Superior Court Judge John Hickman said Friday he doesn’t doubt two former Pierce County sheriff’s deputies convicted of perjury are well thought of by friends, relatives, neighbors and others.
Hickman said that over the past few weeks he read dozens of “glowing letters” attesting to the integrity of Jeff Montgomery and Rex McNicol.
“I believe these people were truthful and sincere about the things that they said about you,” the judge told Montgomery and McNicol at their sentencing hearing.
But the judge said the two men violated a sacred trust between residents and those who swear to serve and protect them when they lied on the witness stand during a criminal court proceeding in 2010.
For that, he said, they deserved to spend some time locked up.
Hickman sentenced the men, convicted by a jury of first-degree perjury, to spend three weekends in jail, another 79 days on home detention and to perform 40 hours of community service.
“I have to constantly remind you and I have to remind the public that the victims in this situation were not the two of you,” the judge said. “The real victim in this situation was our system of justice.”
Hickman said the deputies could serve their time at a facility other than the Pierce County Jail should they choose. He also ruled they must serve their first weekend in jail Dec. 17-18, can skip the Christmas weekend, then serve their next two weekends in January.
It was a bitter blow for the two men, but much less than the sentences sought by assistant state attorney general Melanie Tratnik, who prosecuted them.
Tratnik had asked for eight months in jail for Montgomery and a year for McNicol.
She said the men should be treated differently than other first-time offenders because as law enforcement officers they were imbued with the power to arrest people and give testimony that could lead to them being imprisoned.
“I really see this case as an abuse of that power,” Tratnik told Hickman.
Sheriff Paul Pastor fired Montgomery and McNicol after their convictions.
Attorneys for the deputies asked for no jail time at all, saying their clients had been punished enough already with the loss of their careers and the public shame their convictions brought.
Brett Purtzer, who represented Montgomery, said his client has lost most of his friends because his former colleagues in the Sheriff’s Department are prohibited from associating with convicted felons.
“The losses are immense,” Purtzer said. “There’s no reason he needs to go to jail.”
Cliff Morey, who represented McNicol, argued for 90 days of electronic home monitoring for his client.
“That’s not a free pass,” Morey said.
A jury convicted the men in September of giving false testimony during a March 2010 pretrial hearing in the case of a convicted felon suspected of illegally possessing a gun.
They’d been dispatched to an Orting-area home in January 2009 to check on the welfare of a 12-year-old boy who lived there. The boy told 911 operators his mother’s boyfriend was a drug addict who had a rifle in a closet.
Montgomery wrote in a report the night of the incident that he and McNicol went into the house to retrieve the gun. They arrested the homeowner after confirming he was not allowed to possess a firearm.
At a later hearing, both deputies testified they did not go into the house that night. The discrepancy between Montgomery’s report and their testimony led to the case against the man being thrown out and perjury charges being filed against them.
On Friday, Montgomery maintained his innocence, saying he didn’t purposely lie during the hearing but trusted McNicol when the older deputy told him his report was wrong.
“I’m a good person, a good person who trusted his partner,” Montgomery said.
McNicol, who did not write a report that night, told Hickman said he testified to what he remembered happening.
“I humbly apologize for this entire situation,” he said.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
Twitter: @TNTadam
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