PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Juelie Dalzell will not pursue charges against two Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal officers after the Tribal Council admitted Tuesday that its officers erred in detaining three non-tribal elk hunters Oct. 3 in Brinnon.
Jeromy Sullivan, Port Gamble S’Klallam chairman, said the lead tribal officer, Gus Goller, has been dismissed and will not return to his position with the tribe.
“I’m out to get him never hired in law enforcement again,” Dalzell said after a more than two-month review of the evidence.
She said she is recommending that Goller be decommissioned, meaning he would be ineligible to seek employment in law enforcement anywhere in the state.
Dalzell said the other officer involved was only a reserve and was following Goller’s orders at the time so she will not pursue charges against him either.
Dalzell’s investigation was prompted by a complaint filed by Adam Boling of Brinnon, one of the three hunters, with the sheriff’s office on Oct. 5.
Boling said in his complaint that he, his 2-year-old son and Boling’s two friends, Shelton residents Don Phipps and Danny Phipps, were detained illegally by law enforcement agents of the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribe’s natural resources department.
Brinnon is across the Hood Canal Bridge on the Olympic Peninsula and many miles from the Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal headquarters in Hansford on the Kitsap Peninsula.
The tribal officers did not cite the hunters.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said after their investigation that the tribal police acted beyond their authority when they detained the hunters — who were on private land and had a hunting license — after one shot an elk.
The tribe conducted its own internal investigation.
The tribe said in a statement released Oct. 16 that the officers were within their jurisdiction and operating on the tribe’s “usual and accustomed hunting grounds” when they detained the men.
That position, however, changed dramatically Tuesday when Sullivan issued a prepared statement saying in part: “This incident has made it apparent that we need to review the current guidelines set forth by Natural Resources Enforcement. We will make changes to these procedures as necessary to make sure that laws are properly enforced and an incident like this does not reoccur.”
