The housecleaning of the King County Sheriff’s Department continues:
King County Sheriff John Urquhart has fired a sergeant who, according to an internal investigation, falsely accused a bus driver of using a profanity during an argument.
In a termination letter sent last week to Sgt. Lou Caballero, Urquhart cited video evidence captured on a personal body camera worn by the King County Metro Transit driver, which showed no profanity was used during the Nov. 14 argument.
Caballero’s firing was effective Aug. 20.
Since taking office in 2012, Sheriff Urquhart has earned high marks for his willingness to purge the ranks of the county’s police force of corrupt, dishonest, and incompetent officers. He ran on a platform of accountability in 2012, defeating incumbent Steve Strachan. After the election, he quickly got to work.
To date, he has now fired the following deputies:
- Amy Shoblom, for dishonesty (termination letter)
- Joel Anderson, for repeatedly sleeping on the job (termination letter)
- Christopher Dearth, for criminal conduct and conduct unbecoming an officer
- Dewey Burns, for sending racist and offensive text messages
- K.C. Saulet, for harassing The Stranger’s Dominic Holden (termination letter)
- Whitney Richtmyer, for criminal conduct and dishonesty
- Darrion Holiwell, for helping his wife work as a prostitute, stealing ammunition from the department, and illegally delivering testosterone
- Andrea Alexander, for knowingly taking pay she wasn’t entitled to
Urquhart has also fired a weapons screener who used to work at the King County Courthouse for parking in the courthouse garage for free dozens of times without permission, and a deputy who had lied about writing tickets.
It’s pretty refreshing that we have a sheriff who is willing to get rid of bad cops. Discarding the rotten apples sends an important message: Lying, thieving, and slacking off on the job will not be tolerated. The above deputies were, in many cases, given second and even third chances earlier in their careers, and continued to exercise poor judgment. It’s for the best that they find a new line of work.