‘Failure to follow protocol’: Sheriff’s drug unit investigated for alleged false reports
Members of a Pierce County sheriff’s drug unit are being investigated for possibly violating seven department protocols, including falsifying records and conducting improper searches.
In two cases, the potential wrongdoing resulted in criminal charges being dismissed against accused drug traffickers.
The drug unit’s personnel insist they’ve done nothing wrong and say the investigation was launched because of clashes with the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office.
The 13-member Special Investigation Unit was disbanded April 21 for what officials called an administrative review after deputy prosecutors, deputies and detectives raised questions about the drug unit’s practices and procedures.
Ten members, including former supervisor Lt. Cynthia Fajardo, have been placed on the prosecutors’ “potential impeachment recurring witness list,” which means information that calls into question their credibility must be turned over to defense attorneys.
Although an investigation into their behavior is ongoing, the names have already been added to the list.
“The Prosecutor’s Office has permanently damaged our reputation because being on the PIE list typically means we have been found untruthful. But here we have been labeled dishonest without any findings of dishonesty,” according to a 10-page collective statement from the unit released to The News Tribune through their attorney, Joan Mell.
“This label directly impairs our value as state witnesses, or as consultants in other cases. Now anytime anyone hears one of our names there is a question mark about our integrity.”
Deputies and detectives placed on the potential impeachment list include Christopher Adamson, Jason Bray, Lucas Cole, Shaun Darby, Fajardo, James Maas, Tommie Nicodemus, Ryan Olivarez, Darrin Rayner and Elizabeth Reigle.
There are currently 105 names on Pierce County’s potential impeachment list, 38 of which are from the Sheriff’s Department.
Adam Faber, spokesman for the Prosecutor’s Office, said members of the Special Investigation Unit could have their names removed from the potential impeachment list in the future but there’s no guarantee, even if an internal investigation clears them.
“They can go on the list before there’s a hard conclusion reached,” Faber said. “That’s where we’re at here. We haven’t reached hard conclusions, but we’ve seen enough to know that they should be added on the (potential impeachment) list.”
In addition to being added to the potential impeachment list, five members of the drug unit are being internally investigated for exceeding lawful peace officer powers, falsification of records, search-and-seizure policy, failure to obey lawful orders, failure to disclose material fact or making false or misleading statement, unsatisfactory job performance and constitutional requirements.
Mike Blair, the Sheriff’s Department’s chief of staff, declined to say which five members are being internally investigated.
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the internal investigation and a review of procedures at the request of the Sheriff’s Department, and no timeline was given for its completion.
Although the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has its own internal affairs investigators, officials said they wanted to be transparent as possible and that meant asking an outside agency to take over.
“If it is found that internal policies and procedures were violated, disciplinary action will be applied,” Blair said.
Special Investigation Unit relaunched
After the unit disbanded, 10 of the 13 members were reassigned to patrol, the Central Investigations Bureau, court security and the Department of Emergency Management.
On Monday, the Special Investigation Unit resumed with new leadership and some new detectives, though six of the original 10 will return.
The other four said they wanted to return to the drug unit but were not allowed.
“We’re bringing it back,” Blair said. “This is an issue that was raised to us from inside, and we had to disband it to stop and have a review. Now, we’ve updated the procedure manual, and we’re implementing the new procedures.”
Some changes to the drug unit’s protocols deal with search warrants, use of confidential informants, vehicle searches, arrests and documentation, according to the department.
Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett said SIU’s new lieutenant met with her office Tuesday to discuss how to properly handle confidential informants and searches to produce evidence that can be used in criminal cases.
Returning to the drug unit are Adamson, who has been with the department 28 years and in SIU for five months; Bray, who has been with the department 16 years and in SIU for two years; Cole, who has been with the department for three years and in SIU for five months; Maas, who has been with the department 24 years and in SIU for two years; Nicodemus, who has been with the department 21 years and in SIU for five months; and Reigle, who has been with the department 22 years and in SIU for 10 years.
The four not being brought back to the drug unit are Darby and Rayner, who will stay in the Criminal Investigations Bureau; and Fajardo and Olivarez, who will remain in patrol.
Fajardo, a 32-year veteran of the department who supervised the drug unit for one year, is one of four candidates running to replace Sheriff Paul Pastor when his term runs out at the end of the year.
Her placement on the potential impeachment list “has been used politically” due to the election, according to the unit’s statement.
The Prosecutor’s Office notified drug unit personnel they were being placed on the potential impeachment list with letters sent June 22.
In the letter, chief criminal deputy prosecutor James Schacht told members of the unit they could review written materials included in the potential impeachment files or provide additional evidence or information related to the matter.
Although prosecutors are required by law to disclose possible impeachment information to defense attorneys, it’s up to the judge to decide whether the information is relevant and admissible in court.
Trust between Pierce County departments
Special Investigation Unit members say they have not been given a complaint with details on what they’re accused of, or an opportunity to explain what happened in each of the six drug cases.
When Robnett took office last year, personnel changes were made and drug unit personnel say they were no longer working with the same deputy prosecutors who had experience and knowledge of how SIU operates, which Robnett disputes.
“Without that standing working relationship, the communication broke down and compromised trust between the departments,” according to the unit’s collective statement.
“The SIU team members attribute the prosecutor office’s actions to a clash over their respective duties as it pertains to undercover operations that involve confidential informants and other clandestine operations. Prosecutors have a duty to disclose confidential informant information and that duty directly conflicts with SIU investigators’ duties to maintain informant confidences to develop leads and disrupt drug trafficking in Pierce County,” the document says.
The Prosecutor’s Office pointed to a law that went into effect last year, requiring more transparency in the use of informants.
The Prosecutor’s Office said it implemented a new protocol in June 2019 regarding informants that has been followed by every law enforcement agency in Pierce County except for the sheriff’s drug unit.
“This matter is not about ‘personality clashes,’ as some have tried to characterize it,” Robnett said. “This is about SIU’s failure to follow the protocol. The protocol is in place to make sure investigations, including searches, are done lawfully and yield admissible evidence.”
Dismissed charges in drug arrests
Since the internal investigation is not complete, details about the drug unit’s possible violations haven’t been released.
Sheriff’s officials said local, state and federal prosecutors conducted a review and found no criminal violations from the drug unit.
The possible wrongdoings stem from six narcotics cases stretching back at least two years.
An internal investigation is being done in two cases, and the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office is reviewing another two, which will eventually become internal investigations, according to an April 8 letter from Undersheriff Brent Bomkamp to the Prosecutor’s Office.
Prosecutors dismissed criminal charges in two of the cases. Charges remain in a third case scheduled for trial next month.
In March, a man was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver in a case involving 18 pounds of methamphetamine being trafficked from Mexico.
Prosecutors dismissed charges 17 days after filing them because, “the legal validity of the stop and the search warrant, and the lawfulness of the search of the backpacks and van is currently uncertain,” according to court documents.
The document also said a review of the evidence and reports “revealed irregularities and potential legal deficiencies in the detention of the van and its occupants, and the search warrant … .”
Prosecutors misinterpreted “quips” in an exchange of text messages among SIU members and eventually offered immunity to the defendant if he agreed to answer questions about the drug unit’s search, according to the unit’s collective statement.
The unit claims they were cleared of wrongdoing by the FBI in that case.
Robnett said the “unprofessional” text messages did not play a role in the dismissal of charges or the placement of 10 drug unit members on the potential impeachment list.
“What is significant and concerning was SIU’s failure to follow the confidential informant protocol and the legal issues surrounding the arrest of (the defendant) and the subsequent application for a search warrant,” according to a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office. “Those issues, regarding the legality of an arrest and search, are not issues that prosecutors can ignore.”
In a case from April 2018, a man charged with three drug-related counts involving the trafficking of meth and heroin by outlaw motorcycle clubs had the charges dropped seven months later after prosecutors said they found out the unit did not disclose all information about the case prior to a charging decision, keeping the defense attorney from receiving the material.
“The State cannot ethically proceed due to the delayed disclosure and the substance of this critical and material information,” prosecutors wrote in court records.
That issue stemmed from the Prosecutor’s Office wanting to know whether a witness in the case was a confidential informant and the drug unit not wanting to answer because it’s their policy to protect the identity of informants, according to the unit’s statement.
There is no internal investigation into that case.
Placing 10 members of the Special Investigation Unit on the potential impeachment list with no proof of wrongdoing “has put the community at risk and has permanently compromised the professional reputations of ten law enforcement deputies who have committed their lives to making Pierce County a safer place to live,” the unit said in its statement, adding that the letters they received from the Prosecutor’s Office “makes it appear that we are all corrupt or that we have done something horribly wrong to be on the list.“
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 9:55 AM.
