up emoji; resulting in a second warrant issued for his arrest – incurring a charge of a Class 1 Misdemeanor with a fine of up to $2000 dollars.

All of this contributed to a growing sense of discontent with the Commissioner, who still had some vocal support, but who had quickly become a controversial figure in the public eye. A petition started to initiate a recall election in order to replace Joseph, gathering a required 170 signatures. Joseph responded by issuing a restraining order against Finance Officer Jessica McKeown and the city government of Deadwood as a whole, which was later disolved. In a second salvo, Joseph attempted to block the recall in court, which was quickly dismissed.

In an interview leading up to the election (prior to the dismissal of his case for blocking the election), Joseph objected to the motives backing the election “There are multiple facts that are flying around and I think they are sowed out of defamation. You know, incidents that could arise from the past, things that I was not allowed to talk about or add a voice to. And even coming in here, I am asked about questions about ongoing cases. As a professional, we do not speak about those things until they are finished. Again, I tell you, I would like to know and talk to the people who filled out the petition to see what their actual grievances are. I have yet to hear from those people.”

The election, which occurred Tuesday resulted in Joseph receiving 22 votes out of a bit over 300 votes, and was replaced by four-time Commissioner Mark Spiers, who stated that he intended to “Lower the temperature,” following Joseph’s departure. 

Joseph is due to appear in court on the 8th and 29th of this month– both appearances related to his ongoing no-contact orders.