Former chief’s records sought

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, March 13, 2007

SNOHOMISH – If the police officers Gordon Wiborg once led are right, the former Snohomish police chief was under investigation for sexual harassment of an officer when he abruptly resigned in December.

The sex harassment allegation, detailed in Snohomish County Superior Court documents, is “completely unfounded,” Wiborg’s Everett attorney, Cynthia First, said last week.

Snohomish city manager Larry Bauman also raised questions about what officers said.

“I can tell you, definitively, that we have not received any complaint regarding sexual harassment,” Bauman said.

It may take a court battle to sort out whether the public will gain access to records that may reveal the truth.

The Herald and the city were brought into a lawsuit this month after the newspaper in January sought access to all public records about the circumstances surrounding Wiborg’s departure.

Wiborg initiated the lawsuit, arguing that his privacy would be violated if the city released a number of e-mails and other documents the city was considering disclosing to the newspaper under state public records laws.

In court papers, Wiborg said he was placed on administrative leave Dec. 23 for “alleged misuse of city communication devices.”

He resigned five days later, citing distraction from a messy lawsuit linked to his former job at a police department in Florida.

The Snohomish documents Wiborg most objects to becoming public include a number of e-mails, including several sent on Jan. 1, after he’d already resigned from his city job, court papers show.

He also is objecting to release of purported text messages from his city-issued Blackberry personal digital assistant.

“These records contain information of a personal or private nature to both parties to the communications,” First wrote on Wiborg’s behalf. “Still others are communications that took place while the parties were off duty and had an expectation of privacy that their communications would not end up under public scrutiny.”

Lawyers for a Snohomish police officer also sought a court order to protect the identity of the officer who reportedly received messages from Wiborg.

Identified in court papers only as “Officer J. Doe,” the officer has no objection to the contents of the messages being released – just the officer’s name, according to attorney Susan Rae Sampson, of Renton.

“During his tenure as chief, Mr. Wiborg sent written sexual communications, including e-mails, to Officer J. Doe. The communications were unwelcomed and constituted unlawful sex harassment,” Sampson wrote.

The pleadings quote Sgt. Fred Havener, vice president of the Snohomish Police Guild, who said he was approached in confidence by the officer who allegedly received the e-mails from Wiborg.

“I reported the information through the chain of command in the police department, and ultimately Officer Doe’s complaint was investigated by the city attorney,” Havener said in a declaration.

First said that isn’t true.

“This is the police guild who is bringing this action and nobody in the city of Snohomish, to the best of my knowledge, has filed a complaint regarding sexual harassment against my client,” she said. “Officer Doe has made some unfounded allegations.”

First said Wiborg is prepared to argue there are legitimate questions about the authenticity of some records the city has considered releasing – particularly the text messages.

“Our position is if we aren’t 100 percent certain that the entire document is authentic or accurate we need to err on the side of caution,” she said.

A hearing on the case is likely April 6.

Wiborg was hired by Snohomish in December 2004 and began working a month later. He earned about $93,000 annually.

In his resignation letter, he said that a lawsuit from a former police job in Florida had “become so distracting that I believe my energies and attentions are better placed elsewhere.”

The lawsuit alleges that Wiborg, who was a police captain in North Palm Beach, Fla., either engaged in or failed to stop a variety of alleged incidents of improper conduct there. The alleged misdeeds included sexual harassment of employees, mistreatment of suspects and violation of labor laws, according to court papers.

With the assistance of attorneys working for Snohomish, Wiborg in December obtained a temporary restraining order against the Florida police officer who filed lawsuit against him, alleging the man had threatened his life.

Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.