Franklin County sheriff says coronavirus isn’t made up, explains letter

Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond said Tuesday he won’t be enforcing Gov. Inslee’s stay-at-home order and called it fear mongering.

He joined KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson on Wednesday to explain the letter that he sent to his constituents.

“One of their main fears is that my deputies were going to go out and enforce laws on them that are attached to ‘stay-at-home,'” Raymond said. “I was inundated with some of those questions from people in the county.”

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“As a sheriff, I have the right to practice discretion of what laws are enforced or not enforced. I wanted to people to know that I was going to practice discretion.”

Raymond said he doesn’t believe he wrote the letter in a way that encouraged people to go out and violate the law. Rather he encouraged people to engage with their representatives to express their opinion.

Contrary to what’s been reported, Raymond said he never claimed that coronavirus is not real.

“You know how the media works,” the sheriff said.

If a church is going to hold service on Sunday, Raymond said he won’t do anything to shut it down. He says he’s choosing to use his discretion and  leave it up to the state.

Governor Inslee’s office sent a letter to Franklin County commissioners Wednesday morning. In it, the governor said he’s making clear that actions on Tuesday do not change that businesses and residents must follow the order to keep everyone healthy.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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