Sheriff Urquhart: Arbitration system needs to be ‘fine-tuned’

King County Sheriff John Urquhart doesn’t trust Deputy Whitney Richtmyer’s judgment. So how is the public supposed to?

This is the tricky question that is left after an arbitrator overruled the firing of King County Sheriff deputy Whitney Richtmyer, who has been reinstated and paid back wages – in excess of $200,000.

Seattle police deploy watch tower to deter, catch mall car prowlers

The deputy was arrested on New Year’s Eve 2013 after a citizen called 911 to report a deputy hunched over his steering wheel in a patrol car at a Starbucks parking lot in Newcastle. He showed signs of impairment. The investigation also found year’s worth paperwork – including exposed film, evidence and case reports — in his car that had never been filed.

King County Sheriff John Urquhart told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that the cumulative mistakes – sleeping on duty, taking medications that hindered his driving ability and the paperwork snafu — warranted termination.

“Just a big conglomeration of things that really led me to question whether he should continue as a police office or not and obviously I came to the conclusion that he shouldn’t,” he said

The case arbitrator, Michael Cavanaugh, disagreed with the firing, saying that since Richtmyer was physically in control of the vehicle, he had pulled over safely off the roadway. According to The Seattle Times, the arbitrator ruled that the termination was too severe, especially compared with the discipline of another deputy in a similar case.

“He disagreed with my analysis of the law,” Urquhart said.

Dori tried to clarify the situation: “The deputy drove while impaired, fell asleep on duty and the arbitrator says that’s not enough to fire a guy?”

“Yeah, basically,” Urquhart responded, laughing. “What can I say?”

That’s not the perspective of the arbitrator, however, or Richtmyer. Richtmyer tells MyNorthwest that it was found, and backed by an expert medical witness, that he was impaired by sleep deprivation — not medication.

“The county had over two years to find one medical expert to say I was impaired by medication,” Richtmyer said. “They found zero.”

“If you look at the facts you would see that two months after New Year’s eve I was placed on light duty,” he said. “I had stopped  taking the alleged impairing medications two months prior and yet still passed out twice during the daytime, at work in front of multiple witnesses.”

Richtmyer said any symptoms that could be related to medication could not be prevalent two months after he ceased taking them. He was referred to a sleep study which determined he had an extremely severe sleep disorder and was incredibly sleep deprived.

“The department’s own fitness-for-duty doctor cleared me fit for duty after I was treated for the sleep disorder and restored me to full duty status,” he said.

That side of the story doesn’t sway Urquhart.

“We can’t trust the judgment,” he said. “… It is cumulative and the cumulative effect was, gosh you can’t be a police officer anymore. To me, that was a slam dunk from that decision once the investigation was completed.”

Urquhart said this is an example of some problems in the arbitration system.

“It is frustrating but by the same token, you have to look at the system that we are supposed to work under and I respect the system,” he said. “A lot of people, they don’t understand how our whole arbitration thing works and I think it needs to be fine-tuned. I think there are some problems with it but overall it is what we have to work under. I’ve fired a lot of people since I’ve been sheriff and most of the arbitrations that we’ve been to, when they decide to go to arbitration, we have won. Occasionally, we are going to lose one now and again, and that’s just a fact of life.”

Urquhart said he has “no real problem” with this arbitrator, who said was well-respected and has been used many times in the past, but that he just doesn’t agree with his decision.

“Unfortunately I’m saddled with that wrong decision, as are the citizens of King County,” he said.

And if a citizen is pulled over by this deputy?

“Well, they certainly couldn’t trust his judgment 2.5 years ago,” Urquhart said. “… I’m hoping and we’re going to be paying very close attention that he’s learned his lesson, that he’s better off, that he’s not taking these prescription and over-the-counter medicines, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that he doesn’t make this mistake again.”

Follow @http://twitter.com/Mynorthwest