Here's another example of more GOP crap. They clearly don't believe the law is all that important. I thought this guy who is running for re election to Congress was as clean as they come......apparently not. This is a first in a series of articles indicating his questionable behavior when he was sheriff of King County.
Sheriff Reichert's supervision questioned in bizarre arson
By LEWIS KAMB
P-I REPORTER
Dave Reichert knew for weeks in 1996 that a sergeant under his command was meddling in a felony arson investigation, but kept him on the job despite a policy that would have allowed Reichert to remove him, according to interviews and court documents.
It was a bizarre case. The sergeant, Matt Bachmeier, had burned down his own Renton home to collect insurance, then a month later implicated an innocent man before killing him.
From almost the beginning, Bachmeier made suspicious claims about the incident, but Reichert decided against informing Renton police investigators about them, one of his then-subordinates says.
The never-reported allegations involving Reichert's supervision are revealed in a long-since archived federal lawsuit brought in 1998 by the parents of Bachmeier's murder victim, James Bradley Wren (see lawsuit: PDF).
"The Sheriff's and Major Reichert's failure to supervise was a moving force in the death of Mr. Wren," Lou Reiter, a former Los Angeles deputy police chief and police accountability expert, stated in a key affidavit (PDF) included in that lawsuit.
Reichert, now a Republican congressman in a heated re-election campaign, issued a prepared statement about the matter Thursday night to the P-I.
"Any idea that I should have shared information with the jurisdiction investigating the case is wrong and in fact had I gotten involved it could have jeopardized the case," he wrote.
Frank Adamson, who was then chief of criminal investigations, doesn't see it that way.
"By sharing information with Renton, I don't know how he could've created a problem in their case," Adamson said. "If he's knowledgeable of something that might be of value in (Renton's) case, I think he has a responsibility to pass it along."
The lawsuit specifically alleged Reichert, then a major in command of the North Precinct, knew Bachmeier claimed to his captain that he was meddling in the arson investigation being conducted by another agency. That was at least three weeks before Bachmeier killed Wren as part of his attempted cover-up. The county settled the case out of court, paying Wren's parents $300,000.
Bachmeier
Larry Mayes, a former division chief who was Reichert's boss at the time, also said recently he believes Reichert relayed details to him about Bachmeier's claims shortly after learning of them. Mayes added he doesn't think he or Reichert had enough information to warrant relieving Bachmeier from duty, nor could either of them predict the future.
"If there's a clear case that I had enough to take (Bachmeier) off the job at the time and did not, I'm guilty," Mayes added. "Putting it on Dave (Reichert) is just not fair. It would've been my decision."
Reichert agrees.
"That was the responsibility of others in my chain of command," he wrote Thursday.
According to the department's General Orders Manual (PDF), "Any supervisor may relieve a member from duty in an emergency when it appears such action is in the best interest of the public and the Sheriff's Office."
Conditions for such emergency relief from duty "may include, but are not limited to commission of a crime" and "apparent psychological problem," the policy adds. A more permanent "administrative leave" requires a decision from a chief or the sheriff.
Questions about the commanders' supervisory roles in the decade-old matter, Mayes acknowledged, have never been asked of him or Reichert before.
"I'm not trying to make excuses," Mayes said. "They are legitimate questions."
While a 1997 criminal trial that led to a murder conviction and life sentence for Bachmeier drew widespread publicity, the 1998 civil suit settled out of court with little fanfare in 1999 when the county paid Wren's parents $300,000, court documents and risk management files show.
Details of the alleged supervisory failure, discovered by the P-I in a search of court records, echo the findings of a blue ribbon panel's own recent examination of "long-standing" supervision problems in the Sheriff's Office that today remain pervasive. The panel's final report, issued Sept. 11, found such problems exist because of "inadequate attention to individual employee performance by leaders and managers."
According to a written statement Bachmeier's supervisor, Capt. Dave Maehren, gave to criminal investigators in September 1996, he and Reichert first talked about the possibility Bachmeier "was not a victim," in the arson case shortly after the fire on July 9, 1996.
The two agreed Bachmeier already was "a person of interest in the arson case," Maehren added in a recent interview with the P-I.
On July 16 or 17, 1996, Bachmeier told Maehren he had gone to Yakima over the weekend with an informant and found the person who "burned and burglarized his house," Maehren's 1996 statement (PDF) says. He described the suspect to Maehren as a "criminal" who was in the country illegally, the statement says. Bachmeier also told Maehren he wasn't going to tell Renton arson investigators about the encounter, and he declined to give Maehren more details, the statement says.
The claims raised "serious concerns" to Maehren about Bachmeier's mental health and status as an arson suspect. Maehren said he quickly told Reichert and suggested Renton arson investigators be contacted.
Reichert "made a decision that ... if (Renton) needed help, they would contact us," Maehren said recently. "I felt I did what I could do," Maehren added. "I was very clear and prompt in providing the information to Major Reichert."
Reichert also agreed with Maehren that Bachmeier's claims were "more than a bit bizarre," the 1996 statement says. He told Maehren that he would talk to Chief Mayes.
The timing is crucial because Bachmeier continued to work as an officer despite his bizarre behavior, and on Aug. 10, 1996, responded to a 911 call from Wren. He escorted Wren away in his police car and later forced Wren to sign a confession about the arson, then killed him, prosecutors later proved.
On Sept. 4, 1996, Bachmeier gave Wren's coerced confession -- a story essentially expanding on the bare-bones version he'd told Maehren -- to a Renton arson detective. Then on Sept. 9, 1996, Bachmeier, who by then also was being questioned about Wren's disappearance, went to Reichert and told him the same story.
"Major Reichert advised me the next day (Tuesday, September 10th) that the decision had been made to place Matt on administrative leave with pay," Maehren's statement says.
Last week, Mayes said that because Reichert was a rookie major at the time who told him everything, he believes Reichert would have told him in July at least some details about Bachmeier's claims made then.
Mayes added he believes he then passed the information to Adamson, the sheriff's criminal investigations chief, and assumed Adamson told Renton investigators about it.
But both Adamson and Michael Glenn, the Renton detective who handled the arson case, said they'd never heard about Bachmeier's July 1996 claims until the P-I recently asked about them. Glenn said he's not sure what having the information then would've meant, though he speculated it may have hastened questioning of Bachmeier.
Glenn's case notes from the time also show he tried to call Reichert in early August but Reichert was on vacation.
"It's news to me," Adamson added. "Larry (Mayes) didn't come to me at all about Bachmeier. The Maehren-Reichert-Mayes connection is news to me."
Asked if, in fact, Reichert had told him about Bachmeier's claimed meddling in an investigation, why Bachmeier wasn't removed from duty, Mayes responded: "I have no explanation for you."
"... All I know is ... at no time did I have enough information to relieve (Bachmeier) from duty, or I would have."
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