REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
Friday, September 11, 2015 | Vol. 90, No. 37 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS RETURN TO BAINBRIDGE
INSIDE: BHS girls back on course, A15
State Trooper claims city violated his rights to privacy WAS FRONT-RUNNER FOR BAINBRIDGE POLICE JOB BY BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review
A trooper with the Washington State Patrol is claiming the city of Bainbridge Island violated his privacy rights and hurt his law enforcement career after he was rejected for a job with the Bainbridge police department. Jermaine Walker, a 32-yearold trooper with the State Patrol, filed a $300,000 damage claim against the city in May. In the claim for damages, Robert Kim, Walker’s attorney, said city officials illegally shared private information with the Washington State Patrol about Walker that Bainbridge had obtained after he sought a job with the island department. Walker applied for a position with the Des Moines Police Department and the Bainbridge department, in 2014. Walker was a front-runner for one of the open positions in the Bainbridge department late last year, but he was eventually rejected as a candidate after Bainbridge officials learned troubling details about his past as a police officer.
Polygraph test goes bad
Luciano Marano | Bainbridge Island Review
At top, the Bainbridge High cheer squad leads the student fans in a dance at Friday’s inaugural football game against North Kitsap High. At left, Coach Andy Grimm talks to his team after the bruising battle. The Spartans fell behind early and were ultimately defeated 28-0 by their perennial rivals. It had been at least two years since the season’s first game was played on the island. See page A16 for a complete summary of the year’s first football game.
Those details emerged after Walker took a polygraph test for the Des Moines department on July 7, 2014 with Everett Polygraph Services in Everett. According to a Washington State Patrol investigator’s crime log, obtained by the Review through a public records request, Walker — during pre-polygraph questioning — said he had written “false and misleading speed affidavits” from 2007 through 2013 and had lied in court when he had testified that he had tested his radar equipment and video camera before and after his shifts. “Trooper Walker also disclosed that he failed to report to the WSP that a trooper took alcohol from a collision scene,” the investigator’s case log noted. Officials with the Des Moines department did not offer Walker a job.
When Bainbridge began checking Walker’s background, they learned the trooper had applied for a position with the Des Moines department but wasn’t hired. Bainbridge Detective Scott Weiss contacted Des Moines to find out why, and was told by a sergeant in the department about the polygraph test and Walker’s statements.
Early front-runner Earlier this year, at a Kitsap County sheriff and police chiefs’ meeting in January, Bainbridge Police Chief Matthew Hamner told Capt. Chris Old of the Washington State Patrol that Walker had been placed on Bainbridge’s hiring list and was a finalist for a position. Hamner also said, according to a case log of the WSP’s investigation into Walker, that Bainbridge’s hiring committee was excited about Walker as a job applicant. Things soured, however, after Bainbridge officials learned about the polygraph test and that Walker reportedly never followed the procedures for checking his radar gear and had not been truthful in court. Hamner told Old he was surprised nothing ever came of Walker’s statements. “Chief Hamner said as a part of [Bainbridge Island Police Department’s] background [check] he would have thought the WSP knew about Walker admitting to lying in court but found out that the WSP never investigated it,” according to Old’s notes on the investigation. That appeared to quickly change after Old’s conversation with Hamner at the chiefs’ meeting. The State Patrol launched an internal investigation, and contacted the Des Moines and Bainbridge departments for copies of the polygraph test report. The city of Des Moines refused to release the report TURN TO TROOPER | A4