Volunteer for Keith Swank’s sheriff campaign claims Sheriff Troyer followed, harassed her
A volunteer on the campaign for Pierce County Sheriff-elect Keith Swank has filed a claim for damages with the county alleging that outgoing Sheriff Ed Troyer yelled at her while she was repairing campaign signs, followed her in his vehicle and then harassed her online.
The volunteer, Lisa Olson, 55, is also a precinct committee officer for the Pierce County Republican Party, which backed Swank in his successful bid for sheriff in the Nov. 5 election against Patti Jackson, chief of patrol for the Sheriff’s Department. Troyer, the incumbent sheriff, decided not to seek a second term and endorsed Jackson’s bid. Swank begins his first four-year term as sheriff on Wednesday.
Troyer denies wrongdoing and contends that Olson and another person named as a witness in the damages claim were not repairing signs but sabotaging Jackson’s signs by placing Swank signs directly in front of them. He acknowledges that he followed the pair in order to photograph the license plate of the vehicle they were using.
“I followed them probably four blocks so I could get a license plate, and I never talked to him or stopped,” Troyer told The News Tribune. “That’s just a bunch of crap.”
A claim for damages is not a formal court document nor a charging document filed by a law enforcement agency after an investigation. It is the required prelude to a potential lawsuit, and it must include a suggested damage amount. Olson’s claim suggests $750,000. It was filed Dec. 17 with the county’s Risk Management Division, and it names Troyer as the county employee involved. Adam Faber, a spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which typically defends the county in litigation, said the county generally does not comment on pending litigation.
The claim describes an Oct. 30 encounter with Troyer near the 2200 block of Mildred Street West at the border of University Place and Fircrest. In the claim Olson alleges Troyer “aggressively” shouted at her from his vehicle and followed the vehicle she was in for about two miles.
Swank volunteer filed report with UP Police
In a phone call, Swank said Olson called him after the encounter with Troyer, describing the incident and the fear she felt. Swank said he told Olson to file a police report. A copy of the report released to The News Tribune through a public records request showed it was filed Nov. 4 with the University Place Police Department, which contracts with the Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services.
A deputy was dispatched to contact Olson in person that morning. According to the police report, the deputy confirmed with her over the phone that she was reporting an incident involving Troyer, then told her he would call her back after checking which agency should take the report. UP Police Chief Pat Burke reportedly called Undersheriff Brent Bomkamp for directions, who directed the University Place Police Department to take the initial report.
Two deputies then met with Olson to take her statement. According to the deputies’ report, on Oct. 30 she and another volunteer for Swank’s campaign were putting up a large banner on a fence on Mildred Street when a white SUV pulled up, and she recognized the driver as Troyer.
In a handwritten statement, Olson reported that Troyer yelled at the volunteers while pointing his phone at them, telling them that they were illegally placing signs.
“Ed was clearly upset and was very intimidating,” Olson wrote. “I felt unsafe as I wasn’t doing anything wrong yet here Ed was, yelling accusations.”
Olson said she ran across the street and put up one last sign. The other volunteer who was driving then picked her up, and they left. Olson said Troyer got behind them and followed for about 10 minutes turn after turn.
Troyer ‘fanned the flames of public anger,’ claim alleges
Two days before the Nov. 5 election, Troyer made a long Facebook post that included blurred photographs of a man and woman he claimed were blocking Jackson campaign signs with signs for Swank. Troyer asked if anyone knew who the man was and said he had been posting signs saying “RESIGN ED PATTI” in his neighborhood.
In the post, Troyer said a case would be going to prosecutors.
Neither the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office or the City Attorney’s Office has received referrals from the Sheriff’s Department for a related case, spokespersons said.
Troyer told The News Tribune that the “resign” signs also began to appear near charity events and hospitals he’d been going to, some nailed to telephone poles. He said one had a “voodoo doll” attached, and others had roses taped to them and “blood paint.” Troyer said it is a misdemeanor to climb a telephone pole and pound a wooden sign into it.
Photos of the signs shared by Troyer showed at least 10 that had been taken down. Several had lettering painted red as if dripping with blood. One had a fake spider attached. Another had decorative cobwebs on it along with a set of green eyes, and attached to one was a small, smiling doll made mostly of straw.
In a 26-second video Troyer shared of the Oct. 30 incident, Troyer appears to bring up the signs while confronting the volunteer Olson was with. Olson didn’t appear in the video.
“Why are you bringing Patti’s name into it?” Troyer asks the man, who was standing at the bed of a red pickup.
The man gave Troyer a look, waved him off and started to get in the driver’s seat.
“All the wooden signs you’re making and posting late at night on the poles,” Troyer said. “We’ve got video of you doing it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the man replied.
Troyer also shared surveillance video of a person in a similar-looking red pickup putting up a “resign” sign on a utility pole at night at the corner of North Pearl and 51st streets. It’s unclear when the video was taken.
A man who was listed as a witness to the Oct. 30 incident in the claim did not respond to two phone calls and a text message.
Swank said his campaign didn’t put up the “resign” signs and he didn’t know who did. He said he also wasn’t involved in the decision to file the damages claim. More concerning to him was the safety of his volunteers, he said, and the destruction of his campaign signs. He referred to the fact that a number of them had been vandalized by cutting the “S” out of his name in “Keith Swank for Pierce County Sheriff.”
Olson’s claim alleges that in Troyer’s Facebook post, he used his official title to harass, stalk and make false allegations. It also says Troyer texted photos of Olson and the man to individuals, spreading “false and defamatory” accusations. The post has since been deleted.
“Sheriff Troyer continually fanned the flames of public anger over several days, frequently replying to comments and deliberately inciting anger and a mob mentality of his online followers against Ms. Olson and the other volunteer,” the claim states. It contends that Troyer’s acts were a deliberate attempt to intimidate and harass Olson and deprive her of her rights of freedom of speech and assembly, and to petition the government for redress of grievances.
Olson filed a complaint against Troyer with the Sheriff’s Department, according to the claim, which states no known investigation or disciplinary action has been taken.
In response to an inquiry about the complaint, a spokesperson for the department said all personnel requests on complaints and discipline must go through a public records request and go through “proper review and redaction laws.” A request for documents was pending Monday.
Claim ties incident to ‘history of misconduct’
The claim and the underlying incident add a footnote to a campaign that grew bitter in its final weeks. Troyer was not running, but his name loomed in the background. Swank’s campaign linked Jackson to him, which wasn’t difficult, since Troyer had endorsed her.
Olson’s attorney, Doug Cloud, said his client didn’t participate in the “alleged offensive sign postings,” but he wasn’t sure why Troyer thought they were illegal. He said it seemed like citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to express their displeasure with Troyer, whom he said had become an embarrassment to the county.
Referring to the Oct. 30 encounter with Troyer, Cloud said Olson was concerned for her safety, and that was the dispute they had with the county and Troyer.
“It’s hard to believe that the sheriff the size of Pierce County would take it upon himself to engage citizens who were involved in campaign activities in a hostile and aggressive manner,” Cloud said.
Olson’s claim refers to Troyer’s Jan. 27, 2021, encounter with a Black newspaper carrier in his West End neighborhood, saying it shows Troyer’s “well documented history of misconduct.” She also referenced the event in her statement to police.
In that incident, Troyer, who is white, called the police on the carrier, Sedrick Altheimer, while he was delivering papers, and then told a dispatcher that the man had threatened to kill him, triggering a massive law enforcement response.
As a result, Troyer was charged with and later acquitted of two misdemeanors: false reporting and making a false or misleading statement to a public servant. The incident also led to a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court that was settled last year for $500,015 plus $300,000 in attorney fees. The total cost to defend the county amounted to more than $1.1 million, The News Tribune later reported.
“It was strange and scary which led me to fear that Ed would repeat what he did to the local paper boy,” Olson wrote in her statement to police. “Due to Troyer’s disturbed behavior, the verbal aggression and the following us for about 10 minutes, I felt afraid, I felt harassed and stalked.”
Olson’s damages claim also cited a 2015 complaint Troyer received from fellow law enforcement officers regarding him visiting a bar with his patrol vehicle when Troyer was a public information officer for the department.
KNKX reported that investigators didn’t find any violations of department policy but that former Sheriff Paul Pastor conducted formal counseling with Troyer regarding the optics of his behavior.
Troyer told The News Tribune that the bar incident wasn’t misconduct, and he was found not guilty in the 2021 encounter with Altheimer.
This story was originally published December 31, 2024 at 5:15 AM.
