Ed Troyer beat the rap, but can Pierce County’s sheriff outrun the mistrust he’s sown?
In Ed Troyer’s mind, the media made him out to be a racist. The state made him out to be a liar. He said so from the stand. He said so after the trial.
Now, Pierce County’s embattled elected sheriff — who spent the last two weeks in court as a defendant successfully fighting off charges of false reporting in one of the most high-profile misdemeanor cases anyone can remember — has one task in front of him: returning to work, to the position voters entrusted him with, like things will ever be normal again.
That’s going to be difficult. Troyer, who is white, might have been acquitted — avoiding the fines and potential jail time that could have accompanied a guilty verdict stemming from his fateful Jan. 27 2021 confrontation with newspaper carrier Sedrick Altheimer, who is Black — but it’s hard to see how Pierce County will ever be able to place its complete trust in Sheriff’s Department he leads. Too much has transpired. Too much has been fractured.
Troyer would have you believe he’s both victim and tough guy. In fact, he’s neither. Despite his efforts to suggest otherwise, the question at hand was never really whether or not Troyer is a racist, in the cut-and-dried sense that he consciously harbors bias against Black people.
Instead, understanding the seriousness of the situation that he created and the community anger it inspired requires a more nuanced interrogation. This isn’t about Troyer being pure evil; it’s about why his misguided early-morning decision to target and follow Altheimer — who was just a Black man doing his job — was so dangerous, so hurtful and so familiar to so many people of color, whether he realized it at the time or not. It’s about understanding why some believe the color of Altheimer’s skin could have been a factor.
Unfortunately, it’s a conversation about the complicated intersection of race and policing that Troyer, even as Pierce County’s top cop, appears unprepared or unwilling to engage in.
If you didn’t follow Troyer’s trial closely, I don’t blame you. While it featured a little of everything — including a Josh Harris cameo, dramatic tears from Troyer’s celebrity attorney, Anne Bremner, and outright falsehoods, like Troyer’s laughable contention that local journalists never called to get his side of the story — it became apparent early on that the state’s case, as prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Office, was a long shot at best.
For all the hype and TV cameras, the trial was always going to come down to what couldn’t be known for certain, thanks to the disappointing lack of body-cam footage. Was Troyer lying when he told a dispatcher his life had been threatened, triggering a police response that led officers to converge on Altheimer in the early morning, justifiably making the newspaper carrier fear for his life? Or, did the report filed by Tacoma police officer Chad Lawless, through honest mistakes or carelessness, put words in Troyer’s mouth, suggesting the off-duty sheriff had retracted his claims of a threat when he never intended to?
We know as much now as we did before proceedings began.
Beyond the legal arguments, however, Troyer’s public tribulations are about much more than simply establishing the facts, which is something the sheriff never seemed to grasp. It’s also why news of his acquittal struck a predictable chord for many local residents, particularly those long accustomed to racial disparities in law enforcement and overzealous, biased policing without consequences.
There’s a documented history here that’s beyond dispute, a history of Black and brown people being treated differently by police, in Pierce County and across the country. If at any point Troyer had acknowledged this reality and sought to better understand the reasons his actions elicited anger and trauma, at least some of this could have been avoided.
Instead, with his back against the wall, Troyer’s instinct was to rely on tired partisan dog-whistling and us-versus-them police rhetoric. That’s who we elected.
On Wednesday afternoon, after seven hours of deliberation, a six-member jury delivered its verdict: not guilty. The misdemeanor trial of the century came to a close.
On Thursday morning, Pierce County woke up to the same conundrum it faced even before a jury was selected.
Ultimately, it’s a question only voters can answer: Is Troyer really who we want in charge?
This much is clear:
As a sheriff, Troyer is a consistent liability.
And as a leader, he’s simply not up to the task.
