Benton deputies accuse Sheriff Hatcher of crimes and retaliation. They vote for recall

The Benton County sheriff’s deputies union is taking a rare and historic step in pushing for a recall of their boss.

More than 90 percent of the Benton County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild membership voted unanimously to have Sheriff Jerry Hatcher removed from office.

The guild — consisting of patrol deputies, detectives, corporals, sergeants and lieutenants — cites an independent investigator’s recent findings that Hatcher retaliated against a whistleblower and two witnesses and he engaged in anti-union activity and threatened employees who failed to support him.

The union said it had no other choice after being presented with facts to apply to the legal standard in Washington state law for the recall and discharge of an elective public officer.

Those facts led the membership to conclude that Hatcher committed acts of malfeasance, misfeasance and/or violations of his oath of office in the midst of his own investigations.

Union officials say they went public with their recall vote because county leaders have not said how they plan to move forward with the evidence supporting allegations that Hatcher “committed several crimes and civil infractions.”

Given the recent civil unrest nationwide and calls for police reform, they said their integrity is more important than ever when it comes to speaking out against “bad” cops.

“Sheriff Hatcher does not deserve a second term as the Benton County sheriff and we strongly believe he is not deserving of finishing his first,” the guild said in a news release.

Hatcher, as an elected official, can only be removed from office by the voters in a recall.

The next step would be a recall petition filed with the Benton County Auditor’s Office, which then would be forwarded to the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office to start the legal process required before gathering signatures.

The sheriff has denied any wrongdoings in previous interviews with the Tri-City Herald, and blamed the union for not being ready for the changes he brought to the office three years ago.

On Tuesday, Hatcher said he believes this new effort to get him out of office is because some union representatives told him last year they thought he should resign immediately. He said he told them that every American citizen is given the right to due process.

“This is nothing more than an organized labor’s attempt to take over the sheriff’s office management and try to diminish accountability by a sheriff’s office,” Hatcher told the Herald.

“If they’re trying to do a recall, it’s not up to a labor guild to do a recall. That’s up to the voters of Benton County to do ... I think (the voters) will speak loud and clear about this.”

The union’s move was announced in the news release, which was accompanied by a “hostile work complaint” filed earlier this month by now-former Commander Tom Croskrey and a 22-page investigative report by a Portland law firm on harassment allegations involving the sheriff.

It also sent out a video statement, recorded Monday in Columbia Park by attorney Alan Harvey of Vancouver, Wash., while backed by more than two dozen members.

Union members cast their votes during a one-week period that closed Sunday night.

The announcement comes 4 1/2 months after an overwhelming number of the union members returned a “no confidence” vote against Hatcher.

“The BCDSG members voting in these decisions are the men and women who trusted Sheriff Hatcher to lead them and be a beacon of light in times of darkness ...,” the union wrote in its news release. “It is unfortunate that the decisions Sheriff Hatcher has made brought these individuals together to stand united in voting for Sheriff Hatcher to be recalled from his position.”

“The vote to have Sheriff Hatcher be petitioned for recall was cast because the Benton County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild believes with conviction that Sheriff Hatcher is not fit to be the leader of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.”

Hatcher was first appointed sheriff in May 2017 and went on to win the election that fall. He has 1 1/2 years left in his term.

He said Tuesday that he made the mistake years ago of not filling his undersheriff position, and instead served dual roles while supported by three commanders.

Then, he recently pushed for the commanders to be represented by a guild so they could negotiate for wages and benefits since the county had fallen back on its promise the past two years, Hatcher told the Herald.

He said he didn’t realize the commanders would be in the same Deputy Sheriff’s Guild, with lawyer Harvey representing every one in the organization except for the sheriff.

“Unfortunately what that has done is it’s allowed a certain amount of corruption to come into the organization, or a lack of accountability,” said Hatcher, claiming the commanders have allowed some issues with employees to slip by instead of taking appropriate actions.

“We see these problems across our nation that are out there, and this is a time that we should be working twice as hard to build trust. If we lose accountability and trust, we lose the effectiveness of the organization.”

Ongoing troubles

The recent union vote is the latest in a string of controversies, both personal and professional, involving the sheriff over the past 10 months.

His wife, Monica, filed for divorce in September and followed that with a request for a civil protection order. She alleged she is a victim of domestic violence and threats, and says Hatcher choked her in 2017 during a fight about his extramarital affair.

As a result of that order, the sheriff was forced to surrender to police his firearms, including his service pistol, and any concealed weapons permits.

He briefly was charged with felony witness tampering and assault, but the charges were dismissed when Spokane County prosecutors said Washington State Patrol detectives needed more time to investigate.

The four unions representing sheriff’s office employees called for their embattled leader to resign in October, instead of dragging the employees, the reputation of the office and the community through the court process.

That same month, Benton County commissioners voted to remove the corrections department from the sheriff’s office and to assume control of the county jail.

The Benton County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild in early February issued a scathing letter that called Hatcher a tyrant who only cares about his personal image and whose treatment of employees is “unprofessional and dehumanizing.”

Disappointed with the news that a majority of his law enforcement staff no longer supported him, Hatcher told the Herald in February that he believed it was “a small nucleus of people” complaining in his office and said as sheriff “you get blamed for everything.”

Then in early March, the union repeated its call for an investigation of their boss after more than 14,000 rounds of county-owned ammunition and two county-owned guns were found at his former Kennewick home.

A guild statement called the cache “extraordinary” and “somewhat mind-boggling.”

Hatcher replied that it’s not illegal or unusual to have county property at home, and said the ammunition was for practice shooting.

However, he asked Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond to conduct an administrative review of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and any alleged policy violations, including of his domestic violence policy and guns and ammunition policies.

The investigation was to look into the taxpayer-funded property retrieved from Hatcher’s home, but not any criminal claims in the sheriff’s personal life, Raymond told the Herald at the time.

The findings of that investigation have not been released publicly.

Hatcher on Tuesday said he has “been exonerated” when it comes to the criminal allegations involving his wife. Yet, the union attorney and some members won’t accept the results of the state patrol investigation and want to “change the narrative, the wording.”

He added that he has received Raymond’s final report on his administrative review, and is writing up an executive summary before releasing it in the next two weeks.

Raymond’s office did not find any wrongdoing or violations of either county policy or state law, but did make recommendations regarding training and the lack of proper controls with some policies and procedures, said Hatcher.

‘Any level of deception’

The guild’s news release says its executive board tried to work with Hatcher through the proper channels since their February no-confidence vote, but “he has passed his shortcomings onto his employees while refusing to have a productive conversation.”

“Since that vote’s passing, nothing productive has been forthcoming from Sheriff Hatcher,” the news release continues. “Unfortunately, it became apparent within the last eight months that Sheriff Hatcher will engage in any level of deception, falsehood, and commit what appear to be crimes. Furthermore, he will harass employees if he believes it will secure a victory for a second term.”

The guild noted in its news release that an “important topic” in current national events involving law enforcement is the failure of good cops to speak out against bad ones.

“We as a guild sympathize with this narrative and want the community to know that the BCDSG has gone through the proper channels to speak out against an alleged criminal leading the Sheriff’s Office, and we have received no support or response from the county administration,” the news release said.

That’s why the union decided to take its message to the Tri-Cities media as a way “to present our voices to the Benton County community” and share what its members have learned in recent months.

“The BCDSG is standing up and speaking out with the hopes that you (who) are reading this will listen,” the release said. “Be assured that the deputies you encounter will continue to do their best to provide the utmost safety and security within the community.”

This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 8:23 AM.