By Cameron Probert
Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Wash.)
KENNEWICK, Wash. — A judge has issued a second temporary restraining order against Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond in the escalating fight for control of the county’s jail.
The Franklin County sheriff can’t order his deputies to take guns or Tasers from the jail or violate other court orders, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Walla Walla County Superior Court Judge Brandon Johnson issued a preliminary order aimed at preventing Raymond from commanding his employees to do anything else that would violate a court order. It specifically mentions taking back guns or Tasers from the jail.
On Friday, another judge approved a temporary order preventing the removal of the equipment from the jail until a full hearing could be held in early May.
Sheriff Raymond disputes whether that judge had the proper authority and took the matter into his own hands, ordering his deputies to seize the weapons.
Some deputies objected and the unions representing the commanders and deputies asked a judge to intervene, resulting in the second restraining order.
Other deputies followed Raymond’s orders and he announced during a Monday news conference that he seized 50 guns from the jail.
The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office quickly filed a motion for Raymond to be found in contempt for violating the first court order. There has been no ruling on that motion.
“The application that we have filed does not have anything to do with who is the best entity to run the jail,” union attorney Dan Thenell told the Tri-City Herald. “It says, ‘We’re going to follow a valid court order until another court overturns it,’ because the rule of law should mean something.”
Sheriff vs. commissioners
The fight over the guns and Tasers is part of a larger struggle between Raymond and the Franklin County commissioners over control of the jail and security at the courthouse.
The commissioners approved two resolutions last week that stripped Raymond of his authority over both.
While the move is not unusual, Raymond has called it unconstitutional.
As part of his reaction to the order, Raymond said he would remove the jail staff’s commissions as law enforcement officers, which gives them authority to be armed inside the courthouse in Pasco and to enforce laws.
He also said he would take control of the weapons issued by the sheriff’s office.
The guns are used by corrections officers when taking inmates to court and the hospital or when traveling to other places. They are not carried inside the jail.
Jail Commander Keilen Harmon wrote in an affidavit as part of the motion that the guns also are needed in case there is a riot inside the jail.
And Civil Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Briggs argued taking the weapons away makes the officers less safe.
Initially all of the Benton and Franklin Superior Court judges recused themselves because of a conflict of interest. They appointed Benton County District Court Judge Jennifer Azure as judge pro-tem to make an initial ruling.
She approved temporary order preventing Raymond or other deputies from removing guns, Tasers, pepper spray and riot equipment from control of the jail.
But Raymond didn’t believe she had the authority to sign it.
Thenell responded to Raymond in an email on Monday telling the sheriff that his commands were in violation of a valid court order.
Raymond replied by vowing to fight the county in court for control of the jail.
“This morning we seemed to have experienced a mutiny while attempting to recover the firearms that are owned, registered and controlled by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office from a jail facility that is not authorized to store or carry firearms. All because a temporary judge was fooled into signing a restraint order which I was not even made privy to,” Raymond wrote in an email to Thenell.
Raymond responded to the unions’ attempts to get a restraining order by saying that they are “getting involved in attempts to undermine the Office of the Sheriff along with the Board of County Commissioners,” in a Facebook post following the filing of the temporary restraining order.
He said the refusal of deputies and commanders to follow his commands will be handled internally. And the “insubordinate employees” have returned to work.
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