The state Attorney General’s Office will not pursue criminal charges against former Clark County Detective Kevin Harper, the state agency wrote in a letter Tuesday.
Harper, a longtime major crimes detective for the sheriff’s office, became the subject of an investigation in September when authorities learned that he had been having an affair with Tracy Wasserman, a known heroin user.
Harper was placed on leave and detectives with the Washington State Patrol investigated the criminality of the affair. He resigned amid the investigation on Feb. 20.
In a letter addressed to State Patrol Detective Eric Gunderson, who investigated the case, Assistant Attorney General John Hillman wrote that Harper had sex with Wasserman in his work vehicle, witnessed her use heroin, sometimes gave money to Wasserman and never arrested Wasserman for drug charges or an outstanding warrant.
However, the evidence collected during the investigation was not sufficient enough to bring any criminal charges against Harper, Hillman wrote.
Hillman outlined the four types of misconduct that were considered in the case: accomplice to a drug offense, official misconduct, failure of duty and making a false or misleading statement to a public servant.
Even though Harper witnessed Wasserman do heroin, Washington jury instructions advise jurors that for someone to be an accomplice, “more than mere presence and knowledge of the criminal activity of another” must be shown, the letter states. Harper was present but did not solicit, command, encourage or request Wasserman to commit her drug crimes, Hillman wrote.
Harper also provided Wasserman money but “there is no evidence that Harper knew for certain how she would spend the money or that he wanted her to spend the money on drugs,” the letter states.
Hillman wrote that when considering official misconduct and failure of duty, the question came down to whether Harper had a “duty imposed upon him by law” to arrest Wasserman. State law gives police officers discretion to arrest, but an arrest is not mandatory in drug crimes, Hillman wrote. He went on to say that though Wasserman had an active arrest warrant during the affair, there was no evidence to show that Harper ever confirmed Wasserman’s outstanding warrant.
The consideration for making a false or misleading statement to a public servant consideration came into play when Harper told his sergeant in April 2016 that he submitted leave slips for vacation hours on days he left work early to meet the woman with whom he was having an affair, according to the letter.
Hillman found, however, that Harper submitted vacation time during the time period of the alleged misconduct. He added that determining whether Harper lied or was misleading “is also difficult to prove because detectives are often out and about for various reasons while on duty,” the letter states.
Sgt. Todd Barsness, who previously oversaw the major crimes unit and was Harper’s supervisor at the time of the alleged misconduct, was questioned about what he knew and at what time. An internal review found that Barsness was not aware of the misconduct and did not violate any department policies, Undersheriff Mike Cooke said.
Harper had worked for the sheriff’s office since 1988 and had been a major crimes detective since December 1996.
At the time of the investigation, Harper was listed as a witness in 12 pending Superior Court cases, three cases awaiting a charging decision, four suspended cases and three cases on warrant status, according to the prosecuting attorney’s office.
Prosecutors reviewed all of those cases, and said that all but one was uncompromised — an attempted murder case.
The prosecuting attorney’s office dropped dozens of charges against Troy Meyers and Michael Conley, two men accused in the stabbing of an acquaintance in November 2015. Harper was the lead investigator in the case.
“We appreciate the assistance provided to us by the Washington State Patrol in investigating this matter and the Attorney General’s review,” Cooke said.
