No Town Like Bro Town: A Gun, A Pool and A Wild Night in Chelan Co.

Ain’t No Party like an LEO Grad Party, Apparently

Ain’t No Party like an LEO Grad Party, Apparently

*Trigger warning: this post and the video embedded in it include vulgar language and gun play.

On the night of June 6, 2014, after a Chelan County Sheriff’s Office reserve officer graduation ceremony, the guys decided to cut loose and have a few drinks at a reservist’s home in Sunnyslope, in Chelan County, Wa. After a few adult beverages, more than a few perhaps, someone had the bright idea to see what would happen if they shot a gun in the swimming pool.

Deputy Carl Mohns handed his personal firearm, a 380-caliber semi-automatic, to Deputy Lee Risdon, “who had also been consuming alcohol,” according to Chelan County Sheriff’s records. Risdon then took the gun, got down on the ground, put it into the swimming pool, and fired. Eight-to-10 people gathered around and cheered.

“You handed a firearm to a fellow deputy who had also been consuming alcohol, and observed the firearm being shot into a swimming pool with 8–10 people standing by watching,” John Wisemore, undersheriff at the time, wrote in a letter of reprimand to Mohns.

Here’s Wisemore’s letter to Risdon, who fired the weapon.

And here’s the letter of reprimand to Deputy Dan McCue, who was a “Master Defensive Tactics Instructor and Firearms Instructor” according to the letter.

The letters say it was a reserve officer/deputy graduation party, but it wasn’t just a party for Chelan County Sheriff’s Office graduation party, there were also Wenatchee Police Department reservists who graduated the program as well. And the party was at one of their homes, according to the source that told me about the incident, what records to request, and that there was a video recording.

The Wenatchee World actually reported on the incident at the time. According to the World, the gun was fired four or five times. The deputies who were reprimanded actually challenged the decision, and the newspaper also covered that too.

Yet, to my knowledge the World either didn’t get or didn’t publish the video of it. In my records request I asked for the video as well as the documents, and got both.

Here’s the video.

According to another LEO source the man who was asking, “Is this voluntary?” is Risdon himself. You can read all the documents I got back in response to this public records request here.

Now this is an interesting and would be a slightly amusing anecdote, if these were just a bunch of jaybirds somewhere in the backwoods. But the fact that these guys are reserve officer coordinators, SWAT team members and tactical firearms instructors for local law enforcement agencies and it casts things in a more sober light, no pun intended.

It’s definitely something that should have made more waves at the time. But what does it have to do with Grace City Church? That’s what I’ve been focused on, right?

Right.

I got the tip to request these records about the same time I got the tip to request the police records for the WHS wrestling trip alleged sexual assaults, which I wrote about two weeks ago.

And as I revealed above, more than one source within the law enforcement community told me the two incidents are connected.

But how?

The same man who tried to intercede on behalf of the perpetrator on that WHS wrestling trip earlier this year also owns the home this pool at which this shooting incident occurred, according to my sources. He was a member of Grace City Church’s security team and a Chelan County Sheriff reservist for years, although he was a Wenatchee PD reservist at the time the pool shooting incident occurred. As mentioned above, he was one of the graduating reservists celebrating that night.

In case you’re wondering what the GCC security team is: it’s a group of mostly off-duty LEOs (law enforcement officers) who spend their Sundays protecting the GCC compound and pastor Josh McPherson from threats. Who or what they are threatened by is still unclear, and that’s on my list of questions for founding pastor Josh McPherson and the elders, if any of them agree to be interviewed.

Another LEO source said that the man who owns this home and pool has since resigned as a CCSO reserve officer.

The reason?

The recent spate of law enforcement reforms that came out of Olympia in the last 12 months. It was NOT related to the alleged sexual assaults on that WHS wrestling trip this June, according to that LEO.

For those keeping score at home, that’s three separate LEO sources I’ve received information from in my pursuit of just this ONE angle of the GCC story. Other LEOs have helped me with other angles.

Why is this important?

Because as much as GCC leadership would like to make the community think that every individual in a uniform in the Wenatchee Valley is a part of their organization, they are not. Quite a few are concerned with GCC’s overt courting of LEOs and elected officials and want to do something about it.

Even though there are GCC members in the Wenatchee Police Department, the East Wenatchee Police Department and all up in the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, not every LEO in our community is a member. Some of them have left the church, and have been punished for it professionally, reportedly. Others have politely rebuffed GCC recruitment attempts and kept the organization at arms length, like the chief of East Wenatchee PD.

How do I know this? Well, not all my sources are LEOs. Some are higher up the food chain and they are also concerned with GCC’s impact on our community.

The point is there are good cops in this community who are resisting what GCC is trying to do. And that speaks to culture, which is a buzzword that both GCC leadership and Chelan County Sheriff Brian Burnett like to use a lot.

The video I received in response to my request only shows one round being fired, but the Wenatchee World reported it was fired “four or five times.”

As they frame it, both organizations present and celebrate a culture of men who stand up for what’s right to protect others and uphold American values. On the GCC side of things it’s about fighting back against “cultural Marxism,” Critical Race Theory and the moral decline of American society. On the CCSO side it’s about enforcing law and order and protecting our community with every tool at their disposal — which the “liberals” in Olympia have tried to take away with their recent “dangerous” reforms.

Sheriff Burnett spoke at length about that at a “town hall” at Grace City Church recently and talked about culture quite a bit.

But what about this culture?

Well first of all, good or bad every group has a culture. The Hells Angels had a culture. Was that culture good? Nope. The Peace Corp also has a culture and many would say it’s a positive one.

It’s all about the culture you foster as a group. That culture can be healthy and productive, or it can be toxic and destructive. It can also be a mix of the two. The point is that perhaps the “cultures” of some organizations should be approached with more scrutiny and not simply taken at face value.

Why publish this now?

I want it known that I will follow up on every lead and tip I get involving Grace City Church attempting to collect or influence law enforcement officers and elected officials. I would not be looking into the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office or any of its officers had I not heard about how much GCC has overtaken that agency. If GCC wants to influence public policy through elected officials and LEOs, then I will put a magnifying glass up to those candidates, officials and officers.

What’s next?

I received a few tips that GCC has taken over the chaplaincy contract for the Chelan County Jail and Juvenile Detention Center. So I submitted a public records request in September and got this back this week.

One person just signs in as “Amber?” Is that her full legal name or do you not have to give a last name to visit prisoners?

So next I will file another public records request for the Juvenile chaplains log, try to find the contract so I know how much GCC is making from it and then reach out to ask how they minister to any inmate who is not heteronormative and cis-gendered. GCC’s issues with the LGBTQ+ community is well documented and I have questions about how these chaplains interact with anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+.

The last thing I’ll explain is the play on words in the headline. It’s a play on the “No Town Like Hometown” marketing campaign GCC launched in response to the economic crisis that ensued after the Covid-19 shutdowns in spring 2020. A lot of the Wenatchee Valley’s small, family-owned businesses were struggling, and looking for all the help they could get. That’s when GCC started giving out $500 gift cards to selected businesses and filming videos of it. For the record, not all the businesses that received gift cards from GCC are owned by members. I am unaware of any campaign to aid out-of-work employees or individuals who were also struggling. They didn’t make a video series about that.

The last, last thing I’ll say is that I have no problem with the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office, the Wenatchee Police Department or any law enforcement agency per se. The center point of the story is Grace City Church, specifically its leaders, and always has been. If the threads I’m following lead to local law enforcement agencies, or government, or the business community or affect public health, our educational systems or anything else — that is not by my design. I’m just following the threads.

It shouldn’t alarm you that I am digging this stuff up now. What should alarm you is that no one else has.