Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 309941.cor.pdf

Citation: Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 309941.cor.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/309941.cor.pdf ↗

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Merryman told Brownfield that he was not conducting an internal investigation and again

ordered Brownfield to sit Brownfield exited the room instead.

After leaving the chiefs conference room on May 11, leffBrownfield spoke to

Officer Rich Fowler, his union representative. Fowler, in turn, spoke to Lieutenant

Merryman who said he was willing to finish his conversation with Brownfield with

Fowler present While Fowler attempted to convince Brownfield to return to the

meeting, Sergeant Amos approached and instructed Brownfield to return to the meeting.

Brownfield responded to Amos, "you f ... ked me .... "[G]et out of here, get the f ... k

out of here." CP at 122. Brownfield believed Amos had tricked Brownfield into a

meeting with the "mouth of the beast"-Mike Merryman. CP at 122.

On May 11, Lieutenant Mike Merryman suspended leffBrownfield for

insubordination. The Yakima Police Department also began an internal investigation into

Brownfield's conduct The completed investigation found Brownfield to be guilty of

insubordination and verbal abuse of a superior officer. On July 28, Brownfield received

the punishment of the loss of 24 hours of accrued paid leave.

Jeff Brownfield complains that the Yakima Police Department ignored his

whistleblower complaints. Nevertheless, in May Captain Greg Copeland, at the direction

of Chief Sam Granato, investigated Brownfield's allegations of poor performance of Joe

Dejournette, ofDejournette's manipulating overtime pay, ofDejournette's failure to keep

YPAL books, and of Mike Merryman's affording Dejounette favorable treatment

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No.30994-1-III
Brownfield v. City ofYakima