TACOMA, Wash. — A Pierce County deputy prosecuting attorney filed a complaint Tuesday, alleging mismanagement and improper activity in county Prosecutor Mark Lindquist’s office.
Steven Merrival, who began working in that office in 1982, is currently a negotiator for the felony drug unit.
He told KIRO 7 the decision to send a complaint to the Pierce County Human Resources Department and the state auditor was not easy.
“I’m totally dissatisfied with Mark Lindquist’s performance,” said Merrival.
In his 71-page complaint, Merrival lists issues of governmental misconduct, a hostile workplace, interference with collective bargaining and a disregard of merit-based employment. He described an atmosphere of “fear and bullying.”
Lindquist was unavailable for comment, but his chief of staff, Dawn Farina, said “This employee has filed a complaint against many of his co-workers. He is unhappy because he has been repeatedly passed over for leadership positions. We are confident that everyone who has been unjustly criticized will be cleared.”
But Merrival said he is already at the highest pay grade in the county and is not doing this for personal gain.
His complaint refers to a report showing Pierce County leads the state in the highest number of cases reversed, due to so-called prosecutorial misconduct.
In a recent op-ed, Lindquist wrote that these were good-faith mistakes rather than misconduct.
Still, Merrival said, “The last thing I have ever wanted to do was to ally myself (with), or be a member or party to, that.”
Merrival goes on in the complaint to describe situations where employees were instructed not to document activity or conversations, to avoid such documentation from being released in public disclosure requests.
The complaint said people were “promised judicial appointments in exchange for their service” and that there was a culture of pressure to get involved with political campaigns.
The complaint goes on to say administrators “suggested [whom] to vote for” in the local bar association elections, and that on their whiteboard, there was “a checklist of who had voted.”
In an interview with KIRO 7, Merrival said, “I see members of the Pierce County prosecutor’s office working on those political campaigns.”
He said he was personally approached during work hours to discuss political campaigning.
His complaint also states there is no one of color or of minority status in leadership positions, and that the “N” word was introduced into a closing PowerPoint presentation.
“It is an oppressive atmosphere. People are actually afraid to speak out,” Merrival said.
Merrival denied any interest in taking Lindquist’s job. He said he will leave it up to the community to determine whether Lindquist should remain prosecutor.
“I have never seen the absence of reputation so bad as it is now. I have never witnessed the failure of trust that I now see by all participants to the legal system,” he said.
In order for this to be considered for a whistleblower investigation at the state level, the issues must pertain to gross waste of public funds, gross mismanagement, violation of a law or rule, or substantial danger to public health and safety.
If the issues concern personnel matters, then human resources would handle the investigation.
The state auditor and county Human Resources Department will be meeting to discuss the complaint. If the county chooses to investigate based on its own whistleblower statute, it will hire outside counsel to conduct the investigation.
The state has 15 calendar days to decide whether to investigate.
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