King County Detective Faces Firing Over Social Media Posts
SEATTLE, WA — King County Undersheriff Patti Cole-Tindall is recommending the sheriff's office fire Detective Mike Brown following the completion of an internal investigation into his social media behavior.
Brown, a 40-year veteran of the sheriff's office, was placed on leave July 6 after several derogatory Facebook posts referencing protesters were surfaced and shared widely. King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht ordered an expedited investigation the same day. Brown has worked in the protection unit for the King County Executive since 1994 and is a cousin of Gov. Jay Inslee.
Sgt. Ryan Abbott, a sheriff's office spokesperson, acknowledged there was "overwhelming public interest in the case," and provided a 21-page memo detailing the investigation's findings Tuesday.
In the memo, investigators focused on eight Facebook posts associated with Brown's account, including a photo posted July 4 showing a decal with the text "all lives splatter." The post was published just hours after a driver hit two demonstrators on Interstate 5, killing Summer Taylor and seriously injuring Diaz Love. A comment posted by Brown a short time later read "I see a couple people got infected with Covid-19 from the hood of a car on I-5 last night."
Other posts appear to endorse violence against protesters and mock the killing of Lorenzo Anderson Jr. at the former Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone.
According to the memo, an Internal Investigations detective interviewed Brown about his Facebook history and specifically discussed each post in question.
In regards to the "all lives splatter" post, Brown contended he did not mean the image as a reference to Black Lives Matter and had not considered that sharing it would be controversial.
When asked about the COVID-19 comment, Brown said it was a "poor attempt at humor."
Investigators also asked Brown about his position within the King County Executive's protective detail, and whether his comments could diminish public confidence in the sheriff's office.
In the final analysis, Criminal Investigations Chief Troy Olmsted found that Brown's actions undermined public trust, despite his "professed lack of intent."
"At minimum, these posts demonstrated incredibly poor judgment and lack of sensitivity," Olmsted wrote. "At worst, the posts were written to promote violence against people expressing views that police agencies engage in biased based policing."
Social media policies instruct employees to consider how their online posts can have "adverse impacts" and travel beyond their privacy settings. Immediately after the posts became public, the sheriff's office said it was "inundated" with complaints from the community.
Olmsted considered three allegations of misconduct and ultimately sustained two. The first allegation, alleging discrimination, harassment, incivility or bigotry, was ruled unfounded since the rule in question applies only to on-duty behavior.
The other two, concerning "conduct unbecoming," social media rules and performance standards, were sustained.
"Detective brown is a 40-year veteran of law enforcement who holds a position that requires the ability of discretion and professionalism. A lapse in judgement could describe a single incident or one-time post. Examining the posts on an individual basis is only part of the process. It is also important to review this investigation from the perspective of the totality of the situation. Review of these post[s] from the totality of the situation provides a perspective showing Detective Brown’s repetitive posting behavior contains a related theme and associates the posts to the protests and unrest."
Olmsted's findings were completed Oct. 5 and submitted to the undersheriff for a disciplinary recommendation, as standard procedure. In her formal notification to Brown, Undersheriff Cole-Tindall noted his disciplinary history, including a one-day suspension in 2013 after he was "apparently intoxicated and involved in a hit and run" in Chelan County.
"I have considered the seriousness of your conduct, the fact that there were a series of similar posts of this nature in a short period of time, and your work history. You have two prior sustained major misconduct violations. I also consider your ability to be effective as a law enforcement officer, given the ample material now available to discredit and undermine you and your work for this agency in court processes and beyond. The blow to the department's integrity was staggering. The damage to your integrity and ability to continue to serve as a law enforcement officer cannot be repaired."
The undersheriff's recommended firing will not be final until Brown meets directly with Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht to argue his case. Johanknecht will then hand down a final disciplinary decision.
According to the sheriff's office, an investigation into other employees who responded or interacted with Brown's posts is still underway.
Read the full investigative memo below:
This article originally appeared on the Seattle Patch
