Pierce County has agreed to pay more than $500,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Black newspaper carrier over a controversial 2021 confrontation with Sheriff Ed Troyer.
The settlement, filed in U.S. District Court for Western Washington, ends the long-running federal lawsuit filed by Sedrick Altheimer, who was detained and frisked after Troyer triggered a massive police response on Jan. 27, 2021, by calling an emergency dispatcher and repeatedly stating that Altheimer was threatening to kill him.
Troyer, who is white, walked back the threat claims when questioned by a Tacoma police officer, according to the officer’s incident report and later sworn testimony.
That discrepancy spurred calls for Troyer’s resignation and led the state Attorney General’s Office to prosecute Troyer last year on misdemeanor charges of false reporting and making a false statement to a civil servant.
Troyer denied that he’d changed his story and disputed the Tacoma police account as inaccurate. After a high-profile trial, a six-person jury in December 2022 acquitted Troyer of all charges. Altheimer’s civil lawsuit had been on hold pending the outcome of the criminal case and resumed this year, with a trial scheduled for January.
Under the settlement agreement, Pierce County will pay $500,015 plus “reasonable attorney’s fees and costs” to be determined by the federal court. The settlement, filed Friday, states that it was reached to resolve the case without the expense and risk of a trial, and was not an admission of wrongdoing.
The settlement amount was far less than the $5 million sought by Altheimer in an initial tort claim filed against Pierce County in June 2021.
Vonda Sargent, an attorney representing Altheimer, said the lower settlement amount was agreed to because her client faced a crisis — a fire that recently destroyed the apartment where he, his partner and children were living.
“Life happens. You have to go with the flow of things, and what happened in this case was that Sedrick, his home burned down, and he was in dire straits and needs money now,” Sargent said in an interview.
Before the settlement, court records show, the two sides had been battling in recent weeks over whether Pierce County had turned over all the documents sought by Altheimer’s attorneys in the case.
Troyer and his attorney in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Adam Faber, a spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed that the county has agreed to pay the settlement, including the legal costs, which have yet to be finalized, and he had no additional comment.
The confrontation that spurred the lawsuit occurred in the early morning hours of Jan. 27, 2021, when Altheimer, then 24, was delivering newspapers on his regular route in a quiet Tacoma neighborhood.
Troyer, driving his personal, unmarked SUV, started following Altheimer, later saying he’d seen a car driving suspiciously near his home and thought it might be someone prowling homes.
In an interview and later at the trial, Altheimer said he approached the vehicle between deliveries and asked the driver if he was a cop and if he was following him because he was Black. He said Troyer never identified himself and accused him of being a “porch pirate.”
After driving off, Altheimer said Troyer followed him again. The two wound up in a standoff after 2 a.m., facing one another in their cars and flashing their lights.
Troyer called an emergency dispatcher, saying Altheimer was threatening to kill him.
Given the alleged threat to the county’s top law enforcement officer, dispatchers issued a high-priority “officer needs help” response, causing a countywide alert that sent more than 40 police cars racing toward the scene. After Tacoma police arrived, most of the additional officers were called off.
Altheimer was surrounded by police, some with guns out, and was ordered to show his hands. He was questioned but not arrested after police saw the newspapers in his car and he explained his newspaper delivery routine.
At the scene, a visibly upset Altheimer demanded to know what was going to be done about Troyer calling in the police response.
“He’s lying. He’s lying. So what happens to him?” he said to officers in video, captured on an officer’s body camera, asking whether Troyer would face consequences. An officer responded: “I am not going to blow smoke up your ass and say something is going to be done about it.”
Altheimer and his attorneys have argued that the incident easily could have turned deadly, and accused Troyer in the lawsuit of “racial animus” and “reckless disregard for Mr. Altheimer’s civil rights.”
Troyer has said he did not know the race of Altheimer when he started following him. The sheriff and his attorneys and supporters have contended he was the victim of negative media coverage and an anti-cop political prosecution by Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office.
“The media’s made me out to be a racist, and the state’s made me out to be a liar,” he said while testifying in his own defense at the criminal trial.
Separately from the criminal case and civil lawsuit, an investigation commissioned by the Pierce County Council and led by former U.S. Attorney Brian Moran, found Troyer had violated policies on bias-free policing and other professional standards during the Altheimer incident.
The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office also placed Troyer on the “Brady list” of officers with credibility issues whose testimony as witnesses could be impeached in criminal cases.
Troyer, a four-decade law-enforcement veteran, was elected sheriff in 2020 and is up for reelection next year.
