Sheriff charged with falsely reporting Black newspaper carrier to police [View all]

[Zorro]

A sheriff in Washington state has been charged with two misdemeanors for falsely accusing a Black man delivering newspapers in January of making threats against him — an incident that led to a significant police response in a suburban neighborhood.

The Washington state attorney general’s office on Tuesday charged Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer, who is White, with one count of false reporting and one count of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, the office said.

In the early morning of Jan. 27 in Tacoma, Wash., Sedrick Altheimer, a Black newspaper carrier in his 20s, was working his route in his car and making deliveries to homes when he noticed a white SUV that appeared to be following him.

Altheimer asked Troyer, who was driving the vehicle, if he was a cop, according to court documents. Altheimer in the documents said Troyer did not answer, nor did he identify himself as the sheriff or a law enforcement officer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/21/ed-troyer-washington-sheriff-false-reporting/