In January 2023, I filed a complaint with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (WSCJTC) about a now-disgraced former police chief being a lying liar, and no one took it terribly seriously at first.
One of those "maybe he lied about his background, we'll get around to it when we can" sort of responses. A short time later, that now-disgraced former police chief was involved in an incident where a sex offender tried to burglarize a home with a young family inside, and it appeared the disgraced chief lied to other justice system officials about his mishandling of that situation. Suddenly, everyone was very concerned with this now-disgraced former police chief being the lying liar that he always was.
A short while ago, I filed another complaint with the WSCJTC regarding a similar concern of another Lewis County police chief, also perhaps being a lying liar. It is a pretty clear cut complaint — there are two forms filed directly with the WSCJTC and they contradict each other. Form one says a sergeant peacefully retired and rode off into the sunset with no concern of any investigation needed at the time, while the second form filed months later gives a summary of an investigation that the first form stated should and would not exist.
Even more concerning, though, there are even further reports, after the second form was filed, of an ongoing investigation all last summer, which this chief was concerned enough to then send to the prosecutor (for denial) a few weeks shy of a year after the first form was filed stating there were no issues with this sergeant’s departure. From what I currently have been provided, this chief appears to have still never reported the ongoing concerns, nor his summer of pursuing those concerns to the WSCJTC. All together, the full package is a pretty big and definitely concerning lie from someone like a police chief who I hope we can all agree simply shouldn't be lying at all to begin with.
Last week, this chief’s city officials were made well aware of the concern that their chief is, perhaps, a lying liar as well, and provided the forms and documents to reference for their own consideration. I requested the city not to make the same mistake as a previous one and simply suspend their chief so he cannot potentially lie further while this all plays out. I am not equating these chiefs in level or corruptibility, but who knows. What I do know is a lie is a lie, regardless, especially one on official forms.
By the time of this letter submission, no one at the city has been bothered to respond to my rather vocal requests to protect the people from further risk and harm.
Kyle Wheeler
Toledo
