Chief Arthur Edge, WCSO - 03-11-14 Deposition Transcript (Federal) - Redacted

Arthur Edge, March 11, 2014Paul Murphy v. Whatcom County

3206 Wetmore Avenue, Suite 12 - Everett, Washington 98201BMA Court Reporters, (425) 252.7277

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7 UNITED STATES OF DISTRICT COURT

8 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE

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10 PAUL MURPHY, together with his ) marital community, )

11 Plaintiffs, ) )

12 vs. ) NO. 2:13-CV-00727 )

13 WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON, a ) government entity; WHATCOM COUNTY )

14 SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT; WILLIAM J. ) ELFO, together with his marital )

15 community, ) Defendants. )

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17 DEPOSITION UPON ORAL EXAMINATION OF

18 ARTHUR EDGE

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20 10:32AM - 11:00AM March 11th, 2014

21 Whatcom County Courthouse 311 Grand Avenue

22 Bellingham, Washington 98225

23 Reported by Kristen M. Uhlig

24 Certified Court Reporter, CCR, CSR Washington CCR #1934

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1 A P P E A R A N C E S

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3 FOR THE PLAINTIFFS:Robert Butler & Emily Beschen

4 Law Offices of Robert Butler103 East Holly Street Suite 512

5 Bellingham, Washington 98225360.734.3448

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7 FOR THE DEFENDANTS WHATCOM COUNTY & SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT & ELFODale Kamerrer

8 Law Lyman Daniel Kamerrer Bogdanovich2674 RW Johnson Blvd SW

9 Tumwater, Washington 98512360.754.3480

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11 FOR WHATCOM COUNTY:Elizabeth Gallery

12 Whatcom County Prosecutor's Office311 Grand Avenue

13 Bellingham, Washington 98225

14ALSO PRESENT:

15 William ElfoTara Adrian-Stavik

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17 I N D E X

18 EXAMINATION: PAGE

19 BY MR. BUTLER.................................................3

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22 EXHIBIT DESCRIPTION PAGE

23 No Exhibits Marked

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1 ARTHUR EDGE,

2 having been first duly sworn, was called as a witness herein and

3 was examined and testified as follows:

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5 DIRECT EXAMINATION

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7 BY MR. BUTLER:

8 Q Would you please state your name and spell it for the record?

9 A Arthur Edge, A-R-T-H-U-R E-D-G-E.

10 Q Where are you employed?

11 A Whatcom County Sheriff's Office.

12 Q Have you ever had your deposition taken before?

13 A Yes, I have.

14 Q How many times?

15 A Two or three.

16 Q In connection with your work or personal matters?

17 A It was in connection with work.

18 Q Okay. How long have you been employed with the sheriff's

19 department?

20 A Twenty-six years.

21 Q Can you generally give me your promotional history? You

22 started as a deputy?

23 A Right. I worked for other -- two other previous law

24 enforcement agencies before coming here.

25 Q Let's stop that -- where did you work before? What other



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1 agencies?

2 A Well, I was a -- I was a MP in the military and after I got out

3 of the military, was hired by the Port of Seattle Police. I

4 worked there for about three-and-a-half years. They were going

5 through a layoff phase, so I then went to Kirkland.

6 Q Okay.

7 A My wife is from here, so we wanted to move up in this area from

8 Pierce County, so that's how I ended up at the sheriff's

9 office.

10 Q What branch did you serve in as an MP?

11 A Army.

12 Q So when you arrived in the Whatcom County Sheriff's Department,

13 give me a loose progression of your career there.

14 A I started out as a line deputy. And after I passed probation,

15 I was -- I would kind of consider it an evolution of my

16 promotional steps, I was assigned as a field training officer.

17 Q Okay.

18 A I did that for a period of about four years, and then I went to

19 detectives. I served in detectives for a couple of years,

20 after which I went back to patrol. Probably -- I don't

21 remember exactly the year, it was probably '95, '96, I was

22 promoted to sergeant.

23 Q Okay.

24 A I served a couple of years on patrol as a supervisor, a

25 sergeant line staff, and then I took a position with the



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1 Northwest Regional Drug Task Force as the supervising sergeant.

2 For that, I served there for about four-and-a-half years or

3 four-and-a-quarter years.

4 Q Roughly what year are we at?

5 A Right now, we're at late '98 is when I went to the task force.

6 Q All right.

7 A From the task force, I came back to patrol, and that was in

8 2002. In 2004, I was promoted to lieutenant. I served in that

9 position for almost three years, a little over three years. In

10 2007, the fall or thereabouts, I was promoted to chief deputy,

11 chief civil deputy support bureau.

12 Q Okay.

13 A And that's the position that I hold now.

14 Q Okay. Do you recall an administrative investigation that you

15 did in 2006 with regards to a report from Nadine Ethridge?

16 A Nadine Ethridge.

17 Q She was the reporting party.

18 A Yes, I do. Mm-hm.

19 Q Tell me about that. What was that allegation? Who did it

20 involve?

21 A It involved a Deputy Slick. The allegations were that he had

22 -- for better -- lack of a better term -- groped her on the

23 dance floor basically in front of witnesses. There was an

24 altercation because of it and that complaint came forward.

25 Q Did you handle the investigation yourself or did you task it

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1 out to somebody else?

2 A I was assigned it and I did the investigation.

3 Q What did you do to investigate that?

4 A There was probably -- and I don't remember exactly how many

5 witnesses -- there was at least six witnesses that were there

6 that saw the allegation. I talked with the victim. I talked

7 with each individual person. I also interviewed Glenn, of

8 course, Deputy Slick. I also interviewed this gal's boyfriend

9 who was there also. I think that that was the bulk of the

10 folks. It was a large investigation.

11 Q Did Glenn admit to groping her?

12 A He did -- he said that he didn't remember doing that.

13 Q Did you find other people who witnessed it --

14 A Yes.

15 Q -- who said that he had, in fact, done what the allegation was?

16 A Yes.

17 Q Did he have a reason for why he couldn't remember it?

18 A You know, without reviewing what the transcript says and things

19 that I wrote about that, what I recall is that he didn't recall

20 it, I think, because of the alcohol consumption that he had

21 that day.

22 Q All right. Given the -- his lack of awareness, I guess would

23 be a phrase for it, and the witnesses saying that he had done

24 what was alleged, what was the outcome of that investigation?

25 A Well, I wrote up the report and cited the appropriate

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1 violations that occurred under our policy and forwarded that

2 for review. And that goes to the sheriff, the undersheriff, to

3 make the final decision on that.

4 Q Do you know what happened?

5 A My recollection is he was disciplined, but retained. I believe

6 that he sought some help for his alcohol problem.

7 Q Okay. Have you participated in any other investigations in

8 your career with the department?

9 A Yes. When I was patrol lieutenant, I was tasked with taking

10 care of and investigating citizen complaints --

11 Q Okay.

12 A -- that came in.

13 Q And did --

14 A Most of those were minor, minor complaints. I also initially

15 started an investigation, which I handed off to Lieutenant

16 Rossmiller to complete.

17 Q Which one was that?

18 A I think that it was Kristen Cavender.

19 Q And that related to Deputy Cooley, didn't it?

20 A Yes, it did. Then Sergeant Cooley.

21 Q Okay. You're aware that Cooley admitted to furnishing to

22 Kristen, who was under age; correct?

23 A I wasn't part of that interview process, but I had heard that

24 he was cooperative, yes.

25 Q And he didn't bring that forward himself? Like, hey, just want

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1 to let you guys know that I'm dating and giving alcohol to

2 Kristen Cavender?

3 A No.

4 MR. KAMERRER: I insert an objection to precede the

5 answer that it's vague, overbroad and argumentive. Go ahead.

6 Q (By Mr. Butler) I think you that already answered that. It

7 was a no; correct?

8 A (Witness Indicating).

9 Q He just needs to make his record for the objection.

10 A Sure.

11 Q And then you get to keep answering.

12 A Okay.

13 Q It's a dance that we do. Were you aware of anybody else

14 employed in the sheriff's department who has admitted to

15 committing a crime and is retained?

16 MR. KAMERRER: Objection. It's argumentive, vague and

17 overbroad and lacks foundation.

18 THE WITNESS: Would you ask me that again?

19 Q (By Mr. Butler) Sure. You've been in the department for

20 26 years. Are you aware of anybody else in your 26 years who

21 admitted to committing a crime and yet retained their

22 employment?

23 MR. KAMERRER: Same objection.

24 THE WITNESS: I personally? No. I don't think so. I

25 personally don't know.

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1 Q (By Mr. Butler) Okay. Cooley's position at that time was a

2 sergeant?

3 A Yes.

4 Q His current position is inspector; correct?

5 A Yes.

6 Q Is that considered a promotion in the department?

7 A I would consider it a promotion, yes.

8 Q Have you had -- do you know Sergeant Larry Flynn?

9 A Yes.

10 Q Have you had an opportunity to work with him?

11 A Mm-hm.

12 Q Have you had an opportunity to develop an opinion about his

13 credibility, his truthfulness?

14 A Yes.

15 Q What is your opinion of Larry Flynn with regards to his

16 credibility?

17 A Larry is a credible individual as far as I am concerned. I

18 have not had any incidents or an incident that would cause me

19 to think of anything else.

20 Q The same question with regard to Steve Harris. Do you know

21 him?

22 A I do know him.

23 Q Have you had an opportunity to develop an opinion as to his

24 credibility and truthfulness?

25 A I haven't worked with Steve that much, but I haven't had any



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1 incidences or experiences to lead me to believe that he was

2 being untruthful about anything to me.

3 Q Okay. Steve Cooley, do you have an opinion as to his

4 truthfulness and credibility?

5 A Same thing. He's credible as far as I am concerned. He hasn't

6 led me to believe nor have I been involved in any incidences

7 that he's been untruthful.

8 Q Okay. What about Jason Nyhus, do you know him?

9 A Yes.

10 Q Do you have an opinion as to his truthfulness and credibility?

11 A I would have to say the same thing. I don't -- I don't have

12 any problem with his credibility. He's not been in a situation

13 or I've been in a situation with him where he has expressed

14 anything that I have found to be false.

15 Q Okay. I don't remember his first name. Taddonio? Deputy

16 Taddonio?

17 A Mike.

18 Q Mike, do you know him?

19 A Yes, I do.

20 Q Do you have been an opinion as to his credibility and

21 truthfulness?

22 A He's credible. I haven't had any situations or been involved

23 in any conversations or anything else that would lead me to

24 believe otherwise.

25 Q All right. Jeremy Freeman, do you know him?



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1 A Yes, I do.

2 Q And your opinion -- do you have an opinion as to his

3 credibility and truthfulness?

4 A Jeremy is credible. I don't have -- I haven't been involved in

5 any situation with him, nor have I had any conversations or

6 remarks that I have found to be untrue.

7 Q All right. Did you have any connection to the Wiederspohn

8 case? Do any investigation on that?

9 A No.

10 Q Okay. With regards to the investigation that Cooley did in the

11 matter of Murphy, do you recall being interviewed in March

12 regarding Deputy Murphy's computer?

13 A Interviewed in March. By whom?

14 Q By Cooley?

15 A I don't recall. I am sorry. I don't recall the nature of that

16 conversation.

17 Q Okay. Did you do anything to prepare for today's dep?

18 A Yes.

19 Q And what did you do to prepare for the deposition today?

20 A Confirming my notes basically from the time period where we --

21 where I was involved in the acquiring of Murphy's computer --

22 MDT.

23 Q Prior to acquiring his MDT, which I believe was the 10th of

24 February 2012.

25 A Right.



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1 Q Have you had any contact with Murphy? Did you work with him at

2 all?

3 A He was -- I don't recall if he was ever on any of my shifts.

4 If he was, it was only one or two. So as far as on the street

5 working with him as a deputy, I didn't have that much contact

6 with him.

7 Q What had you heard about him office-wise? What had you heard

8 about Paul Murphy before February of 2012?

9 A I don't think that I've heard a whole lot. I mean, he was

10 involved in -- I am assuming that you're meaning the time

11 period when he was in detectives.

12 Q Were you aware that he opposed Elfo, for example, in the

13 campaign?

14 A Yes.

15 Q How did you learn of that?

16 A Well, I understood that he had a Facebook page that was open to

17 viewing.

18 Q Did you ever view it?

19 A I did.

20 Q And did you ever talk to Elfo about it?

21 A Did I ever talk to Elfo about the page?

22 Q Yeah. Or did he ever talk to you? Was there ever a discussion

23 about that page?

24 A I'm sure that there were some comment, but I don't specifically

25 remember any comments in particular.



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1 Q Did you support Elfo in the election?

2 A I did.

3 Q Okay. Did you participate in any campaign events?

4 A No.

5 Q Did you participate in any fundraising or --

6 A No. I did not.

7 Q Get out the votes type of thing?

8 A No.

9 Q Okay. Does Whatcom County Sheriff's Office have a Facebook

10 page?

11 A Yes.

12 Q Have you had any participation with that as an administrator or

13 any connection to it?

14 A I have contributed to that, basically, a brief synopsis of my

15 role, what I oversee and the workings of records and volunteer

16 services. So basically it was an informational thing for the

17 public.

18 Q So you put a post up about what you do type of thing?

19 A Yes.

20 Q Okay. Have you ever been an administrator of it?

21 A No.

22 Q Do you know who is the administrator of the Facebook page?

23 A I believe that it's the undersheriff.

24 Q When Rossmiller took Murphy's computer on February 10th, did

25 you have any further contact with -- in that investigation



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1 after just being a witness to that?

2 A Well, I did with the IT director with the machine that was

3 basically mechanical.

4 Q Describe for me what you are meaning with that answer.

5 A Well, on the 10th, we took the machine and Rossmiller retained

6 that over the weekend. And then Monday, I think on the 13th,

7 that machine was directed to me and I contacted the director of

8 IT.

9 Q Is that Perry Rice?

10 A Perry Rice. Perry came down to my office. We photographed the

11 removal of the -- and documented exactly what we did with that

12 machine in removing the hard drive that was in it.

13 Q And to your recollection, was that a hard drive that had been

14 put in there by the county?

15 A I assume so, yes.

16 Q Did you have any conversations with Rice about that process?

17 This looks right, this doesn't look right, anything like that?

18 A Well, we removed the hard drive out of the machine. Being a

19 Toughbook, it has a copper foil cover on the hard drive and

20 that is used to heat the hard drive up if the Toughbook gets

21 too cold. It will go through a preheat process.

22 I did notice when we pulled it out that there was

23 multiple fingerprint and smudges all over that copper that had

24 been etched. I thought that that was unusual to see that many

25 fingerprints on that, that particular piece.



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1 Q Okay. Did you send those fingerprints for analysis?

2 A I did not, no.

3 Q Do you know if that occurred?

4 A I do not know.

5 Q If you didn't task that to be done, who else would have been in

6 that investigation that would have tasked that?

7 A Well, with my -- in talking about the fingerprints, my first

8 question was -- I mentioned that to one of the IT folks. He

9 said no, that's -- I've seen that before, apparently either

10 during some process that they were maintaining the Toughbooks,

11 but he said that there have been fingerprints on those before,

12 so he's seen that.

13 Q Did that end your inquiry as far as the --

14 A I didn't push the fingerprint issue, no.

15 Q Okay. So when you saw that, did you think that those would

16 have been Paul's fingerprints on that?

17 A I don't know.

18 Q When you saw that and you asked the IT people, what were you

19 thinking? That those would --

20 A Well, obviously, when you see fingerprints, you want to know or

21 you're thinking about, how did they get there? So that was the

22 process why I asked.

23 Q Did that end the inquiry for you? That IT says, yeah, there's

24 fingerprints on there, it's not unusual?

25 A I didn't do anything else about that as far as that was



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1 concerned. My role at that time was to be a witness there with

2 the IT director to pull that hard drive and to make sure that

3 we did that correctly.

4 Q Okay. Prior to going out on the 10th to collect the hard drive

5 or to collect the MDT, do you recall a meeting with Rossmiller

6 and Parks and Elfo?

7 A Yes.

8 Q Tell me about that meeting.

9 A What I recall was that, basically, we went over the plan on how

10 this was to occur. And that it was decided that we wanted a

11 staff level officer to be there to witness as well with a

12 lieutenant. It turned out that there was a sergeant present as

13 well when the MDT was taken.

14 There was going to be a set -- already established group

15 of questions so that all of these questions could be read

16 verbatim. And that there wasn't any doubt what was going to be

17 asked and what was going to be reported to Deputy Murphy.

18 Q Whose idea was it as to the questions that were asked?

19 A I don't recall if it was one -- any one person in particular.

20 It might have been the group.

21 Q Okay. Were you aware from those meetings -- from meetings like

22 that and conversations of the concern in the department for

23 what Paul had been posting on various Facebook pages and/or

24 other websites?

25 A At that point, I wasn't aware that he was doing anything like



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1 that. What I was aware of is that there were -- what I knew

2 about it at that point was that there was some allegations that

3 Paul had been putting a different drive in his machine or

4 mentioning something to that effect. And that -- that's what

5 -- that's how we got to that point.

6 Q Okay. Were you in any conversations before that about the

7 SECTOR class --

8 A Mm-hm.

9 Q -- where the conversation apparently took place about cloning?

10 A I wasn't there. So you're asking what my involvement was?

11 Q After the SECTOR class and before the investigation, were you

12 involved in any conversations where somebody said that this is

13 what we said, we should investigate this?

14 A No.

15 Q Anything like that?

16 A No. Huh-huh.

17 Q Okay.

18 A I really started to know about that when we had our meeting

19 before that taking the Toughbook.

20 Q Okay. Were you essentially brought in at that point because

21 they wanted your level to be present?

22 A I think that the sheriff wanted command staff there and

23 everybody to be aware of what the situation was. I actually

24 volunteered to be present because the other chief, Chief

25 Chadwick, was not going to be available, so I volunteered.



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1 Q Okay. All right. Do you know why or were you in any

2 conversations or meetings with Rossmiller being tasked to sit

3 in on the Cooley investigation of Murphy?

4 A No.

5 Q Are you aware of any reason from your experience of 26 years

6 doing investigations --

7 A Mm-hm.

8 Q -- of why a person who was part of the investigation, a

9 witness, would be tasked with supervising an investigation?

10 MR. KAMERRER: Objection. Misstates the evidence.

11 It's vague, ambiguous, calls for speculation.

12 THE WITNESS: You're going to have to ask me that

13 again.

14 Q (By Mr. Butler) Okay. Rossmiller was just in here.

15 A Right.

16 Q And he sat in on a Cooley interview of Murphy in May.

17 A Okay.

18 Q He indicated that he was there to read the questions -- the

19 questions that were going to be asked were scripted.

20 A Right.

21 Q And he was there to make sure that Cooley asked all of those

22 questions. Are you -- so given that as his task, are you aware

23 of any reason why somebody who was also a part of the

24 investigation --

25 MR. KAMERRER: I want to just get an objection in.



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1 THE WITNESS: No.

2 MR. KAMERRER: The same objection that I stated

3 earlier and it misstates Lieutenant Rossmiller's testimony. Go

4 ahead though.

5 THE WITNESS: I don't know. I wasn't part of that

6 process. So why he was there, I couldn't tell you.

7 Q (By Mr. Butler) When you were interviewed, did the

8 undersheriff or the sheriff send anybody to make sure that

9 Cooley asked you the right questions?

10 A No. There wasn't anybody else.

11 Q Okay. Are you aware of any reason from your experience why

12 Cooley wouldn't be able to ask the questions that were scripted

13 for him to ask?

14 A Again, I wasn't involved in the process, but I guess not.

15 MR. BUTLER: Okay. I have nothing further.

16 MR. KAMERRER: I have no questions.

17 (Signature Reserved)

18 (Deposition Adjourned)

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1 C E R T I F I C A T E

2 STATE OF WASHINGTON ) ) ss.

3 COUNTY OF ISLAND )

4 I, Kristen M. Uhlig, the undersigned CCR in and for the Stateof Washington, do hereby certify:

5 That the annexed and foregoing deposition of the witness

6 named herein was taken stenographically before me and transcribedby me;

7 I further certify that the witness examined, read, and signed

8 the deposition after the same was transcribed, unless indicated inthe record that the parties and the witness waive the signature;

9 I further certify that all of the objections made at the time

10 of said examination to my qualifications or the manner of takingthe deposition, or to the conduct of any party, have been noted by

11 me upon said deposition;

12 I further certify that I am not a relative or employee orattorney or counsel of any of the parties to said action or

13 counsel, and that I am not financially interested in the saidaction or the outcome thereof;

14 I further certify that the deposition, as transcribed, is a

15 full, true, and accurate transcript of the testimony, including allquestions and answers, and all objections, motions and exceptions

16 of counsel made and taken at the time of the foregoing examination;

17 I further certify that I am sealing the deposition in anenvelope with the title to the above cause thereon and marked

18 "Deposition Upon Oral Examination" of said witness and promptlycausing the same to be delivered or forwarded to Counsel for the

19 Opposing Party;

20 IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixedmy official seal this ___ day of____________, 2014.

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22 __________________________

23 Kristen M. Uhlig, #1934 Certified Court Reporter,

24 Residing in Clinton, Washington.

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Documents

Chief Arthur Edge, WCSO - 03-11-14 Deposition Transcript (Federal) - Redacted