By Phil Ferolito
Yakima Herald-Republic
YAKIMA, Wash. — Two corrections officers accused of making sexual comments to a woman during training have been fired from the Yakima County Department of Corrections.
The incident occurred at the training academy in Burien about three weeks ago, and both men were dismissed from the academy and fired when they returned to Yakima two weeks ago, Corrections Director Ed Campbell said Monday.
Campbell said the two men made sexual comments to a women from another agency who was also going through training.
Campbell said officials at the academy, operated by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, investigated the incident and found that one of the men lied about it, Campbell said.
Campbell said he couldn’t release the names of the officers, citing employment rules governing personnel matters. They were part of a pool of five officers hired recently, then sent to the academy for training, he said.
“It’s the first time in my tenure here — the last six years — since anything like this has happened.”
Campbell’s department has 142 corrections officers, and will need to hire two more to replace the two that were fired. Meanwhile, other officers are close to retirement, and they will need to be replaced.
“We’re currently in the process of hiring right now to fill some other vacancies,” he said.