Attorney general wants $10K bail for Sheriff Troyer, contends he violated court order
The Washington State Attorney General’s Office filed a motion Friday asking a judge to set $10,000 bail for Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer in connection to his upcoming trial on false reporting charges, alleging he violated no-contact provisions allowing him to remain out of jail.
Troyer previously was released on his own recognizance.
The filing comes about 10 days after a Pierce County pro-tem judge granted an anti-harassment protection order against Troyer to the Black newspaper carrier the sheriff called Tacoma police on in January 2021.
Troyer claimed the man threatened his life during an early-morning confrontation in the sheriff’s Tacoma neighborhood. The carrier, Sedrick Altheimer, has said he was just delivering papers and never threatened Troyer. The sheriff’s call prompted a massive police response. Troyer later told officers at the scene that he had not been threatened, according to police reports.
The Attorney General’s Office charged Troyer in October with false reporting and making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, both misdemeanors. The case is scheduled to go to trial this October.
“Sheriff Troyer did nothing to warrant the court entering an anti-harassment order and the Attorney General’s motion is nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to smear the good reputation of a man who has spent 37 years working to protect the public,” Troyer’s attorney, John Sheeran, wrote in a statement Friday.
During a hearing on the anti-harassment order, District Court Judge pro-tem Christine Chin said Altheimer presented ample testimony that Troyer had continued to surveil him while delivering papers in his neighborhood. She ordered the sheriff to stay 1,000 feet away from Altheimer for one year.
Prosecutors with the Attorney General’s Office are seeking to amend Troyer’s release conditions in the criminal case to comply with the anti-harassment protection order, according to the court filing.
An attorney for Troyer previously has denied allegations of purposeful, continued contact with Altheimer. He said the sheriff encountered Altheimer by chance in April while the newspaper carrier was making a delivery at the home of Troyer’s father.
Altheimer said he left that encounter shaking and nervous. He testified at the hearing for the anti-harassment order that he quit his job because didn’t feel safe.
Troyer’s “actions are a clear and willful violation of this court’s order that he have NO CONTACT with Sedrick Altheimer,” assistant state attorneys general wrote in Friday’s motion. “These violations are particularly alarming because Defendant, Pierce County’s top law enforcement officer, is refusing to follow this court’s lawful order and is using his position to intimidate a material witness in this case.”
A hearing to decide on prosecutors’ motion for bail in Troyer’s criminal case will be held on July 1, according to Attorney General’s office spokesperson Brionna Aho. Kitsap County Judge Jeffrey Jahns is reviewing the filing to determine if the hearing should be held in person or virtually.
Altheimer also has filed a $5 million federal lawsuit against the county following the run-in with Troyer, alleging emotional distress from the “racial profiling, false arrest and unnecessary use of excessive force of this man whose only crime was ‘being a black man in a white neighborhood.’” That case has been postponed until Troyer’s criminal case is completed.
This story was originally published June 17, 2022 at 4:44 PM.
