County investigation of Sheriff Ed Troyer didn’t examine his role in Ellis case. Why?
An attorney hired by the Pierce County Council to investigate Sheriff Ed Troyer’s interaction with a Black newspaper carrier did not look into Troyer’s involvement in the case of Manuel Ellis, a Black man killed by Tacoma police.
An attorney representing Ellis’ family is asking why.
Attorney Stephen Dermer said Troyer’s public statements in the early part of the Ellis investigation should have been reviewed. At the time, Troyer had not been elected sheriff but was working as spokesman for the department, which was investigating the circumstances of Ellis’ death.
Dermer and others have accused Troyer of making misleading public statements regarding the Ellis case.
“I don’t want to take away from the report. There is no suggestion that [investigator Brian] Moran’s work wasn’t good,” Dermer told The News Tribune this week. “I’m just wondering what happened. The initial ask of Moran was to include Ellis comments, and that didn’t happen.”
The council announced in April it intended to hire Moran, a former U.S. Attorney for Western Washington, to conduct the probe into the Jan. 27 incident between Troyer and Sedrick Altheimer.
Thinking him suspicious, Troyer followed Altheimer as the man delivered newspapers in the sheriff’s neighborhood. Troyer then called 911 and said he’d been threatened, initially prompting a massive police response. Altheimer denied making threats. The sheriff since has been charged with false reporting and making a false or misleading statement to a public servant.
The County Council decided to investigate. In April, it issued a news release saying public statements Troyer made during the early portions of the Ellis investigation would be examined as part of determining whether the Jan. 27 incident was a “misuse of authority, a deviation from standards or a violation of policy or law” and to determine whether there was a pattern to the sheriff’s behavior.
A 48-page report on the investigation into the Jan. 27 incident released Tuesday made no mention of the Ellis case. The report concluded Troyer’s actions during the interaction with Altheimer violated department policies on biased policing, off-duty intervention, conduct and community engagement.
The scope of the investigation initially was drafted to include statements Troyer made about Manny Ellis’ death. Ellis died in Tacoma police custody in March 2020 of oxygen deprivation while being restrained by police after a minutes-long struggle.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department initially investigated the case. Troyer told KING 5 on June 4, 2020 officers did not use a Taser on Ellis. Video footage that later came to light showed a Taser being used, and the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s report confirmed that Ellis had injuries on his chest “consistent with Taser probes.”
Council spokesperson Brynn Grimley said the draft of the contract was just a starting point for the county’s legal counsel to review before finalizing the details.
“... Council did not want to prescribe what Mr. [Brian] Moran should investigate; its intent was to remain independent and neutral and to let him conduct the investigation as he saw fit based on the information he learned along the way,” she said.
While focusing on the Jan. 27 incident, the contracted work allowed for discretion on which previous incidents would be reviewed. The contract specified that the investigator could only review incidents after Jan. 1, 2020, without specific authorization from the Council.
County Council Chairman Derek Young (D-Gig Harbor) said the decision to designate a time frame for Moran to review rather than specific incidents was made to prevent oversights.
“It didn’t make sense to rattle off what we know because there could have been things we didn’t know. So we decided on a time frame,” Young told The News Tribune. “We didn’t want to limit ourselves if there were other things out there.”
Asked why the Jan. 1, 2020 date was chosen, Young said he believed it was to include the Ellis case if Moran decided to review Troyer’s involvement.
Moran chose to review two other incidents involving Troyer instead.
Moran told The News Tribune on Thursday he wanted to focus on instances of action by Troyer rather than statements the sheriff made while still department spokesman.
“I looked at it, considered it, and when I looked at those [Ellis] statements, I decided it was not influential on what happened on January 27th,” he said.
Instead, Moran looked at an incident at Troyer’s campaign office on Nov. 11 when he called 911 to report a car prowl he had interrupted and a “little skirmish” he had with the two suspects. Later that night, someone drove by the office, broke into his car and tried to take his wife’s wallet, but Troyer intervened. Troyer called the police after that person left. The suspect was Black.
Moran also reviewed a January 2020 traffic stop near Troyer’s residence. A driver told the investigator he was pulled over by Troyer for flashing his headlights at a three-way intersection. The driver told Moran he had done so because he had the right of way and was concerned the other driver, Troyer, would not see him coming. The report said the sheriff cautioned the driver about flashing his high beams at cars, telling him that while it was safe to do that in this neighborhood, doing so in another place “might get him shot.”
He said he looked at the campaign headquarters incident because of racial bias rumors , and the traffic stop because of inquiries on whether Troyer exercised his authority improperly.
“They were related in terms of qualitative nature of some sort of bias or tendency to exert improper authority,” Moran said. “ I was not tasked with investigating Troyer’s career or his public statements or judgment.”
Dermer said he was worried that the council tried to “cover up” Troyer’s comments on Ellis’ death because Troyer made them as a county employee.
“It just struck me. When Troyer lied to the public that no Tasers were fired, that wasn’t true,” Dermer said.
Moran stressed that he felt empowered to make the decisions about which cases to look at himself and was not swayed by the County Council.
“The council never asked to get involved and said, ‘Go where it takes you, and what’s important is the public understand the fact.,’ That speaks highly of the council,” Moran said.
The state has charged three Tacoma officers in Ellis death. In May, Christopher Burbank, 35, and Matthew Collins, 38, were charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter. Timothy Rankine, 32, was charged with first-degree manslaughter.
They’ve pleaded not guilty, and their trial is scheduled for October 2022.
