Former Deputy Files Discrimination Suit Against Chelan County Sheriff's Office
Former Deputy Files Discrimination Suit Against Chelan County Sheriff's Office
Alleging he suffered discrimination, harassment after leaving Grace City Church
Former Chelan County Sheriff’s Deputy Aaron Shepard and his wife Nicole Shepard filed a lawsuit against Chelan County in Federal court on Feb. 14, alleging his civil rights were violated by former Sheriff Brian Burnett and other supervisors after he stopped attending Grace City Church in 2016.
“Since 2016, Defendant Chelan County Sheriff’s Office has engaged in employment discrimination by progressively harassing, bulling, and retaliating against Deputy Shepard for divorcing his wife and leaving the Grace City Church,” they wrote in the filing. “Defendants specifically targeted law enforcement officers that they perceive do not believe what the members of Grace City Church believe and do not follow the dictates of Grace City Church.”
I have written about Shepard’s story before, but this complaint filed in the Eastern District of Washington represents the first step in official legal proceedings regarding the matter.
In the complaint, Shepard wrote that he started feeling pressure to attend GCC after receiving an invitation to a marriage retreat tailored to male law enforcement officers and their wives in 2015. This pressure came from former Sheriff Brian Burnett as well as current sheriff Mike Morrison, who was a Grace City Church member at the time.
“In 2015, the defendants and many of Deputy Shepard’s co-workers including Michael Morrison, Scott Lawrence, Dominic Mutch, Tactical Leader Chris Foreman, Sheriff Brian Burnett, and Wenatchee PD & SWAT Leader Justin Kissel began telling Deputy Shepard (while in uniform on duty) to come to Grace City Church, an ‘alt-right’ militant church that is an off-shoot of the (defunct and notorious) Mars Hill Church in Seattle (both well-known for imposing their will over members who do not follow their ‘men-are-superior’ beliefs),” they wrote.
Morrison addressed his involvement in GCC during my first interview with him right after he decided to challenge his former boss Brian Burnett in the 2022 Chelan County Sheriff’s race. He said in that interview that he would leave GCC if he experienced anything “immoral or illegal” in their teachings or conduct. Eventually he did leave GCC during the campaign because he said he felt attitudes toward him and his family changed since he decided to run against Burnett, and he didn’t feel they were welcome there anymore.
Shepard wrote in the complaint that the overt and willful association with GCC gave the appearance of a government agency’s endorsement of a religious sect, which is a violation long-held American value of the separation of the church and state as well as the US Constitution. They wrote that the First Amendment prohibits the government from promoting any religious point of view on any matter or taking sides between religion or non-religion.
“The defendants continued to instruct and indeed order Deputy Shepard to attend the marriage counseling at Grace City Church until the level of proselytizing in Grace City Church and Chelan County Sheriff’s Office became overbearing and uncomfortable to Deputy Shepard’s own personal and religious conviction to bear,” they wrote.
They wrote that Shepard was denied promotional opportunities and suffered from anxiety due to the harassment at the hands of Foreman and Sgt. Brian Lewis, the SWAT team leaders who are both GCC members. Shepard had to start taking anti-depressants and suffered from sleepless nights before SWAT trainings. He eventually resigned from the SWAT team due to the bullying. And according to them, he wasn’t the only one.
“Several other non-Grace City Church officers on the team also resigned due to the progressively hostile environment,” they wrote.
Burnett’s actions were motivated by his faith-based approached to management of the agency, they wrote. Burnett’s religious faith being a guiding principle of his approach to management and law enforcement is not something he shied away from during the 2022 campaign.
Below you can listen to an excerpt from a 2022 candidate’s forum in which Burnett addressed how religion impacted his job performance.
The plaintiffs wrote any reasonable person would conclude that a majority of CCSO officers, in uniform, appearing in a video promoting a church’s event is an endorsement of that church. They allege that Burnett’s administration favored employees who were GCC members and discriminated against who weren’t.
Supporting subscribers can read the entire complaint document filed in Spokane this week below. This filing comes as another former Chelan County Sheriff’s Deputy, Jennifer Tyler, is getting ready to take Chelan County and the CCSO to court in a federal trial over the way Burnett’s administration treated her, which you can read more about here.
Tyler already won one lawsuit against CCSO in a Douglas County court while Burnett was still sheriff. Time will tell if Shepard’s case makes its way to a jury trial like Tyler’s, but I’ll keep my eye on the case and report on any important developments.