Texts he sought were deleted. Fired Pierce deputy will get $400K but not his job back
Pierce County recently paid a six-figure settlement to a former sheriff’s deputy who alleged text messages about his firing in 2019 had been destroyed, closing the book on his bid to get his job back following his acquittal on domestic violence charges.
Ex-Sgt. Pat Davidson’s three-year legal struggle across multiple cases also ensnared his daughter, who was fired from the Sheriff’s Department after prosecutors said she lied under oath and withheld evidence regarding her father. Last month, an arbitrator concluded the department didn’t prove Brittney Davidson lied and ordered her reinstatement with more than a year of back pay.
In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department stood by its investigations of the Davidsons and subsequent disciplinary decisions.
“We were trying to do our part to hold deputies accountable,” spokesperson Sgt. Darren Moss told The News Tribune over the phone.
Moss said the Sheriff’s Department is calculating the back pay owed to Brittney Davidson based on her salary and average overtime. Entry-level deputy salaries are advertised at a minimum of about $77,000.
Pat Davidson told The News Tribune he was searching for documents to file a wrongful termination lawsuit last year when public records officials informed him former Sheriff Paul Pastor’s texts had been destroyed when he retired in September 2020. Another department leader’s texts were destroyed when he received a new phone but after Davidson’s records request.
State public records retention rules require local government agencies to save most internal and external communications for at least two years. State law mandates that records related to reasonably anticipated litigation and existing public records requests must not be destroyed.
When Davidson sued the county for public records violations and wrongful termination this spring, he said he still hoped to get his job back. He currently works as a security guard and has been unable to secure another law enforcement job.
“I didn’t do it. I’ve been with my wife for 30 years,” Davidson told The News Tribune in August. “I was fired before being given due process.”
Davidson previously settled a lawsuit against the sheriff’s union and an affiliated attorney, alleging they failed to properly represent him during the termination grievance process. Davidson said the union agreed to pay him $150,000 in December. The settlement terms with the attorney were confidential.
Sheriff’s sergeant charged, fired
Prosecutors charged Davidson with unlawful imprisonment and two counts of misdemeanor assault in late September 2019, alleging he hit and used a chokehold on his wife during an argument about a month earlier.
A family friend filed a police report after Davidson’s wife confided in others at a bachelorette party that a fight with Davidson the night before had left her with significant bruises, according to investigative documents. Davidson’s wife reportedly said she couldn’t breathe from the chokehold and thought she was going to die.
When interviewed by Pierce County detectives, Davidson’s wife downplayed the incident and her comments to friends, police documents show. She said it was not domestic violence; she was drunk and they were wrestling.
Davidson’s daughter also attended the bachelorette party, where she talked with her mother about the incident, according to police documents. Brittney Davidson’s then-boyfriend, a fellow deputy, attended the corresponding bachelor party and also heard about the incident with Pat Davidson.
Both deputies spoke with Sheriff’s Department detectives, according to investigative documents. Brittney Davidson said at the time she didn’t have photos of her mother from that day.
About two weeks later, prosecutors charged Pat Davidson.
Two days after that, the Sheriff’s Department sent him a notice of intent to terminate his employment, according to court documents.
The prosecutor’s office then added Pat Davidson to a list of law enforcement officers with credibility issues, known as potential impeachment evidence or Brady list, in early October, according to court documents. Prosecutors are required to provide that information to defense attorneys.
Pastor decided to fire Davidson in late October, prior to trial, citing department policy on law violations.
Domestic violence trial, aftermath
Davidson was scheduled to face trial in December 2019, but a few days before new evidence came to light: His daughter found a selfie she’d taken with her mother on the night of the August bachelorette party.
Brittney Davidson wasn’t sure what to do with the photo and asked her father, whose attorneys provided the image to prosecutors, according to arbitration documents. The photo didn’t show any bruising.
While discussing the photo over the phone with deputy prosecuting attorney Coreen Schnepf, Brittney Davidson said she and her mother were drunk when they talked about the incident and it affected her memory when talking to detectives, according to arbitration documents. Schnepf told the arbitrator she didn’t record or take notes about the conversation.
A jury found Pat Davidson not guilty on all counts in late February 2020.
About a month later, Pastor denied his request to be reinstated, court documents say.
Around the same time, county officials began scrutinizing Brittney Davidson and her then-boyfriend, who both testified during the trial. Schnepf said testimony from Davidson was inconsistent with her prior statements to detectives.
On the stand, Brittney Davidson said her mother could be untruthful when she drinks and admitted to being the aggressor during the August argument with Pat Davidson, which was prompted by a TV remote, according to arbitration documents.
“The statement did not match what she told us,” said Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Sgt. Darren Moss.
The Sheriff’s Department put Brittney Davidson on administrative leave and launched an internal investigation about two weeks after the jury’s verdict, according to arbitration documents. She and her then-boyfriend received 20-hour suspensions in March 2021 for failing to report the incident between the Davidson couple.
Brittney Davidson also was added to the county prosecutor’s so-called Brady list.
The Attorney General’s Office declined to charge her or her then-boyfriend with perjury in May 2021, but the Sheriff’s Department fired Brittney Davidson the following month, citing a policy violation for untruthfulness under oath, according to arbitration documents. Her then-boyfriend did not receive additional discipline.
She hired attorney Brett Purtzer, who had also defended her father, to represent her during arbitration with the county after the sheriff’s union declined to pay for a lawyer.
Last month, an arbitrator found Brittney Davidson only violated department policy by sending the selfie with her mother to her father, a criminal defendant, prior to his trial, according to arbitration documents. Her discipline was lowered from termination to a 40-hour suspension deducted from her back pay award.
“The Department has picked isolated pieces of testimony to allege that Grievant violated the Truthfulness Policy,” the arbitrator wrote. “When the evidence is considered in context, and not by picking isolated statements from the record, it is apparent that Grievant was answering questions during the investigation and subsequently testifying at trial, to the best of her recall.”
Brittney Davidson has declined to speak with news media out of fear of retaliation, Pat Davidson said.
Although she was reinstated on Sept. 23 and returned to patrol duties on Oct. 14, her name remained on the prosecutor’s Brady list as of last week.
“Brittney should no longer be on there,” Purtzer told The News Tribune. “It’s pretty damning to any law enforcement officer to be on that list.”
Davidson settles for payout
Unlike his daughter, the merits of Pat Davidson’s case for reinstatement couldn’t be considered by an arbitrator.
In September 2020, an arbitrator found Davidson and the union had failed to timely appeal his firing after a human resources official upheld it in December 2019, according to court documents. Davidson tried to appeal that ruling to Pierce County Superior Court, but the county argued the arbitrator’s decision was final.
In his wrongful termination and public records lawsuit against the county, Davidson blamed the union for missing the deadline to appeal his firing, alleging a guild attorney advised he wait to appeal until after his trial.
During research for that lawsuit, in spring 2021, Davidson filed a public records requests for any text messages department top brass sent about him.
A public records official told Davidson that former Sheriff Pastor’s texts had been destroyed when he retired, court documents show. Text messages from chief of investigations Kevin Roberts were destroyed when he got a new phone about a month after Davidson’s request.
In subsequent court papers, the county argued Davidson had exhausted his options to get his job back and moved to dismiss his wrongful termination claim. The filing did not address the public records allegations.
Davidson and the county agreed to a settlement before a judge ruled. As a part of the settlement, Davidson said he would withdraw his public records requests at issue.
He told The News Tribune he plans to refile some of them later.
“I wanted to find out why” Pastor upheld his firing, Davidson said. “And I’m not going to get that because they destroyed it.”
Last year, Pierce County implemented a system to archive text messages within its email database, according to spokesperson Libby Catalinich. Text messaging is disabled for any county cellphone users who opt out of that process.
Joan Mell, Davidson’s attorney, questioned why the county didn’t have a retention policy in place prior to her filing a lawsuit.
“There’s no reason they should be paying Pat Davidson anything,” Mell said.
