Four weeks after Richland Police Chief Brigit Clary retired, there’s an investigation going on at the police department she left behind. What it’s about is unclear, and city officials are playing it close to the vest, but it appears to involve Brigit Clary herself.
On January 22, 2024, the Observer submitted a public record request under the Washington Public Record Act asking for “all emails and other documents pertaining to the city of Richland investigation – criminal, administrative or internal – of former Police Chief Brigit Clary.”
On January 22, City Attorney Heather Kintzley replied that “the records you’ve requested relate to an active, ongoing investigation and are categorically exempt from disclosure pursuant to RCW 42.56.240(1), which exempts from public inspection and copying investigative records compiled by investigative, law enforcement, and penology agencies, the nondisclosure of which is essential to effective law enforcement. Non Disclosure of open investigative records is always presumed to be essential to effective law enforcement.”
Brigit Clary did not respond to an email request for comment.
While the nature of the investigation is unclear, Kintzley’s response indicates that the ripple effects of Clary’s tenure at Richland may be continuing.
Second investigation of Clary since 2016
A Richland investigation would be the second for Clary since 2016, when her previous employer, the Federal Way Police Department, began looking into irregularities in her approvals for overtime for her husband, who was also a lieutenant in that department.
The investigation was made public last month, shortly before her retirement, when the Tri-City Herald reported on the investigation by her former employer. It was completed in 2017 with findings that led the department to move to fire her. The investigation, obtained by the Observer through a public records request, showed investigators concluded that Clary authorized overtime for her husband, John, even though a commander was available, and that she was untruthful about it.
After Brigit Clary was advised that she was about to be fired, she resigned from the Federal Way Police Department on March 13, 2017.
Both Brigit Clary and her husband, who’d been lieutenants in Federal Way, accepted lower ranks when they transferred to Tri-Cities law enforcement agencies. She joined the Richland Police Department (RPD) in April 2017 as a sergeant after John joined Benton County Sheriff’s Office as a corporal.
Richland officials did not ask the King County District Attorney about her record before hiring her; had they done so, the agency would have considered the issue at Federal Way a public record. Nor, as the Observer reported, did anyone from Richland reach out to King County after being warned by a tipster in early 2022 of issues in her history before promoting her to chief in April 2022.
Clary’s husband gave up 5-year polygraph contract on January 12
On January 12, 2024, John Clary gave up a 5-year contract his company, Equalizer Polygraph & Investigations, LLC, he had obtained in mid-2023 to provide pre-employment polygraphs for Benton County Emergency Services (BCES)
City Manager Jon Amundson wrote the Observer, “the city’s Purchasing Division was notified by Equalizer Polygraph & Investigations, LLC with their wish to terminate this contract. The City accepted the termination notice.”
The city of Richland manages the BCES under an intergovernmental agreement. On April 20, 2022, two days before Brigit Clary became police chief, the BCES was split off of the RPD and, according to Amundson, assistant City Manager Drew Florence was appointed interim director of the BCES until Jay Atwood was hired as director on September 19, 2022.
Atwood wrote a request for proposals for polygraph services that was advertised in the Tri-City Herald and other locations from March 19, 2023, until April 11, 2023, and John Clary was the only person who responded, Amundson wrote in an email to the Observer.
It’s unclear if the apparent investigation of Clary has anything to do with the city’s use of her husband for polygraph work. Asked for records pertaining to any city investigation of her husband, Kintzley responded, “To the best of my knowledge, the City is not and has not conducted any investigation into any conduct of John Clary.”
After-effects
In December, Benton County Prosecutor Eric Eisinger told the Herald he would put Brigit Clary on his office’s Brady list based on her history in Federal Way that he learned about from an anonymous source.
Prosecutors use a Brady list, which is named for a 1963 Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland, to ensure that police officers with questionable records are disclosed to defense attorneys. The requirement stems from defendants’ constitutional right to a fair trial. Eisinger indicated that the listing might affect three cases that Clary was involved in in which defense attorneys were not informed of the untruthfulness finding in her past.
Kintzley wrote the Observer about the investigation apparently ongoing into Richland’s former chief, “I’m expecting that the matter will not be closed for several weeks.”