The acquittal by a jury of Pierce County, WA Sheriff Ed Troyer of two gross misdemeanor charges stemming from an incident in 2021 in which he was allegedly threatened by a newspaper delivery was really a blow to the office of state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, say critics of the prosecution.
It was Ferguson’s office which prosecuted the case, as noted by the Tacoma News Tribune.
Troyer, who spoke with Liberty Park Press via telephone, is a 37-year law enforcement veteran. He came up through the ranks of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, serving for years as the agency’s public information officer before running to succeed former Sheriff Paul Pastor, who retired two years ago.
Troyer said he was offered a “deal” to plead guilty and admit being a racist, and resign—he is white and newspaper carrier Sedrick Altheimer is black—but the sheriff was having none of it.
“I’m not going to do that,” Troyer said.
He noted that his wife is a Pacific Islander and told KIRO radio’s Dori Monson he and his wife are foster parents for children of color, according to MyNorthwest.com. Some of his family members are Native Americans and he has a “grandson of color.”
“It was bull—t,” he said of the racism demand. “I’m not going to be labeled for that.”
He wanted his day in court to present all of the evidence, which he said local media failed to present to the public. He told Liberty Park there were three different prosecutors from Ferguson’s office, plus at least two investigators, and paralegals, involved in his prosecution.
Also, Gov. Jay Inslee became involved, Troyer said.
Ferguson has become infamous for what seems like a penchant to use his office for political purposes, which Troyer is convinced was behind the attorney general’s interest in his case.
Ferguson is known for having filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration from the early days of Donald Trump’s term in office in 2017. A perennial gun control advocate, Democrat Ferguson has pursued bans on so-called “assault weapons” and “large capacity magazines” for the past several years. He finally got the magazine ban, but now he and Inslee have turned their attention toward an “assault weapon” ban. According to the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, it’s one of their top priorities.
According to Crosscut, a liberal online publication, says Inslee and Ferguson have joined the Alliance effort.
Earlier this month, Ferguson announced legal action against a Federal Way gun shop for selling outlawed magazines after the ban took effect July 1. By no small coincidence, he is a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this year by the Second Amendment Foundation and several others, challenging the magazine ban. The case is known as Sullivan, et.al. v. Ferguson, et.al.
SAF was also critical of Ferguson for hiring a gun control advocate earlier this year.
Troyer said he ruffled feathers from the moment he took office, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic panic when the state and Seattle were firing people who refused to be vaccinated, which violated policies instituted by Gov. Jay Inslee and city officials. Troyer said he did not have a policy.
“I hired people from Seattle, (state) Fish & Wildlife, and (state) troopers” who were released by the State Patrol, Troyer explained. “We don’t ask about vaccine.”
“I’ve hired 60 people since I’ve been sheriff,” he said. “I’ve been told multiple times that made them (Inslee and Democrats) mad. When Democrats asked me to take American flag stickers off my patrol vehicles, I refused.”
“There were other things that didn’t fit their agenda,” he said, without elaborating.
According to the Seattle Times, Troyer called an emergency dispatcher early on the morning of Jan. 27, 2021 to report his encounter with Altheimer. Troyer had seen Altheimer’s car and because he thought it suspicious he decided to follow it through his neighborhood. There was a verbal confrontation, Troyer’s call resulted in a huge police response, after he indicated he had been threatened.
A Tacoma police officer wrote in his incident report Troyer said he had not been threatened, but Troyer told the court and the media he retracted his claim of being threatened. There was no body cam video to confirm or refute either version.
What now for the embattled sheriff?
“I’ve got two more years and a month to go in my term,” he said, and he plans to continue building and improving programs he already put in place/
Among those are embedding mental health workers with his deputies on crisis calls, and getting social workers involved to deal with homeless people.
Troyer said the Pierce County Prosecutor’s office would never have pursued criminal charges against him from the Altheimer incident. He points to Ferguson, and Gov. Inslee, for pushing this case.
“I’m a victim of this,” he said.
