WENATCHEE — The former Chelan County sheriff’s deputy who successfully sued the department for poor employment practices has settled her final lawsuit against the county, for $1.5 million dollars.
Jennifer Tyler was fired twice, first by former Sheriff Mike Harum and then his successor Brian Burnett. In 2018 a Douglas County jury awarded her $506,500 in damages plus $449,000 in attorneys’ fees, in a devastating verdict that found she was the victim of workplace retaliation by sheriff’s administrators and fellow deputies.
The next year the county paid Tyler $455,000 to settle a second employment claim, stemming from a 2018 decision to suspend her. Washington’s Public Employment Relations Commission ruled that the suspension amounted to an unfair labor practice against the sheriff’s deputies’ union.
The latest settlement puts an end to Tyler’s 2019 federal lawsuit against the county, which was filed after she ran against Burnett as a write-in candidate. Burnett fired her in August of that year, accusing her of professional misconduct.
Tyler’s federal suit alleged discrimination and civil rights violations by Burnett’s department. It was awaiting a trial setting in U.S. District Court in Spokane when the parties filed their notice of settlement May 15.
In a press release today, Sheriff Mike Morrison said the agreement helps the counties avoid further costs and uncertainties. Tyler’s lawyer, Mary Schultz of Spokane, told NCWLIFE in an emailed statement, “This administration has stepped up and owned its responsibility, and we hope that what was revealed can move the County Sheriff’s department forward for all of its employees and citizens.”
The conflict between Tyler and the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office first arose in 2008, two years after she was hired. Prior to joining the force, Tyler was a deputy in her home state of Oklahoma, where she was sexually assaulted by her sheriff, Mike Burgess of Custer County.
Burgess was later charged with sexually abusing multiple female prisoners in his custody, and in 2008 Tyler traveled back to Oklahoma to testify in his criminal trial. Burgess was convicted and sentenced in 2009 to 79 years in prison on 13 felony counts, including kidnapping, forcible oral sodomy and rape. Custer County paid $10 million to settle legal claims brought by 14 of his victims.
Upon her return to Chelan County, under Harum, Tyler suffered ostracism and reprisals from commanders and fellow deputies, allegedly for testifying against Burgess. Harum fired her in 2010, citing untruthfulness in a dispute over a missing departmental email, but she won reinstatement through arbitration in 2013, after Burnett was elected to his first term as sheriff.
Burnett’s administration then mishandled her return to work, where she faced further ostracism and lack of support from fellow deputies. That formed the basis for her initial lawsuit in Douglas County court.
