Pierce deputy stalked his wife, trashed their home. He’s been fired, is headed to prison
A former Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputy who was fired last year after he trashed his family home and was arrested in California was sentenced to prison Monday, Oct. 9, for stalking his wife and repeatedly violating a no-contact order.
Michael Allan Phipps, 50, pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to stalking, first-degree malicious mischief, three counts of violation of a no-contact order and disclosing intimate images. Stalking and first-degree malicious mischief are class B felonies, and the court determined they were domestic-violence offenses. Judge TaTeasha Davis imposed a high-end sentence of two years, five months in prison.
Phipps’ attorney, Bryan Hershman, told The News Tribune he thought his client’s sentence was on the harsh side but that the outcome of the case was fair overall. Phipps had no prior criminal history. Asked about the high-end sentence, Hershman said he thought Davis was concerned that Phipps had come to court intoxicated two weeks ago, and that after he was arrested he spent most of his time on home monitoring.
“My sense was she wanted him to get a taste of the inside of a jail cell,” Hershman said. “That home monitoring was not, maybe, severe enough for what happened.”
The defendant received credit for the 468 days he’s served in confinement, according to court records, 345 of which were on home monitoring. Hershman said he didn’t think that included credit for the weeks he spent in California awaiting extradition.
Phipps caused at least $50,000 in damage to the Eatonville home he shared with his wife on May 2, 2022, according to court records. She had obtained a protection order against him, and Eatonville police had been trying to serve the order since early March last year.
Prosecutors alleged that Phipps knew about the order before it was served, and he sent texts to his wife in late April that included explicit photos of her, threatening to send them to her boss, their adult children and every contact they had.
His wife also alleged he shot a gun into the floor and grabbed her neck in an October 2021 incident, according to a court filing in the protection-order case. She said he was involuntarily committed in February last year after further incidents. Phipps told his wife he had lost his gun rights for six months following treatment, according to the petition, and that he was angry about it.
“I have had to take a gun from him at least two other times when he was threatening to kill himself,” Phipps’ wife wrote in the petition. “These incidents have left me terrified for him and me.”
Hershman said there was some “extreme behavior” in this case. He also said that of the hundreds of law enforcement officers and military personnel he’s represented, Phipps had some of the worst experiences he’d seen. Attorneys for the man wrote in court filings that Phipps sought mental health treatment following the death of colleagues and his father, but the medications he was prescribed were ineffective, and he started self-medicating with alcohol.
“I just know that where he finds himself today is in part a product of 27 years of highly decorated public service, putting his life on the line for his community,” Hershman said. “This does not define him. It’s humiliating, and I think that now that he’s a bit out of the clouds, he has great regret, great remorse for what transpired.”
Phipps was fired from the Sheriff’s Department shortly after he was arrested by Corona, California police at a hotel on June 1, 2022. A department spokesperson previously told the newspaper Phipps violated department policy on breaking the law. Phipps had been a deputy since November 2000, and he had not reported for duty since June 2021 when he was granted a leave of absence.
He fled to California in the days after he trashed his family home while Eatonville police were trying to formally serve him with the no-contact order, according to court records.
When police entered the house, they discovered smoke alarms going off and water pouring out of light fixtures and vents. Water was flowing out of an upstairs toilet that had been smashed, and there was reportedly a gouge in the kitchen floor consistent with being struck with an ax, which was leaning against a hallway wall. The master bedroom was in disarray and the downstairs ceilings were soaked.
Phipps’ wife reported he continued to contact her for several days after the home was damaged despite the court order, according to charging documents. Texts ranged from Phipps telling his wife he loved her to threatening suicide. She filed to divorce Phipps in mid-May 2022, and it was finalized in April, ending a 28-year marriage.
The former deputy posted a $100,000 bail bond in October 2022 and was released to electronic home monitoring and alcohol monitoring. Phipps was allowed to go to Texas, where Hershman said he voluntarily underwent treatment for substance abuse and therapy for his post-traumatic stress. The attorney said Phipps plans to return to Texas after his release because that’s where he has family support.
As part of his sentence, Davis ordered Phipps to undergo further treatment for his mental health and alcohol abuse. Hershman agreed both were needed, and he said Phipps was committed to fixing this problem.
All Washington police and corrections officers are required to maintain certification with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, and law enforcement departments are supposed to notify the commission when an officer is arrested. According to its database, the Sheriff’s Department reported Phipps in June 2022, and a case was opened. On Tuesday, Oct. 10, it remained in the investigation phase.
This story was originally published October 10, 2023 at 12:10 PM.
