Pierce County Council to pause investigation into Sheriff Ed Troyer
Apr 28, 2021, 1:56 PM
The Pierce County Council announced Wednesday that it will be pausing its investigation into Sheriff Ed Troyer, following the announcement of a separate investigation from the state Attorney General.
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The two investigations stemmed from a late-January incident, where Troyer had called the police on a Black newspaper delivery driver. Troyer had reported seeing a car moving in and out of a neighbor’s driveway at 2 a.m. with its headlights off. He then confronted the driver, identified as 24-year-old Sedrick Altheimer, before making a call to dispatch that had an estimated 42 units from around the region to the scene.
Not long after the incident came to light, County Council Chair Derek Young declared his intention to mount an independent investigation to “determine the facts of what occurred,” whether Troyer abused his authority during that incident, whether Troyer’s actions were racially motivated, and if there’s an established history of similar incidents involving the sheriff.
The council then tagged former U.S. District Attorney Brian Moran to head up its effort, albeit without the authority to dole out punishment if any malfeasance was identified, due to the council’s limited ability to regulate and oversee the sheriff’s office.
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A week later, Gov. Jay Inslee announced that he was having Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson lead a state-level investigation into Troyer. Because of that, Moran informed the council this week that he “felt it best to pause the [county] investigation until the [state’s] criminal investigation was complete.”
The council expects to have an update on its own efforts at the conclusion of the Attorney General’s investigation.
Troyer has stated that he welcomes “any and all inquiries” into the late-January incident, and that he and the Pierce County Sheriff’s office “will fully cooperate with the investigation.”
