Committee Dissolves: Open Doors committee members resign after new information surfaces

SUPERIOR — A committee formed to help an organization that claimed to want to foster economic development in Superior was dissolved last week after committee members learned about the extensive criminal history of one of the principals in the organization known as Open Doors.

Over the last several months, the Open Doors organization had been working with local stakeholders on a plan to create jobs, rehabilitate buildings and develop other projects in Superior. According to information from Open Doors, Superior was chosen because one of its members was a local, Agnes Salisbury of Superior.

Open Doors committee members were made aware of the nearly 30-year off-and-on criminal behavior of Salisbury by Mineral County Attorney Marcia Boris last week. Boris revealed the information to committee members after a nearly two month long investigation by her office and the Mineral Independent.

Information regarding Salisbury’s criminal history was initially brought to the attention of legal authorities by the Mineral Independent in June after a review of public record documents. It was then that Mineral County Special Investigator Adam Cole took over the investigation and uncovered Salisbury’s extensive criminal history.

The Mineral Independent first began investigating Salisbury after it was learned an individual with a similar name and matching Salisbury’s age and physical description spent three years in a Mississippi State prison for felony charges of false pretenses. It was later confirmed by the Mineral County Attorney’s office that the individual was indeed Salisbury of Superior.

Salisbury was invited to speak with County Attorney Boris last week when information regarding her past surfaced but Salisbury canceled the meeting at the last minute.

In an email, Salisbury did confirm to the Mineral Independent that an indiscretion was committed by her 18 years ago, but she did not specify which charge she was referring to.

Mineral County legal authorities, after further investigation, learned Salisbury was  convicted on four felony theft charges in King County, Washington, in 1988; felony passing of bad checks in Beaverhead County, Montana, in 1998; and deceptive practices in Missoula County, Montana, in 1998. Salisbury was convicted on several of these charges under her alias Agnes Nilsen.

Salisbury connected herself to the name Nilsen in an advertisement she placed online for a consulting company she called Silverfeather Consulting LTD. In the ad, she refers to herself as Agnes Salisbury-Nilsen and her former husband’s last name is also Nilsen.

Further confirmation that Agnes Salisbury had used the alias Agnes Nilsen in the past was attained by visual identification from a committee member of a mugshot taken in Beaverhead County where Salisbury was convicted of felony passing of bad checks using the name Nilsen.

Salisbury refused to comment on her criminal record and intentions in Mineral County with Open Doors. Attempts to contact other Open Doors members in Texas, Montana and California were unsuccessful. In a series of emails to the Mineral Independent, Salisbury did comment on the investigation, the situation with Open Doors and the dissolving of the committee.

In her comments, she appears to confirm that a legal incident involving her did take place 18 years ago.

“When someone goes back 18 years and dredges up something they don’t know anything about, nothing I can say would do any good. Some people do not realize that something that happens to you, is not who you are,” Salisbury said. “I have done nothing wrong, absolutely nothing wrong, just worked hard for this community, and yesterday a couple of people of companies who was going to give grants and loans to Open Doors, had to be called and told that Mineral County did not want jobs, they did not want growth.”

When asked to identify who the investors were she had contacted, Salisbury refused to answer the question from the Mineral Independent. She also refused to answer questions about the many delays in attaining funding for the Open Doors project and why other members in Texas, California and Montana refused to talk to the Mineral Independent about the organization.

To the committee members who devoted their time and energy to trying to help Open Doors, Boris had this comment:

“These committee members should be commended for their hard work and their dedication to creating growth and prosperity in Mineral County. While the investigation hasn’t indicated that any criminal offenses were committed in Mineral County in connection with Open Doors, these individuals unknowingly put their own reputations on the line supporting a project being spearheaded by an individual with an extensive history of convictions for financial crimes. Ms. Salisbury’s record speaks for itself. The committee members have stepped up to the plate and volunteered their time and energy with the best of intentions and no expectation of personal gain. I hope that the committee members do not let this setback discourage them from continuing the good work they do in Mineral County.”

Former committee member Liz Gupton of Superior also commented on the situation.

“Years ago I heard the saying: ‘If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.’  And it certainly applies to Open Doors,” Gupton said. “Everything they said they could do for Mineral County sounded wonderful. And somehow they convinced some idealistic people (myself included) that it could truly be done. We wasted our time, but didn’t lose any money. It’s a sad, sad deal.”