By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
The Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance (WaBLM) sent a letter to Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett last week demanding that Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer be added to the county’s Brady list – a list of police officers whose credibility is in question due to misconduct.
The Washington State Attorney General’s Office recently filed probable cause documents that criminal charges have been filed against Sheriff Troyer for false reporting and making a false statement in January when he said a newspaper delivery person, Sedrick Altheimer, a Black man, was trying to kill him.
“Ed Troyer lied about his confrontation with an innocent man, and he did so because that man was Black,” WaBLM said in a lette to Robnett. “Mr. Troyer was not the victim, he was the culprit. Sheriff Troyer initiated, agitated, and escalated harm, likely violating local, state, and federal Color of Law and other statutes.”
WaBLM additionally called for the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) to suspend Sheriff Troyer in light of the pending criminal charges against him. Earlier this week, former U.S. Attorney Brian Moran — hired to investigate Troyer by the Pierce County Council — recommended that his findings be sent to the CJTC for consideration of further action.
Moran’s 47-page report, according to a release by WaBLM, concluded that Ed Troyer “acted out of racial and other biases, rather than out of reasonable fear for his life, and in doing so violated Pierce County policies.”
According to WaBLM, “Mr. Troyer has shown through this incident and the subsequent investigation(s) that his integrity as a law enforcement agent should not be trusted, not just for the actions he took during the January incident and after, but for his intentionally misleading public statements about the incident of focus, and his promises to support and participate in the investigation. Mr. Troyer gave the public perception he was cooperating with the investigation. We now know he never did.”
WaBLM asserts that Troyer’s public statements since his charging documents were released indicates that he is using his role as Sheriff to mount a publicity campaign in his defense. In doing so, WaBLM officials believe that Troyer is ‘intentionally driving a wedge between community and law enforcement at a time when both sides are at the table to improve and clarify much needed police accountability laws in Washington state.’
“Mr. Troyer is unfit to hold the position of Sheriff,” says Sakara Remmu, Lead Strategist Washington Black Lives Matter Alliance “And must be suspended pending a review by the Commission, and the outcome of pending criminal charges.”
