State Attorney General to investigate Pierce County Sheriff for potential criminal violations
Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer. (KIRO 7)
Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday that he has formally directed state Attorney General Bob Ferguson to open an investigation into Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer, stemming from a late-January incident where Troyer called the police on a Black newspaper delivery driver.
The incident in question was first reported on by the Seattle Times, describing how Troyer had reported seeing a car moving in and out of a neighbor’s driveway at 2 a.m. with its headlights off. He then confronted the driver, identified as 24-year-old Sedrick Altheimer, before making a call to dispatch that had an estimated 42 units from around the region to the scene.
April 23, 2021
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Gov. Jay Inslee directed Attorney General Bob Ferguson today to investigate Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer for potential criminal violations in late January when the sheriff called 911 and claimed that a black man in his neighborhood had threatened to kill him. This action is taken pursuant to RCW 43.10.230 and .232, which authorizes the governor to grant the attorney general concurrent authority and power with local prosecuting authorities.
In a letter sent to John Hillman, of the Criminal Justice Division in the Office of the Attorney General, Inslee references Tacoma Police Incident No. 2102700104; Investigation of False Reporting (RCW 9A.84.040) and/or other criminal violations of the Revised Code of Washington occurring on or about January 27, 2021 by Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer.
by Tim Gruver, The Center Square | April 22, 2021 08:00 AM Print this article
By law, Washington police must stop excessive force wherever they see it, but a bill passed by the state legislature would make that law a workplace policy.
Sponsored by state Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, Senate Bill 5066 makes it a police officer s duty to intervene, physically or otherwise, when their peers use excessive force or other wrongdoing contrary to law or department policy. The bill would give police agencies until 2022 to hammer out written policies detailing such duties and provide related training. Those policies will be subject to review by the state Criminal Justice Training Commission.
Justices stand by ruling striking down drug possession law
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State senate passes bill to recriminalize drug possession
The Washington State Senate passed a bill that would provide a fix for the State Supreme Court ruling that voided the state s drug possession law.
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The Washington Supreme Court is standing by its decision striking down the state’s drug possession law, as lawmakers race to address it before the Legislature’s regular session ends Sunday.
The court on Tuesday rejected a request from the state to reconsider its February ruling, in which a 5-4 majority said the law was unconstitutional because it did not require prosecutors to prove that a defendant knowingly possessed drugs.