FORKS — The trial for former Forks Police Officer Erik Hanson, 33, is scheduled to begin Sept. 28 at 9 a.m.
Hanson was terminated from his position July 15 after being on administrative leave since he returned from military duty in June.
“We went through the whole personnel process, and at the end of that, I terminated his employment,” Forks Mayor Nedra Reed said.
Hanson was charged in Clallam County Superior Court in May with two counts of communication with a minor for immoral purposes — a misdemeanor — and formally arraigned July 10.
His original conditions of release shortly after his April arrest allowed him to go to Iraq — on what was to be a three-month tour in the National Guard — but he was discharged in early June.
The release conditions have again been modified to restrict his travel to Washington and Idaho, where he is now living.
He is also not allowed to be alone with any minors without another adult present — that includes his own children, whose ages were not given in the court documents.
A three-month investigation by the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department Criminal Investigations Bureau uncovered phone records and e-mail exchanges between Hanson and a 12-year-old girl, according to court documents.
Hanson was the arresting officer in a case in which the girl, who is unidentified because of her age and the nature of the charge, was sexually assaulted two years ago, the court documents said.
Her alleged assailant, Casey Shoop, 21, was charged with first-degree child rape, first-degree kidnapping and second-degree assault.
He was booked in January 2008 and remains in custody at the Clallam County jail on $100,000 bail.
Hanson was initially asked to patrol the girl’s neighborhood because she suffered from anxiety, the court documents said.
According to the documents, the girl told investigators that Hanson became less professional and that her friends and family became suspicious.
She said she already had a bad experience — and now a police officer was talking the same way.
She told a sheriff’s investigator that Hanson hugged her around the waist and kissed her repeatedly when he was off duty and after he returned from military training in Yakima.
According to phone records in the case file, the victim initiated seven out of 10 calls totaling 217 minutes between June 26, 2008, and July 6, 2008.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
