WDFW & WDFW Officers Sued by Tribal Members

[bigtex]

I want to preface this post with the federal lawsuit is early and the claims in the lawsuit are just that, claims/accusations not proven facts.

WDFW, Directors Unsworth and Susewind, as well as 11 named WDFW Enforcement personnel are being sued by 4 Tulalip Tribal members for violating their civil rights as part of a commercial fishing investigation into the members by WDFW. Now most of the 11 named officers are named because they participated in arrests/raids as ordered and weren't involved with the inter-workings of the case and for that reason I will not name them in this post. However, several officers, some of which have been the center of multiple internal affairs and lawsuits, are also being sued and I have chosen to include their names. The following are excerpts from the lawsuit:

Since at least 2015, DFW officers and agents have profiled and harassed Plaintiffs, who are both Tulalip Tribal enrolled members and Tribal fisherpersons, for racial and ethnic reasons. DFW officers and agents have done so under the guise of a “criminal investigation” that has known no lawful or ethical bounds. DFW officers and agents have acted to prevent Plaintiffs from exercising their Treaty-protected fishing rights; taken retaliatory actions against them and their wives and
families for challenging DFW’s unlawful conduct through the courts; and denied Plaintiffs rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and Washington State law. DFW, along with its officers and agents, have continued to act with racial animus towards Plaintiffs since it commenced its purported criminal investigation of them in 2015.

Plaintiffs owned and operated PSSD, which has suspended business operations due to Defendants’ harassment and actions. Plaintiffs formed their Tulalip tribal business in 2015 for the primary purpose of buying and distributing at wholesale, Indian Treaty-harvested seafood products. Plaintiffs purchased salmon, crab, and other shellfish from their fellow Tulalip fisherpersons and obtained a significant share of the wholesale market at Tulalip and in the Puget Sound. This frustrated DFW and Plaintiffs’ non Indian competitors, causing DFW to begin investigating Plaintiffs’ Treaty-protected fishing
activities and their company’s successful entrance into the wholesale salmon and crab market.

Initial DFW official reports establish that DFW officers and agents disparaged Plaintiffs as a greedy Indian—“Likes money”—and a dumb Indian—“Not so smart”—respectively. This underscores the racial animus with which Defendants have acted towards Plaintiffs since 2015, as well as reports from former DFW officers that DFW, at the behest of Defendant Mike Cenci in particular, have reapportioned Department law enforcement resources to profile Native American Treaty fisherpersons for enforcement action.

On June 13, 2016, Defendants WDFW Officers lead or directed by Defendant Detective Wendy Willette and other DFW officers and agents, orchestrated the unlawful arrests of Plaintiffs at the Port of Everett as they prepared to participate in a lucrative Tulalip crab fishery “opener.” Defendants Willette, WDFW Officers each handcuffed them, and placed them into marked DFW patrol cars for transport to the Marysville Jail. Defendants committed all of these acts without an arrest warrant or probable cause. As Defendants were transporting Plaintiffs to the Marysville Jail, Defendant Captain Alan Myers directed Defendants WDFW Officers to return Plaintiffs to the Port of Everett and release them from DFW custody. By confessing to a “change in plans” in their own reports, Defendants admitted to the false arrest of Plaintiffs.

Also on June 13, 2016, while Defendants were unlawfully arresting and detaining Plaintiffs, DFW officers and agents executed a search warrant on Plaintiffs’ homes. DFW’s unlawful search warrants were based on a series of three search warrant affidavits that Defendant Willette prepared in May and June 2016 and which misstated and omitted material facts. Defendant Willette’s first three search warrant affidavits, which she submitted to at least three different courts, including the King County Superior Court, were chiefly predicated on false information provided by Jonathan Richardson of Sea Breeze Seafoods, a disgruntled non-Indian competitor of Plaintiffs and personal friend of Defendant.

Defendants copied the hard-drives to Plaintiffs Macbook Pro laptops. On September 23, 2016, Detective Willette stored one of those copied hard-drives in a previously used DFW evidence bag—which contained methamphetamine “crystals” and “powder” from a completely unrelated DFW case. According to Defendant Golden:

Wendy called me and said we had a ‘big big problem’ and then told me she was packaging up a PSSD hardrive [sic] copies and heard a grinding noise in the evidence bag. She opened the bag and found what appeared to be meth loose in the bottom of the bag. She tested with a NIK kit and showed positive. . .

Captain Myers . . . admonished her for testing the drug at the front desk. Captain Myers called later and told me [sic] had admonished Wendy for testing the drugs at the customer service area. He had tried to get her to move to the back but she was not listening. My general impression was that Wendy was exposed to the drug due to the language she used.


In addition to behaving with racial animus towards Plaintiffs, DFW and Defendants have demonstrated a remarkable level of ineptitude in carrying out purported law enforcement duties.

On August 15, 2016, Defendant Willette seized and destroyed approximately 1,185 pounds of Treaty-harvested clams used for crab bait that PSSD purchased from Tribal fisherpersons and sold to other Tribal fisherpersons as bait for Treaty fishing, all of which occurred within usual and accustomed Treaty fishing areas. DFW and Defendant Willette
destroyed Plaintiffs’ property without judicial authorization or notice to Plaintiffs, depriving them of their constitutional right to due process of law. The crab bait clams were secured in a cold storage facility located in Burlington, Washington. Because the Treaty-harvested bait was not subject to state regulation, and was not advertised or held for sale as shellfish intended for human consumption, it was not subject to inspection for compliance with state or federal sanitation regulations. Detective Willette was either ignorant of this fact or completely disregarded it in order to illegally seize and destroy Plaintiffs’ property without due process of law.

Next, Defendant Willette reported Plaintiffs to the Washington State Department of Revenue (“DOR”), alleging that PSSD had not filed tax returns in connection with their Treaty-protected fishing activities. Plaintiffs’ Treaty-protected fishing activities are, however, exempt from taxation under well-established state and federal law—again, a fact that Detective Willette completely disregarded in making false reports to DOR.

Most appallingly, Defendant Willette reported Plaintiffs to the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Child Protective Services (“CPS”). Defendant Willette had falsely informed CPS that Plaintiffs’ children were in danger. Defendant Willette’s actions and lies caused CPS to visit and inspect Plaintiffs’ residence, ostensibly to perform a welfare check of their children. Fueled by Defendant Willette’s lies, CPS case managers invaded Plaintiffs’ privacy, and subjected them to numerous demeaning and culturally insensitive comments. CPS took no action against Plaintiffs because, simply, no reason existed to be concerned for their children’s welfare.

On or about December 28, 2016, Plaintiffs learned that DFW and Defendant Willette had obtained at least one new search warrant in November of 2016 from the King County Superior Court. Subsequent investigation revealed that DFW and Defendant Willette had obtained twenty-seven search warrants from the King County Superior Court on November 15, 2016 alone. Each of those search warrants contained an illegal “gag-order,” which stated that the recipient was “prohibited from disclosing the existence of the search warrant to the subjects and/or affiliates of this investigation or any other party.”

When Plaintiff's tax preparer—an Australian citizen who is in America on a visa—innocently responded to Plaintiff's inquiry about the whereabouts of his tax returns, by explaining that DFW seized those papers from his office, Defendant Willette revisited the tax preparer to threaten him with criminal obstruction of justice prosecution and deportation from the Country. Defendants’ illegal search warrants were a part of Defendants’ racially motivated, retaliatory scheme against Plaintiffs.

Defendant Willette forewent advice from DFW’s Assistant Attorneys General as she sought and executed what would total at least thirty-two search warrants against Plaintiffs in 2016 and 2017. Instead, Defendant Willette went so far as to engage in the unauthorized practice of law. For example, Defendant Willette herself presented ex-parte motions to seal search warrants pleadings to the King County Superior Court on November 15, 2016, and on March 15, 2017—all without compliance with court rules pertaining to the sealing of public records or pleadings. DFW and Defendant Willette also failed to provide notice of the presentation of the motion to extend the original Sealing Order without compliance with the rules for sealing public records and pleadings.

Throughout 2017 and into 2018, Defendants Willette and Sergeant Erik Olson “shopped” various manufactured criminal charges against Plaintiffs to at least five state prosecuting attorney’s offices: King County, Snohomish County, Pierce County, Skagit County, and the Washington State Attorney General. In 2014, Defendant Olson was rebuked by the King County Prosecutor’s Office for “direct filing” criminal charges in various courts in King County. By 2018, King and Snohomish Counties each declined to bring criminal charges against Plaintiffs despite referral from Defendants Willette and Olson

[CAMPMEAT]

Good posting bigtex. I moved out of that hell hole State of Washington 2 1/3 years ago to Arizona. World of difference..

[Boss .300 winmag]

I sure wouldn’t want to be this Willete chick, I think she stepped in big doo doo.🤔

[ghosthunter]

Wow

Never ends.
Seems like Cenci was involved in this type of thing before.

I think the whole Olympia  office needs a shake down, top to bottom. What a mess.

[bigtex]

Wow

Never ends.
Seems like Cenci was involved in this type of thing before.

I think the whole Olympia  office needs a shake down, top to bottom. What a mess.

The WDFW Enforcement HQ has completely transitioned. Steve Bear was brought in from Alaska to be Chief. Deputy Chief Mike Cenci retired. Deputy Chief Mike Hobbs is no longer in his position. Paul Golden was promoted to Deputy Chief and things are running smoother.

The thing is, lawsuits and cases take time. The beginnings of this whole case goes back to 2015 which was in the middle of the Cenci reign. His footprints will be in the agency for years to come.

[Oh Mah]

Thanks for posting this,Wow is about all i can say.Abuse of power on steroids.

[Special T]

So will this just be a department pay out? Or is there some kind of criminal charge that can go along with this?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

[huntnphool]

 Wasn't there a thread not so long ago that talked about arrests being made and that the tribe was gong to sue?

 Is this part of the same thing?

[WSU]

What is the cause number?

[bigtex]

So will this just be a department pay out? Or is there some kind of criminal charge that can go along with this?

$$$$$$$$$

The trial is slated for the summer of 2020. What you'll see happen between now and then is the state Attorney General's office which is representing the agency and employees will move to have the officers be protected under qualified immunity. Which basically means the officers were doing their jobs and didn't have any malicious intent and their names will be removed from the suit. Now for the officers who I didn't name that will likely happen because they were simply following orders (ie show up tomorrow and arrest John Doe and take him to jail) and is the reason why I didn't name them. However, Olson and Willette will have an uphill battle for this.

[bigtex]

Wasn't there a thread not so long ago that talked about arrests being made and that the tribe was gong to sue?

 Is this part of the same thing?

Yes

[huntnphool]

Wasn't there a thread not so long ago that talked about arrests being made and that the tribe was gong to sue?

 Is this part of the same thing?

Yes

 Do you remember the thread, can you post the link?

[Tbar]

https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,232892.msg3106551.html#msg3106551

[bigtex]

Wasn't there a thread not so long ago that talked about arrests being made and that the tribe was gong to sue?

 Is this part of the same thing?

Yes

Do you remember the thread, can you post the link?

https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,232838.0.html

https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,232892.msg3106551.html#msg3106551

[huntnphool]

 Thanks guys.