Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer pleaded not guilty to two criminal misdemeanor charges on Friday, stemming from a January confrontation with a newspaper delivery driver.

Conflicting accounts after Pierce County sheriff calls police on Black delivery driver

The charges — one count of false reporting, and one count of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant — were filed against Troyer by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson in mid-October. If he’s convicted, he could face up to a year in jail and up to a $5,000 fine.

Speaking to KIRO Radio, Troyer’s attorney John Sheeran said they “look forward to a jury hearing all of the evidence and exonerating him.”

The incident in question occurred around 2 a.m. on January 27, after Troyer called the police on Black newspaper carrier Sedrick Altheimer. Troyer described him to the dispatcher as “homeless-looking,” saying on three separate occasions that Altheimer had “threatened to kill” him.

Group pushes to have Sheriff Troyer added to list of officers with credibility issues

Troyer later amended his story to officers at the scene to say that Altheimer had “never threatened him,” before clarifying his statement again the following day to allege that Altheimer told him he was “going to take (him) out.”

An independent, non-criminal investigation commissioned by the Pierce County Council and led by former Trump-appointed U.S. District Attorney Brian Moran was unable to substantiate that Troyer had been threatened. It also found that “a reasonable person could conclude that Sheriff Troyer exhibited an improper bias in his confrontation with Mr. Altheimer.”

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