Taxpayers foot the bill for keeping bad cops on the job

Thursday, May 11, 2006

By LEWIS KAMB
P-I INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER

(Editor's Note: Bruce McClure, a former friend of King County Sheriff's Deputy James Patrick Covey who is quoted in this story, is not the same Bruce McClure who is a King County sheriff's deputy.)

Heard the one about the cop convicted of murder who's now serving life in prison?

He draws a $3,100 tax-free pension check every month -- and will for the rest of his life.

How about the deputy who, while waiting to learn if he'd be fired for allegedly beating his girlfriend, took advantage of extra work offered by his department to double his salary?

His overtime-bloated pay now entitles him to a $63,000-a-year pension.

Then there's the officer-turned-molester who sexually abused his stepdaughter.And the drinking-while-on-duty deputy who vandalized a van. And the cop who left his gun out, enabling his enraged lover to kill a man.

All of them either now receive -- or one day will -- handsome retirement benefits. And most of these ex-officers' pensions were made even bigger, thanks to their former employer -- the King County Sheriff's Office.

An abuse of public trust is occurring time and again at the expense of taxpayers: Bad cops have -- and will continue to -- cost King County and Washington millions of dollars, as publicly bankrolled salaries and taxpayer-subsidized pensions reap lucrative rewards for officers who've tainted the badge.

A Seattle P-I examination of state pension and payroll records of eight King County sheriff's deputies shows example after example of how such problem officers continued drawing salaries and earning service credits for years. This fattened retirements for these men, six of whom engaged in acts of misconduct so serious they could have been fired years earlier.

Had they been fired, millions would have been saved in salaries and past, present and future retirement payments, according to calculations conducted separately and at the P-I's request by a state fiscal analyst and an actuary in private practice.

While it's not easy to fire deputies -- termination cases require meeting a standard of proof that's "clear and convincing" -- the sheriff's rulebook also says the kind of misconduct committed by officers cited in this story can or will result in dismissal.

Still, six of the deputies were allowed to stay on the job and continued misbehaving for years.

Along with millions in work and retirement pay, taxpayers have paid hundreds of thousands more in settlements of legal claims brought by alleged victims of four of the deputies.

These deputies are able to harvest publicly afforded spoils despite questionable, even criminal, employment records.

State dictates pensions

Police administrators often insist it's state law -- not their own actions -- that enables bad employees to draw state pensions. Like it or not, they say, bad cops who have met pension plan eligibility thresholds cannot be prevented from collecting retirement benefits under Washington law.

King County Sheriff Sue Rahr and her spokesman, Sgt. John Urquhart, declined to specifically answer most questions for this story.

But in an e-mail last year, Urquhart told the P-I, "Neither the Sheriff's Office nor King County can dictate whether a former employee can collect a pension or not, any more than the Sheriff's Office can dictate whether an employee collects their Social Security benefits."

And that's true. Nothing legally prohibits eligible cops from receiving pensions, at least half of which are funded by public dollars.

But it doesn't mean state lawmakers can't change the rules for the future. At least 13 states have laws to strip misbehaving public employees of their pensions.

Employer accountability also can have an effect. Sheriffs or police chiefs who don't fire bad cops are costing the public big money.

As long as problem officers are allowed to stay on the job, even those under scrutiny know how to work the system.

Just ask Pat Covey.

Racking up retirement


	Covey See what he cost taxpayers

A hard-charging cop who joined the Sheriff's Office in 1978, Covey drew several complaints, criminal charges, lawsuits and a conviction for a domestic violence-related trespass over a 26-year career.

His most likely firing scenario occurred in 1995, when he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend alongside an Everett freeway, then later trashed her car. He faced misdemeanor assault and felony vandalism charges in two jurisdictions. Both later were dropped.

But an internal sheriff's investigation eventually sustained a "conduct unbecoming an officer" violation against Covey.

"Pat was scared," said Bruce McClure, a former friend. "He thought he was going to lose his career."

(See our previous report on Pat Covey for more details.)

In the 15 months it took his department to impose discipline, Covey continued working, taking advantage of department overtime. Pay records show he nearly doubled his salary -- from about $54,500 in 1995 to $104,100 in 1996.

The pay spike wasn't coincidental. Under his pension plan, retirement benefits are based partly on years of service and average earnings of his five consecutive highest-paid years. The more time served and money earned, the higher his retirement check.

"He would work 16, 18 hours a day purposely for overtime," said Hayley Mieyr, Covey's girlfriend at the time. "He said it was for his retirement."

The department's manual says "it shall be the duty" of employees and commanders to "ensure ... overtime is utilized in a manner consistent with being good stewards of the public trust."

Ultimately, Covey received only a letter of reprimand for the 1995 incident. He went on to work for nearly a decade more, collecting nearly $1 million more in overtime-fattened earnings -- factors that enhanced his pension.


	This 1999 photo obtained from prosecutors' case files depicts a man being forcibly held by then-King County sheriff's Deputy Pat Covey. The man later sued the county, settling for $25,000 -- among the hundreds of thousands of dollars Covey has cost taxpayers after he could've been fired in 1996.

He cost the county in other ways as well. The county paid $25,000 to settle a lawsuit that claimed Covey brutalized a man during a 1999 car prowl arrest. Another suit, in which a former student deputy claims Covey mistreated her, is pending.

Bellevue police Chief Jim Montgomery, who in 1996 was the county sheriff who disciplined Covey, said he made the best decisions he could based on information and legal counsel.

"I would be on shaky ground to comment, especially considering the length of time that has expired."

When he decided to give Covey only a written reprimand in 1996, Montgomery wrote: "I truly believe this is an isolated incident and it is extremely unlikely that there will be a repeat of this behavior."

But in 2004, another domestic-violence incident netted Covey a trespassing conviction. Still, he was approved for an honorable retirement at age 50. It took effect last year and he collects $5,284 per month, a somewhat reduced rate because of his early retirement age.

Had he been fired in 1996, Covey's eventual monthly pension benefit -- at his full retirement age of 53 -- would have been about $3,669 less than the monthly payment he gets now.

Estimates also show Covey will make about $2 million more in retirement pay during his expected lifetime because he wasn't fired then.

Covey returned a message to say he wasn't interested in talking. "You've got to do your job, and I understand that," he said. "But I still have no comment."

Tax-free pensions

Covey's record of misconduct pales compared to two fellow deputies who also collect pensions -- and they get theirs tax free.


	Bachmeier See what he cost taxpayers

Mathias Bachmeier received two dozen complaints and a felony conviction during his nearly 26-year career.

In 1997, a jury convicted Bachmeier of murdering a man to cover up for an arson-related insurance fraud. It was his second on-duty homicide.

Nine years earlier, he shot to death a man at a Renton gas station, though that controversial shooting later was ruled justified.

Before receiving a life prison sentence, Bachmeier won approval for a duty-disability retirement based on stress and depression under the state's old police pension system -- a designation that gives him a tax-free monthly payment for life.

Bachmeier's personnel records show he could've been fired long before -- saving two lives and hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars.

Among myriad complaints against him stretching as far back as 1973, Bachmeier skirted a potential 1986 firing after he conspired to steal a light bar from a patrol car he wrecked. Instead, Bachmeier received a 15-day suspension.

He continued working -- and racking up complaints. He went on to earn about $450,000 more in pay, and a decade of service -- factors that greatly enhance his pension. He also went on to cost the county an additional $445,000 in legal settlements to the families of the men he killed and for a separate brutality claim.

Now in state prison, Bachmeier gets a $3,103 monthly pension benefit. That's about $2,226 more than he would've gotten, before taxes, had he been fired in 1986 and began drawing a taxable "service retirement" type of pension benefit at age 53, estimates show.

Bachmeier could not be reached for comment. His wife, who receives his monthly pension payment, declined comment.


	Erdt See what he cost taxpayers

Former Deputy Bill Erdt also receives a tax-free duty-disability retirement benefit each month, despite felony convictions.

In 1996, Erdt tricked his then-teenage stepdaughter into believing she'd unwittingly been caught speeding. He later forced her to comply with home punishments he had devised as alternatives to what he told her would have been real jail time. The ruse included forcing the girl to strip naked and confining her for hours to a barn.

Erdt, who'd had a relatively clean work record until then, was convicted and ultimately fired. Still, under the old police pension system, he won a duty-disability retirement -- based in part on a disorder related to his sexual deviancy. That grants Erdt a tax-free monthly pension -- it's now $2,663 -- for life.

Now a registered sex offender, Erdt declined comment for this story through his community corrections officer.

(See our previous coverage of Bill Erdt.)

King County deputies aren't the only cops reaping rewards from disability rules under the old pension plan. Ex-Assistant Tacoma Chief Catherine Woodard -- a key figure in the David Brame murder-suicide scandal -- won a duty-disability retirement for a back problem in 2003.

Woodard allegedly didn't act on death threats she knew Brame, the police chief, made against his wife just weeks before he killed her. She was investigated by the state but never charged with any crime. She now gets at least $65,784 per year tax free.

Washington's old police pension system -- covering those such as Woodard who were hired before Oct. 1, 1977 -- made it easy for firefighters and cops to retire early with relatively minor ailments.

Local disability boards -- some staffed with retired officers or patronage employees -- got to decide if retirees met disability standards. The result: 44 percent of all retirements under that now-closed plan are for duty disabilities, state figures show.

"You can't deny there were some members that went off on duty disability who probably weren't deserving," said Kelly Fox, an Olympia firefighter who now serves as chairman of the state board overseeing Washington's new police and firefighters pension plan. "It created a bad public image."

Lax disability standards were one reason lawmakers replaced the old system with the current, much less generous one in 1977.

Heinous criminals collecting tax-free pensions also led the Legislature in 1997 to pass the "Bachmeier rule" -- a law prohibiting a public employee convicted of a felony from drawing a disability pension when that disability is caused by criminal conduct. But the law can't be made retroactive, so doesn't apply to either Erdt or the deputy it's named after.

"There are much tighter restrictions now," Fox said.

Even so, problem deputies under the newer pension plan are still able to profit -- thanks to their employer. Charles Love is one of them.

Convicted but not fired


	Love See what he cost taxpayers

Almost immediately after Love took a job as a King County sheriff's deputy in 1978, he drew complaints, internal investigative files show (see file of complaints; 32.8MB PDF). Among the first of 30 during his 27-year career came the next year, after he used a racial slur during a traffic stop of a black motorist. A decade later, he used the word again when dealing with two teens, drawing another violation.

But it was an incident in 1985 that could have gotten Love fired. After driving around drinking beer in an unmarked department vehicle, Love and two other deputies conducted an unauthorized drug sting.

They showed up at a woman's apartment and tried to get her to sell pot. When she refused, a scuffle erupted and Love broke into a van owned by the woman's friend. He trashed its interior and slashed its tires -- actions that later netted Love a malicious mischief conviction.

Love wasn't fired. He received a 30-day suspension without pay. He stayed on the job 20 more years -- racking up complaints and lawsuits. He later became vice president of the King County Police Officers Guild.

Had Love been fired, estimates show he would have made about $980,000 less in full retirement pay during his expected lifetime. Love receives a $2,706 per-month pension -- $2,279 more than he would have gotten if he'd been fired in 1985, estimates show.

Reached by phone last month -- about one year since his retirement became official -- Love told the P-I, "I don't want to talk to you."

"I've already contacted an attorney," he added. "You want to ruin my life when I'm retired? I worked hard all my life, and I don't need any hassles from you. You've written some really nasty things about our department. Don't call here again. I'm taking a restraining order out against you."

Coming soon for taxpayers

There are more such cases in the pipeline.


	Zana See what he cost taxpayers

Deputy Ferenc Zana, who skirted termination in 1992, resigned under a cloud late last year, a few months after he left a personal handgun loaded with department bullets on a kitchen counter at his Kenmore condominium. That enabled Zana's drunken, live-in lover -- a suicidal man with a criminal past -- to allegedly use the gun to kill a father of four working at a nearby convenience store.

Zana faced firing for violations that included sleeping on duty; incompetence; and allowing minors to drink alcohol at his home, then use his car.

In a 1991 report, then-Lieutenant Rahr wrote Zana "does not possess the integrity to wear the uniform." But Rahr added the department's progressive discipline policy "limits ... this situation to suspension."

Then-Sheriff Montgomery agreed, only suspending Zana -- discipline that wasn't fully meted out until late 1992, after negotiations with the police guild.

As he did with Covey's case, Montgomery declined comment regarding Zana.

In 2014, the year Zana reaches full retirement age of 53, his per-month benefit will be about $1,446 more than what he would have gotten had he been fired in 1992, estimates show.

Efforts to locate Zana, who moved after resigning last year, were unsuccessful.

Other problem officers still on the job include Denny Gulla, whose checkered career includes allegations of sexual misconduct and improper use of force. Eligible for full retirement in 2009, he could have been fired as far back as 1987, records show.

In that incident, an internal investigation found that Gulla lied about the circumstances surrounding his persuading two teenage girls -- one of them 14 -- to ride with him in his patrol car. He was suspended for five days.

In the nearly 20 years he has worked since then, he has continued drawing complaints. Ensuing violations sustained against him involve striking a prisoner and abusing his authority during his 2004 traffic stop on the estranged husband of his lover. Gulla threatened to shoot the man in the face.

"I've got nothing to say to you guys," Gulla told the P-I.

And Sgt. Patrick Saulet, a King County transit deputy who was nearly fired five years ago for repeated misconduct, becomes eligible for a full retirement in 2010.

In his first two years on the job alone, Saulet drew seven sustained complaints.

"He clearly has a problem," Rahr wrote of Saulet in a July 2000 memo after more complaints. "This is not an isolated incident."

If he continued drawing complaints, she said, "increasing levels of progressive discipline should be employed, up to and including termination."

But that didn't happen, even the very next year, when complaints alleging Saulet drove recklessly and verbally abused a motorist were sustained.

Although two lower commanders recommended Saulet be fired, then-Sheriff Dave Reichert decided to suspend him for eight days.

Reichert, now a U.S. congressman, declined to comment. Saulet did not return calls.

Recent years have been good ones for Saulet's retirement, records show: Since his potential firing, he's made more than $440,000 in pay largely enhanced by overtime.