Former Connell officer’s lawsuit against Franklin County sheriff dismissed

A longstanding dispute between a former Connell police officer and the Franklin County sheriff came to a decisive end last week.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary Dimke ruled for the most part that Kohl St. Peter waited too long before bringing his lawsuit, and for one of his accusations didn’t explain how Sheriff Jim Raymond violated the law.

She dismissed all of the counts with prejudice, meaning St. Peter can’t file the case again.

The conflict between St. Peter and Raymond started a larger disagreement that bubbled up between the Connell Police Department and the sheriff’s office in 2019. As a result, the sheriff’s office stopped working with the city on law enforcement issues.

The two agencies have since mended the rift after the former chief, Chris Turner, was terminated in 2022. Turner then ran unsuccessfully against Raymond in that year’s election.

St. Peter’s complaints focus on five interactions with Franklin County deputies or the sheriff between 2017 and 2019. They mostly stemmed from issues between St. Peter and his ex-wife.

The former officer sued Raymond, Franklin County and Connell Mayor Lee Barrow in March 2022. It became part of the complaints raised by Raymond’s opponents during his most recent re-election bid.

The sheriff won the election with 75% of the vote over Turner.

St. Peter’s complaints

St. Peter pointed to five incidents when he feels the sheriff or his deputies overstepped their authority. It started in December 2017 when St. Peter’s ex-wife called police to report that St. Peter had opened her mail without her permission.

Connell police initially got the call, but since he worked as an officer there, it was forwarded to the sheriff’s office. Deputies questioned St. Peter about the letter and learned it was sent from his daughter’s dental office to his address. No charges were filed.

Then in March 2018, St. Peter’s ex-wife made another complaint to the sheriff’s office that her former husband was harassing her by text messages Deputies investigated, but no charges were brought.

In April 2018, St. Peter was at the dental office when he got into a fight with his ex-wife’s boyfriend. The stories varied on how the fight started.

After that fight, St. Peter accused Lee Barrow, a Franklin County detective and Connell mayor of interfering with the Kennewick police investigation into the fight. According to the initial complaint, Barrow is the uncle of St. Peter’s ex-wife.

Then in May 2018, St. Peter and his father were investigated for stealing firewood from a church. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office completed the investigation. Barrow asked for the report which included information about St. Peter’s personal problems and his use of profanity.

St. Peter claimed that Barrow used his position to fire him “without due process.”

Finally, in October 2019, he alleged that Raymond and Barrow “defamed him by making false statements about him to other law enforcement and community members.” He claimed that Raymond mocked him during a public town hall.

Waited too long

For most of his complaints, St. Peter simply waited too long from the time of the incident to when he filed the lawsuit, ruled the judge.

Federal law follows state guidelines in this case. State law sets a three-year deadline for personal injury claims, according to court documents.

St. Peter missed that deadline by nearly a year, according to Dimke’s decision.

Since she found he filed the lawsuit late, Dimke didn’t address any other part of the complaints.

St. Peter’s claim that Raymond had violated his constitutional rights during the public forum was the only one to meet the deadline requirement.

But St. Peter didn’t show how he was deprived of his rights or how he was harmed as a result, Dimke said.

“Plaintiff alleges defendant Raymond ‘attempted to intimidate him’ from exercising his ‘Constitutional rights,’” according to the decision. “Plaintiff does not explain what act(s) defendant Raymond engaged in or how the acts deprived plaintiff of a constitutional rights.”