CHRISTIE : LAW GROUP PLLC EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INVESTIGATION. As part of my investigation I met and interviewed the following individuals:

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1 CHRISTIE : LAW GROUP PLLC Ms. Lynda Hummel RMSA Claims Coordinator Member Pooling Programs Association of Washington Cities 1076 Franklin Street S.E. Olympia, WA Re: City of Orting Investigation Dear Ms. Hummel: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I have been asked to investigate the facts and circumstances surrounding an that former Orting City Council Member Sam Colorossi sent to City personnel (hereinafter referred to as the Colorossi ), including members of the police department, on November 30, 2015 at 12:54 p.m. The has a subject line as follows: Ref: Dear White Cops: Do Not Put Your Lives & Careers on the line policing negros. One purpose of the investigation was to determine whether this particular , the subject line and attachment to which are objectively racially insensitive 1, and sent at a point in time when Mr. Colorossi was still a member of the City Council, constituted an isolated event or was indicative of a broader issue. My determination is that the was an isolated event and was not indicative of a broader issue. Indeed, City personnel acted immediately upon receipt of the to counter the negative message contained in the subject line and attachment, and actively took steps to inform the one minority police officer in the department that the City was taking the matter seriously and would call for an investigation. This is that investigation. INVESTIGATION As part of my investigation I met and interviewed the following individuals: 1. Former Council Member Sam Colorossi 2. Officer Nile Teclemariam 1 As part of my investigation, I watched the full YouTube-posted rant by Mr. Sotomayor, the link to which was contained in Mr. Colorossi s . Mr. Sotomayor s presentation is replete with racial comments presented in an extremely stereotypic and derogatory manner. POST: 2100 WESTLAKE AVE. N., SUITE 206, SEATTLE, WA T F W CHRISTIELAWGROUP.COM

2 Page 2 of 6 3. Lieutenant Chris Gard 4. Detective Mike Cassatt 5. Officer Larry Isenhart 6. City Administrator Mark Bethune 7. Mayor Joe Petinger 8. Officer Devon Gabreluk 9. Council Member Barbara Ford, and 10. Chief William Drake I have also gathered all s circulated to City personnel as a follow-up to the Colorossi . The chronology of the significant follow-up s is as follows: 1. On November 30 th at 2:01 p.m. Chief Drake sent an to Mayor Pestinger and Mr. Bethune regarding the Colorossi Ten minutes later at 2:11 p.m., Chief Drake sent an categorizing the Importance as High to his entire police department with the subject line: Re: received from Council Member Colorossi at 12:55 pm today TAKE NO ACTION OR FORWARD. The text of the directed all recipients to not take any action (e.g. Do not click on the video link) or otherwise forward or act on this Officer Teclemariam responded to Chief Drake s at 2:28 p.m. (also on November 30 th ), with a copy to Police Lt. Chris Gard, stating: Although I ve already viewed the links. I will refrain from replying at your request but believe a discussion needs to had regarding the councilman s . I hope proper and necessary actions will be taken in this matter. Officer Teclemariam sent this from his iphone. I know from speaking to him that he was off duty at the time of the events described above. 4. As a further follow-up to Chief Drake s , Mayor Pestinger sent an at 4:29 p.m. on November 30 th, categorizing the Importance as High, directed to Mr. Bethune and City Staff, stating: I wholeheartedly agree with Chief Drake s direction, and ask all City staff members to follow it also. This was an inappropriate from Councilmember Colorossi and should have never been sent. Mark, please forward this to city staff, including the Police Department, and City Council Members. 5. Mr. Bethune, as requested, immediately (at 4:38 p.m. on November 30 th ) sent Mayor Pestinger s referenced above, again categorizing the Importance as High, to all City staff, all of the police department, and to all City Council members. His separate message was Please see Mayor Pestinger s note below. 6. On November 30 th, Council Member Barbara Ford had a direct exchange with Mr. Colorossi objecting to him sending such an inflammatory to anyone on the City system, confirming that she had deleted the message and not viewed the linked video. Mr. Colorossi responded to her, and she forwarded that exchange on to Mr. Bethune on the morning of

3 Page 3 of 6 December 1 st. This exchange was not further circulated within the City. 7. On December 3 rd at 10:11 a.m., Mayor Pestinger sent a second to all City and police personnel, with a copy to City Attorney Jay Long and Lynda Hummel of RSMA. In his Mayor Pestinger stated as follows: As a follow-up to Councilmember Colorossi s , I want to reiterate that while Councilmember Colorossi is entitled to his own personal opinions, his personal opinions do not reflect those of the City. The City does not tolerate discrimination of any sort based on race, age, sex, religion, creed, national origin, disability and/or sexual preference, or any other protected category. Due to concerns raised by staff, the City will retain an independent investigator to investigate staff concerns regarding the . In addition, if you are aware of any allegations of discrimination please report them promptly to Mark Bethune and the City will promptly investigate. There are no other City-wide s distributed on this subject to the best of my knowledge. I was retained on December 3 rd to investigate this matter as outlined above. INTERVIEWS From my interviews of the individuals identified above, I learned that Lt. Chris Gard, whose office is very close to that of Chief Drake, observed the Colorossi shortly after it arrived on his work computer. He did not click on the video link, immediately observed the inappropriate subject heading, and deleted the from his computer, concerned that the link might be a virus. He recalls alerting Chief Drake to the almost immediately thereafter. He received Chief Drake s 2:11 p.m. shortly thereafter. Officer Teclemariam was off duty and recalls getting the on his cell phone while he was visiting with his sister. He recalls that they watched the attached link and were shocked and upset by its contents. He composed a couple of different versions of a draft that he was planning to send to Chief Drake, but had not sent anything before receiving Chief Drake s 2:11 p.m. . He responded to this with his of 2:28 p.m., identified above. Officer Teclemariam and Lt. Gard spoke later that day. Officer Teclemariam was perplexed by the Colorossi . Lt. Gard recalls assuring Officer Teclemariam that we are here to support you. Both Lt. Gard and Officer Teclemariam confirmed to me in our separate discussions that neither of them have any sense that there is racial bias present in the City of Orting Police Department or in the City administration. Chief Drake confirmed for me that he opened his around 2:00 p.m. on November 30 th and observed the subject line of the Colorossi . He did not click on the attachment. He immediately sent an to Mr. Bethune and Mayor Pestinger about the Colorossi

4 Page 4 of 6 (identified above). He then composed his to the entire department that went out at 2:11 p.m. After receiving Officer Teclemariam s sent at 2:28 p.m., Chief Drake reached out to Officer Devon Gabreluk, who is the police guild representative, to arrange for Officer Gabreluk to be present for a meeting that he planned to hold with Officer Teclemariam. By this point in time Officer Gabreluk had (1) received Chief Drake s , (2) received a copy of Officer Teclemariam s to Chief Drake, and (3) spoken with Officer Teclemariam by phone. Officer Gabreluk and Officer Teclemariam met with Chief Drake on December 1 st. Chief Drake told Officer Teclemariam that the department takes the matter of the Colorossi seriously and that it would be investigated independently. Later that day Officer Gabreluk sent a letter to Chief Drake, stating: This letter is in relation to a status update you provided the guild on 12/1/2015 relating to a complaint voiced by Officer Nile Teclemariam. While we understand that the issue is still being reviewed, the guild would like to thank the city for taking the time to investigate the complaint voiced. Detective Mike Cassatt sits a couple of desks over from Chief Drake s office. When he saw the subject line of the Colorossi on November 30 th, he recalls alerting Chief Drake to it. He did not click on the link and did not otherwise watch the video. Detective Cassatt has been with the Police Department since 1995 and described there being no negative history of racial insensitivity in the workplace. Officer Larry Isenhart also saw the Colorossi , but did not click on the link and has not otherwise viewed the video. He has been with the department for three years, having transferred from the Benton County Sheriff s Office. He has observed no racial insensitivity in the department. I met and interviewed Mr. Colorossi in his home. He was generous with his time and completely candid in our discussion. Mr. Colorossi has a long history of dedicated public service to the City of Orting and the community. Since 1965 he has served on every manner of civic organization in the City. He has served as Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Council Member at various times throughout the past 48 years. His most recent term as council member ended in December 2015, having lost a narrow election for the position in November. Mr. Colorossi informed me that the underlying video link came to him in an from another individual whose name he could not recall and whose address is not on the that he forwarded to City personnel. The underlying states: Skip the ads. This guy is brutal with what he says, but some of it, [sic] is sadly true. The way things are today this man offers sage advise.. [sic] For anyone with relatives/friends who are with law enforcement. [sic] It goes on to say [WARNING] LANGUAGE/ATTITUDE/TRUTH/FACTS If you can t handle either of the aforementioned, please don t bother watching this. Mr. Colorossi viewed part of the video link. He had no previous knowledge of or exposure to Mr. Sotomayor. He decided to send the and attached link along to police personnel as informational only from his perspective. He found Mr. Sotomayor s language so strong that it was

5 Page 5 of 6 too much. From what he viewed of the video, he was struck by the message that when a police officer goes into a domestic situation, the officer can become a victim. Another concern he had from watching the video was for Orting officers that are sometimes called to assist another agency in bigger jurisdiction scenarios that are not typical for what officers face on a routine basis. These were the parts of the message in the video that struck him and, as he viewed it, were not tied to race. It was not his intent to communicate an adoption of the racially charged message in the video overall. I explored with him the part of his relating to lateral transfers. His thought process on that was tied to his experience as chair of finance for the City. He recalls reviewing recaps of staffing from the Police Department and believes that there were more lateral requests from officers in other agencies than he could remember in his time in City government. Mr. Colorossi recognized that his could be viewed as an endorsement of the negative and racial tone of the video link that he was forwarding on, and emphasized again that this was not his intent at all. He recognizes that the has brought a lot of negative attention to him and he has learned a hard lesson from the whole incident. He feels badly to have offended people in the city that he loves and the city he has worked hard over his entire adult life to serve. DOG INCIDENT During my investigation I learned of a call for police services involving Officer Teclemariam that occurred on October 23, 2015 near Mr. Colorossi s home involving a neighbor s dog that had been injured and died from an arrow that had been shot at it. By coincidence, Mr. Colorossi had seen this same dog, which he knew to be owned by one of his neighbors, on a morning walk. The dog, a pitbull, had charged at him and he was able to halt the charge by distracting the dog with his umbrella and with a dog treat that he carries on his walks. Mr. Colorossi prepared an to the police department concerning this encounter and forwarded it to the department that morning. It was later that same day, shortly after noon, when the call for service came in from another Orting citizen who observed the dog with an arrow sticking out of its body. One of the investigating officers made contact with the individual, who admitted to shooting the dog because it had menaced him. Officer Teclemariam was another officer that responded to the scene. Officer Teclemariam recalls having brief contact with Mr. Colorossi, but nothing of substance. I had learned of this contact from Officer Teclemariam prior to my meeting with Mr. Colorossi, so I asked him about his recollection. He had no recall of having had contact with Officer Teclemariam. He does know who Officer Teclemariam is, and recalls having met him formally when Officer Teclemariam joined the force and was introduced to all of the City Council members. He does not recall having had any substantive contact with Officer Teclemariam over the years since. Likewise, Officer Teclemariam has had casual contact with Mr. Colorossi when they would both be at City Hall, but could recall no substantive contact with him otherwise.

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