Franklin Co. sheriff seizes 50 guns from jail despite restraining order

Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond entered the jail Monday morning to seize 50 guns, despite a court order telling him not to take any weapons or equipment from the facility.

A Benton County District Court judge issued a temporary restraining order last week, ordering Raymond to stop taking disputed equipment from the jail and return anything he already had taken.

Raymond said during a news conference Monday morning that he took the firearms being stored in a closet in the jail because they weren’t in a secured armory. The county’s only armory is in the sheriff’s office.

It’s the latest escalation in the legal dispute between the sheriff and the county that began almost immediately last Wednesday, after a sudden move by commissioners to strip him of overseeing the jail and courthouse security.

Raymond, who is an elected official, is still in charge of law enforcement for the county.

He has questioned whether the new Franklin County Department of Corrections has the legal authority to allow corrections officers to carry weapons, including guns. They previously could be armed because he issued their commissions.

He also said the equipment is property of the sheriff’s office, not the jail, and believes there must be a legal firearms transfer.

But the unions for the sheriff’s command staff and the patrol deputies pushed back on Monday when Raymond ordered some of those officers to go into the jail to take back the guns, according to court documents obtained by the Tri-City Herald.

Some refused and their unions have filed for a new restraining order to keep Raymond from putting them in the middle of the fight with the commissioners.

Raymond then “stormed the Franklin County jail and seized weapons within the jail,” according to a motion filed later by Chief Civil Deputy Jeffrey Briggs from the county prosecutor’s office. He is asking a judge to find the sheriff in contempt of court for violation last week’s restraining order.

Last week, Benton County District Court Judge Jennifer Azure issued the restraining order on the equipment before a Walla Walla Superior Court judge is to take over hearing the case in two weeks.

Azure was assigned to the case after the entire Benton Franklin County Superior Court bench recused itself due to conflicts of interest.

However, the order doesn’t bar Raymond or his deputies from going into the jail.

At a news conference on Monday, Raymond said he rejects the county’s authority to take over the jail, and he still has not been given a transition plan for the jail hand-off. He does not intend to accept the resignations of the command staff who have been offered and accepted new jobs managing the jail.

County Administrator Brian Dansel said in a news release Monday that the sheriff has seen the court order, noting Raymond has posted it on social media.

“With the Sheriff defying the court order, removing firearms from the jail, and stepping over the newly appointed Director of Corrections’ authority while doing so, the Commissioners are concerned about the safety and welfare of both the staff at the Franklin County jail as well as the inmates,” Dansel wrote.

“Removing equipment that would only be used to protect one’s life is unacceptable to the Board of County Commissioners. The board is conferring with legal counsel to prepare our next steps.”

Franklin County sheriff’s position

Raymond, who has been sheriff for about 10 years, said Monday that the commissioners don’t have any power to interfere with the jail or courthouse security unless he agrees to it.

“The statute under which the Board of County Commissioners attempted to take the jail is unconstitutional,” the sheriff argued. “According to the case law, going back to 1937, only a sheriff can operate a jail.”

While nearly every neighboring county has a jail run by county commissioners, Raymond argued those sheriffs agreed to turn over their jail operations.

“They did not object,” he said. “I’m objecting.”

“I’ve been in charge of the jail since 2015. No one has asked me if I’m willing to give up the jail,” he said. “The board of county commissioners by a stroke of a pen think they’re taking over the jail, that’s not going to happen.”

However, when Benton County made the same change in 2019, then-Sheriff Jerry Hatcher objected but the switchover proceeded.

Also Monday, Raymond said he didn’t believe Judge Azure could legally issue a restraining order in the case because he didn’t agree to having her assigned to the issue.

But Washington law states that a presiding judge can assign a judge pro tem without the consent of the parties involved in the case, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Raymond also said he has stopped a new private security company hired last week by county commissioners from taking over duties at the courthouse complex guardhouse. He has said deputies will continue to provide security while they work out a transition.

At the news conference, he accused County Commissioner Stephen Bauman of entering the jail and covering up the sheriff’s logo on a car used by corrections officers. Raymond said the removal of the logo was going too far.

Even with the logo removed, the cars still look like sheriff’s patrol vehicle and can cause confusion for the public.

Raymond also maintained the employees in the jail still work from him. He said this extended to Jail Commander Keilen Harmon and Captain Jeremy Jansky were still employed by the sheriff’s office. He planned to reassign them within in the sheriff’s division.

Restraining order

Raymond said earlier last week that while he would cooperate with the commissioners, he wanted a court order when it came to control of the firearms, control of courtroom security and other key law enforcement systems that he is ultimately responsible for.

The county commissioners believe they have the necessary legal framework in place to manage the weapons and said they need them for the safety of jailers and the courthouse.

The order does not make a determination for that or any other questions, it just orders Raymond not to interfere in the handover of equipment that technically belonged to the sheriff’s office to the new corrections department.

He said last week he is not violating any court order by taking the guns because the weapons are the property of the sheriff’s office, not the jail.

He also said that a county commissioner has been “inside the jail, mucking things up even further.” He didn’t identify which of the three commissioners or what he was referring to, but on Monday repeatedly expressed concern about Bauman in particular entering the jail over the last week.

The county is legally responsible for paying for Raymond’s legal counsel since he is an elected official, but due to a conflict, an attorney he had been working with on an unrelated matter wasn’t available.

Raymond said the county offered to have the Yakima County Prosecutor’s Office represent him, but he declined because he wants outside counsel.

He said he was also invited, and declined, to participate in a discussion about the legal issues with the prosecutor’s office and other attorneys Monday because he was not comfortable doing so without his own counsel present.

A hearing on the issue is expected in about two weeks.

The attorneys for the county acknowledged in their filing for the restraining order that the question over accreditation is a separate matter, but they believe the corrections department retains all of the jail’s accreditations.

They also said the county is backing off on taking over courtroom security for now, which Raymond believes can only be altered by the Benton Franklin Superior Court.

The filing last week said the new courthouse complex security policy makes an exception in this case, though the resolution attached to their public agenda and the filings does not mention the exception.

This story was originally published April 28, 2025 at 12:28 PM.