By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The U.S. Department of Justice looked into the events that led to the firing of a Lewis County Jail guard last summer involving mistreatment of an inmate and has concluded it will not file any federal criminal charges.
Trevor S. Smith, a 10-year-veteran of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, was terminated last June for abusing his authority and allowing inmates to suffer.
The Chehalis resident was subsequently arrested for computer trespass, for allegedly snooping into secure jail computer records. Earlier this year, Smith was given a 90-day sentence of electronic home monitoring, after a plea deal in which local prosecutors agreed not to file any charges of assault that could have occurred during his time as a corrections officer.
However, before Sheriff Steve Mansfield left office, he had asked the FBI to investigate Smith for inmate civil rights violations, according to Jail Chief Kevin Hanson.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office received a letter from the Department of Justice, informing them their investigation of the complaint was finished.
“After careful consideration, we concluded that the evidence does not establish a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes,” Section Chief Robert J. Moossy Jr., of the criminal section of DOJs Civil Rights Division, wrote.
New Undersheriff Wes Rethwill informed the Lewis County Board of Commissioners yesterday of the news.
“There’s still more to come, fallout from that,” Rethwill told the board. “But that’s been taken off the table.”
Smith was disciplined in 2013 for directing that an inmate be kept in a restraint chair for approximately twelve hours without food, water or restroom breaks. Then on Jan. 25 of last year, an inmate with mental health issues was not offered any kind of relief – such as water or decontamination – for more than five hours after the discharge of pepper spray into his closed cell. Sheriff Mansfield described both inmates as assaultive.
Rethwill didn’t elaborate to commissioners about what other fallout he expects, but Hanson said a lawyer representing the pepper sprayed inmate has made a request for the documents in the case.
And former Undersheriff-Chief of Staff Steven Walton who handled Smith’s termination, indicated in a document during those proceedings that Smith put the sheriff’s office and the county in “an indefensible position in a future litigation process.”
Moossy in his letter noted the DOJ decision to close the matter should not be seen as a vindication of Smith’s actions.
The Criminal Section of the DOJ Civil Rights Division enforces federal criminal civil rights laws, such as the willful abuse of authority by law enforcement officers that deprives individuals of liberties and rights defined in the United States Constitution or federal law.
They evaluate allegations of civil rights violations to determine whether the evidence and circumstances of the case warrant a federal criminal prosecution.
Hanson said in his 24 years with the jail, they have never asked the FBI to investigate an employee’s treatment of inmates.
Moossy named the inmate from the January 2014 incident as Wellington Waggener.
Waggener, then 24, was arrested by Centralia police on Jan. 18, 2014, after he was told not to come back but returned to a business on the 300 block of North Tower Avenue and then allegedly fought with officers who attempted to detain him.
Less than a month earlier, he was detained by multiple officers in the middle of Interstate 5 in Chehalis, following a call from Green Hill School giving police a heads up about an employee acting strangely and being made to leave the juvenile detention facility.
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For background, read “Former jail sergeant admits three felonies, gets immunity regarding inmate treatment” from Wednesday January 28, 2015, here [1]