SOUTH BEND — Several active and former Pacific County officers are on the radar of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC), which is currently looking into complaints against each. Only two of the six are currently working in law enforcement.

According to the CJTC complaint database, Pacific County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Ryley Queener, Sgt. Kyle Pettit, former sheriff Scott Johnson, former deputy Jesse Eastham, former officers Christopher Boggs (Shoalwater Bay Police Department), and Sean Jarvis (Raymond Police Department) are the officers under review.

Any of the six could face revocation of their peace officer certification if the CJTC finds the complaint against them is verified by substantial proof. Any citizen can submit complaints, but only those meeting specific criteria are actively investigated. At a minimum, the agency evaluates every complaint.

‘Brady cops’

Jarvis, Pettit, Eastham and Johnson are listed on the Pacific County Prosecutor’s Office roster for “Brady cops,” meaning they were all found to have created doubts about their credibility while acting in an official capacity.

According to the complaints database, the complaints against Pettit, Eastham, Johnson and Jarvis are referenced to RCW 43.101.105 (2)(d), which appear to be about their Brady status. All were filed on the same date, March 8 of this year.

Pull Quote

Any citizen can submit complaints, but only those meeting specific criteria are actively investigated.

This state law explains the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brady decision. It comes into play when an officer “has been terminated by the employing agency or otherwise separated from the employing agency after knowingly making, or found by a court to have knowingly made, misleading, deceptive, untrue, or fraudulent representations in the practice of being a peace officer or corrections officer including, but not limited to, committing perjury, filing false reports, hiding evidence, or failing to report exonerating information.”

The complaint against Pettit is linked to his time during one of two stints at the RPD. He received his Brady letter in response to a 2011 crash that involved one of his friends. He was alleged to have lied or misled investigators.

Likewise, the Jarvis complaint is linked to either one of two incidents that affected his law enforcement career. He received a Brady letter in 2018 for an incident in 2008, in which he alleged to have tried to enter homes while “highly intoxicated.” At the time, he was a newly hired PCSO corrections deputy. He was the focus of a second investigation in 2018 that led to his resignation the same year from the RPD.

Johnson’s complaint regards a Brady letter issued in 2019 for allegedly misleading the public and his staff. A week before his election loss to Robin Souvenir, he hired his father to be the undersheriff but said he wouldn’t be paid. Public records disclosed that Johnson submitted a formal request to add his father to the payroll.

Eastham’s inclusion on the Brady list is the most severe. His letter is over 70 pages long, recounting occasions when his statements were said by supervisors to be untrue. On April 4, 2022, he was fired by then-sheriff Souvenir.

That the complaints against Pettit, Jarvis, Eastham and Johnson were all filed on the same day and cite the same state law suggests there may be a connection to a recent upswing in public-records requests for Brady letters in Pacific County.

Two more

Queener has two ongoing active complaints being investigated, with submission dates of Nov. 11, 2022, and Feb. 23, 2023. Details of the complaints are not specified, but one references RCW 43.101.105 (j)(iv) regarding ethical-standards violations by officers. The other complaint does not refer to a specific state law.

The Boggs complaint was lodged on May 13, 2022, by someone representing his former agency, and it references RCW 43.101.105 (2)(d). However, he does not have a Brady letter on file, and it’s unknown what allegations are contained in the complaint.

According to the CJTC website, “WSCJTC staff will receive the complaint, track the information, contact the employing agency to discuss the complaint, and ensure an investigation is completed if the alleged misconduct meets the requirements of the law.”

Pacific County Sheriff Daniel Garcia did not respond to a request for comment regarding two of his deputies, Queener and Pettit, being listed on the CJTC website as being actively investigated.

Pettit was promoted to sergeant by Garcia on Feb. 17 and has been with the agency for just under four years. He was rehired by RPD in late 2018 after several years away from law enforcement before being hired at the sheriff’s office.