Exclusive | 7 deputies demand $22M, claiming county failed to protect them from Benton sheriff

Seven current and former sheriff’s office employees are asking Benton County to pay $22 million for failing to protect them against Sheriff Jerry Hatcher’s alleged intimidation and retaliation tactics.

The demand for money was made in seven separate tort claim notices served on the county Friday.

Benton County has 60 days to respond.

If the claims are denied or if no action is taken, the deputies can file a formal lawsuit.

“It’s the same stuff (the employees) brought up over and over and over about Hatcher,” Benton County Commission Chairman Jerome Delvin told the Tri-City Herald this week. “They gotta file a claim first, and then we deny them, and then we can go to court.”

“I would say we tried to do everything we could in the power of the commissioners, but it involves another elected (official), so we have limited authority over him,” Delvin said. “All we can do is investigate, which we’ve done, and tell (Hatcher) to be nice. There’s not much we can do.”

Six of the claims demand $3.5 million, while the seventh asks for $500,000 to $1 million.

The plaintiffs are: Commander Jon Law; Lts. Erik Magnuson and Mat Clarke; Sgt. Jason Erickson; now-retired Commanders Tom Croskrey and Steve Caughey; and now former Detective Todd Carlson, who was the department’s training coordinator.

The current and former employees, six of whom have served as sheriff’s office supervisors, say county leaders did not do enough after the men filed whistleblower complaints and brought up allegations involving their boss.

Specific details of how they say the county harmed them by failing to act are not known because the tort claims are not yet public.

Delvin said the commissioners have done everything legally possible to help the deputies.

He noted that the county hired and paid for extra counselors for the sheriff’s office, brought in an outside investigator to review some of the allegations, and asked the Washington state Auditor’s Office to look into the inventory and tracking of weapons and ammunition in the department as part of their annual audit review.

Delvin also mentioned trying unsuccessfully to get legislation introduced a couple years ago that gives local government some way to hold an elected official accountable without requiring voters to go through the long recall process.

“It’s a hard place to be because you don’t have any power or authority within the county over another elected (official),” he said. “You can (hold) the budget. But once you give him or her the budget, that’s it, you can’t do anything.”

Recall, investigation

A petition to recall Hatcher was brought last summer by Erickson, who’d previously served as lieutenant but demoted himself in February 2020 because of the alleged issues involving his boss.

The membership of the Benton County Deputy Sheriff’s Guild was nearly unanimous in backing Erickson’s petition, along with the Washington Fraternal Order of Police.

Hatcher is an independently elected official. He has been the county’s top law enforcement officer since May 2017 after his boss retired early to focus on his health. He’s been elected twice since his initial appointment.

Hatcher’s term is up at the end of 2022. Elected officials can only step down voluntarily or be removed from office by voters.

The embattled sheriff’s recall election is set Aug. 3 on eight charges, including retaliatory acts involving employees, intimidation, abuse of discretion, and tampering with and destruction of evidence.

Hatcher also is under investigation by the Washington State Patrol for forcing his estranged wife in 2019 to recant her statements of prior domestic abuse.

He was initially charged for a week in October 2019 with felony witness tampering and fourth-degree assault but then dismissed without prejudice, which meant prosecutors could re-file at a later date if additional evidence came to light. The statute of limitations on the domestic violence assault has since expired.

Hatcher has refuted the allegations — both in the criminal investigation and the recall petition — and says they are “an attempt for organized union labor to take over a sheriff’s office.”

He’s accused Erickson, the guild, union lawyer Alan Harvey and the “Committee to Recall Sheriff Jerry Hatcher” of misleading the citizens in the recall effort with false claims.

“The citizen elects a sheriff to run a sheriff’s office, not a union,” Hatcher wrote in a lengthy statement to the Herald. “Don’t let a handful of deputies with an agenda and an unethical labor attorney from the west side of the state misrepresent the facts to our citizens and call into question our citizen trust and confidence in the many great men and women that work for the sheriff’s office to serve you every day.”

“Deputies take an oath to protect the constitution and the right for all citizens, not an oath to organized labor and its agendas,” he continued. “I want to be clear, I support unions, just not when they engage in unethical conduct and jeopardize public safety.”

County support

The Benton County commissioners have said repeatedly over the past 1 1/2 years that they stand behind sheriff’s office employees, including after the union’s “no confidence” vote in the sheriff and its call to have Hatcher removed from office.

Union representatives in February 2020 issued a scathing letter saying deputies and supervisors were frustrated and saddened by the sheriff’s lack of leadership and professionalism, and feared retaliation for the union’s actions.

The union also criticized the county administration in its handling of continued complaints against Hatcher.

The commission responded in July that they had “followed the necessary procedures to file reports and request additional investigation” when issues were brought to their attention.

“We wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of Sheriff Hatcher and his abundantly clear inability to continue to be fit to serve in his current capacity as the Benton County Sheriff,” Commissioners Shon Small, Jim Beaver and Delvin then wrote in a letter. “We applaud your continued dedication and commitment to our community and our safety in the face of hardship.”

“Please rest assured that we are doing what we can to support you in your endeavor to recall Sheriff Jerry Hatcher,” said the letter.

Commissioners also denied a request from Hatcher last August to cover his legal fees in fighting the recall petition.

Lawsuits expected

Delvin told the Herald this week that county leaders “always knew some kind of lawsuits were going to happen, it was just about a matter of time.”

“I don’t know how many letters we sent (Hatcher),” Delvin said. “That’s the one thing, the county is liable for anything he does but we don’t have any say over what he does. We don’t have any way to hold him accountable.”

“We can tell him, ‘Bad boy,’ and we did. But that’s all we can do,” he added. “Why don’t they sue him personally? Why don’t they go after his (public official) bond?”

Delvin referenced a judge’s September 2020 decision that led to the ejection of the three Stevens County commissioners for breaching the conditions of their public official bonds when they misspent money earmarked for homelessness assistance.

The bonds are considered a liability insurance to protect constituents against wrongful decisions made by elected officials. They cannot serve without a bond.

This story was originally published May 12, 2021 at 12:55 PM.