GREENSBURG ? Kiowa County’s sheriff has filed a lawsuit against the county election officer and the state over a statute that led local election officials to put him on paid leave.

At issue is Galen Marble’s 37-year-old public intoxication arrest. State law disqualifies sheriffs from office if they have been convicted of breaking gambling, liquor or narcotics laws.

Marble, who has been on paid leave since Monday, claims the statute is unconstitutionally “vague and overbroad.”

In 1968, when Marble was 22, he was arrested in Salina for being an intoxicated passenger in a car, according to a report from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, which conducted a criminal history check.

A state attorney general’s spokesman said his office is reviewing the civil action that names the state and the Kiowa County election officer, County Clerk Evelyn Grimm, as defendants.

Marble, now 59, has 35 years of law enforcement experience, including with the Salina Police Department and the KBI. Marble said he disclosed the 1968 incident at those jobs but did not tell Kiowa County officials because no application form asked for it.

Marble’s attorney, Charles Herd, said the state law did not apply to his client because Salina Municipal Court had no record of the conviction. Marble said he forfeited the bond he paid in the matter but never entered a plea or went to court.

Marble said the law was unfair because it applied only to sheriffs, not judges, other law enforcement officials or the governor.

The suit claims Marble’s constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law were violated by the statute.

Kiowa County commissioners said Marble would remain on leave until the matter was clarified in court.