SPOKANE, Wash. — A former Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy who lodged a compliant about another deputy’s racist behavior is suing the sheriff’s office after he says he was harassed for making the complaint.
Former deputy Andrew Richmond filed the lawsuit in District Court on March 30 claiming retaliation, racial discrimination and constructive discharge.
According to the lawsuit, Richmond, a black deputy, reported Sergeant Jeffrey Thurman in December 2016 after hearing him ask another deputy if he was ready to “kill some n******.”
Thurman was the former handler of well-known K-9 Laslo, who assisted in the arrest of more than 470 suspects. He was later fired for his comments.
“Thurman approached Richmond and told Richmond that Thurman had only been referring to ‘inner city’ Black people who ‘riot and loot,’” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit claims Richmond reported Thurman’s racist comments to three sergeants between 2016 and 2018, one of them being the only other Black officer employed by the sheriff’s office. None of those sergeants reported Thurman’s comments, the suit says.
In May 2019, Richmond also made a formal complaint to his union about Thurman’s conduct and the discrimination and retaliation related to his application and interview for the Air Support Unit, the lawsuit says.
He also reported other retaliatory actions taken against him from the date he overheard the comments to the date of his formal complaint, the suit says.
Throughout the course of the Internal Affairs investigation, the lawsuit claims it was learned that Thurman often ‘talked about killing African Americans’ and called Black people ‘n******’ when discussing the Black Lives Matter movement.
Richmond was later interviewed by and Internal Affairs investigator and told him he was the subject of racial discrimination and retaliation to his application and interview for the Air Support Unit after the Thurman incident.
“Richmond informed Hines that one of the officers awarded the position, Deputy Krystal Bitzer, told Richmond that her ASU interview was informal, describing it as ‘BS’ing with the other board members’ making the hiring decision. She told Richmond that she was asked ‘no real questions.’ In fact, she was given the answers in advance of her interview to potential questions by ‘ASU members.’ In contrast, Richmond was asked a series of hard questions. Thurman was involved in the ASU interview process and was made a part of the ASU team during the interviews,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says Richmond wasn’t formally notified that he wasn’t selected for the ASU position and was instead told in person that SCSO “command staff” prevented him from getting the position. The sergeant told Richmond to ‘keep his mouth shut’ about not being selected, the lawsuit says.
According to the lawsuit, it is SCSO policy to notify interviewees by email or by phone of non-selection and the score sheets from the interviews were not preserved.
The suit also claims Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich refused to allow former Undersheriff David Ellis to be interviewed as part of the IA investigation into Thurman’s conduct. The IA investigator personally told Richmond that Knezovich didn’t allow Ellis to be interviewed. The lawsuit says Knezovich later terminated the IA investigation.
“Knezovich deemed Richmond’s retaliation complaint related to the ASU position ‘unfounded.’ Knezovich has since testified that he had no reason to doubt that Richmond was telling the truth about Thurman’s racist comments. On June 12, 2019, Richmond personally told Knezovich that Ellis needed to be interviewed, raising concerns about Ellis’ relationship with Thurman,” the lawsuit says.
The next day, Knezovich held a press conference about Thurman’s termination.
“Knezovich stated that Thurman’s ‘type of behavior will never be tolerated…It’s reprehensible, and any deputy who dishonors this community and his badge this way, they will not work for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office,’” the suit states.
The lawsuit also claims a press release made around the time of Thurman’s termination said Knezovich initiated the IA investigation, which the suit refutes.
After the announcement, the lawsuit claims members of the community began making public accusations against Richmond. On the same day, the lawsuit also claims SCSO ‘circulated a memo that was read out loud’ to all employees where Richmond was identified by name as the complainant.
“Richmond was in a meeting with approximately 25 SCSO deputies on that day when Lieutenant Mike Zollars read the memo aloud and named Richmond. Other deputies told Richmond that they had been read the memo at similar meetings. During the course of the IA investigation, Richmond had been repeatedly assured that his name would not be released. Richmond immediately began being questioned by coworkers as to why he ‘randomly’ reported Thurman,” the lawsuit reads.
Richmond later learned ASU members had listened to audio recordings of the IA interviews and was told his interview was discussed in a group setting, the lawsuit says. He claims his concerns about this were blown off by Internal Affairs.
Following the investigation, Richmond learned Spokane Valley Chief Mark Werner and Spokane Valley Commander Matt Lyons had close relationships with Thurman and spread rumors about Richmond. Both Werner and Lyons retired in 2020.
“Lyons vocally supported Thurman’s use of the word “n*****,” and Lyons made clear that the comment about ‘killing n******’ was not a policy violation in his view. Chief Werner began circulating a false rumor that Richmond was having a sexual relationship with Van Patten, one of Richmond’s former recruits,” the lawsuit reads.
In July 2019, Knezovich called Richmond to discuss the accusations Werner made about him. The lawsuit claims the phone call violated SCSO policy, Richmond’s rights to an IA investigation and Richmond’s rights as a union member.
Richmond said he told Knezovich about Lyons’ and Werner’s comments disregarding the use of racial slurs as a policy violation and how he didn’t feel comfortable working for Lyons. The lawsuit claims Knezovich decided to move Richmond to the downtown SCSO office and that it was in response to the ‘retaliatory, hostile work environment created by Richmond’s superiors.’
The lawsuit claims Thurman reported information to SCSO employees in an attempt to discredit and intimidate Richmond. Richmond later obtained text messages between Thurman and two other deputies and other SCSO personnel, the suit says.
“One person on the text group stated, ‘now everyone is being gay…wait…is that wrong?’ The message was in response to Thurman saying, ‘Let me clarify not brothers like a racial thing but brother by blood just to be clear’ ‘because God forbid, we say anything nowadays.’ A number of the SCSO personnel on the text thread used their work phones to participate in these communications,” the suit says.
Richmond quit his job at SCSO in July 2019 due to the ongoing retaliation, according to the lawsuit. Richmond took a position at the Spokane Police Department which resulted in a pay cut and loss of his rank.
The lawsuit claims that rumors about Richmond continue to this day and SCSO and the county did nothing to stop the damage to his reputation.
Richmond is seeking economic, emotional and mental anguish damages in an amount to be proven at trial.
Knezovich issued a statement Thursday regarding the lawsuit.
"I am extremely disappointed that Andrew Richmond has taken this course of action. The Sheriff’s Office denies that it took any retaliatory or discriminatory action toward Andrew Richmond. We thoroughly investigated Mr. Richmond’s allegations in 2019 and took care to observe all parties’ rights during the process.
“We will work with legal counsel to defend this lawsuit and a related lawsuit filed by Jeff Thurman as a result of his termination from the Sheriff’s Office in 2019."
