Former Yakima Officer Under Investigation For Evidence Tampering

 

Student Resource Officer for Davis High School, Lyn Thorn

Yakima police officer Lyn Thorn isn’t your typical authority figure.  She likes to give hugs. She uses the social media platform Snapchat to keep in touch with teenagers. She uses insults such as “dummy pants” when joking with friends. And she’s fond of a playful nickname a friend at work gave her: “Carnitas” — a traditional Spanish dish made with pork, but can also mean “pig.” Her colleagues say these qualities are what make her a good fit for her job as a school resource officer.

Former Yakima police officer under investigation over missing text messages-

Benton County prosecutors are reviewing allegations that a former Yakima police officer destroyed text messages regarding attempts to obtain favorable treatment for family friends accused in a burglary.

Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brusic said he asked Benton County to review the Washington State Patrol’s investigation into the text messages exchanged between Officer Lyn Thorn and her sister-in-law, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Heather Thorn, to avoid a conflict of interest with his office.

The matter is also the subject of civil torts filed against the city of Yakima and Yakima County by an attorney representing one of the burglary suspects, who says that Lyn and Heather Thorn’s actions deprived him of his constitutional rights to due process by trying to protect two of the suspects from prosecution.

“The city of Yakima, by its own policy and deliberate indifference to the acts described herein, allowed Lyn Thorn to engage in these activities despite their knowledge that she was investigating personal friends and had attempted to engage additional family (Heather Thorn) in order to provide favors to (Lyn Thorn’s family friend),” 

The statement, written by attorney David Therrien-Power, said.

Therrien-Power, who is handling the civil case, said he is in discussions with the city about the claim, which was filed Aug. 31.

Brusic said he would be discussing the claim against the county with Therrien-Power. Neither attorney would comment further.

Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Andy Miller said he is still reviewing the material from the State Patrol’s investigation.

Therrien-Power’s client is one of six Davis High School soccer players accused of burglarizing two homes in the Gleed and West Valley areas in 2018.

Lyn Thorn, who was working as a school resource officer at Davis High School, received a tip in December 2018 that Davis soccer players were involved in the burglaries. While the case was initially handled by the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office, Thorn decided to investigate a case involving someone she knew, which the tort claim states is a violation of YPD’s policy.

Allegations outlined in the civil claim:

Lyn Thorn questioned the students involved in her investigation, the records say, but she is accused of telling the mother of one of the students that her son “was not in trouble,” the claim said. The claim alleges that the student and another suspect were friends of Lyn Thorn’s son, and she was seeking to protect them.

Lyn Thorn also exchanged text messages with one of the suspects, telling him that she would try to help him get into a diversion agreement that would result in the charges being dropped, according to text messages included in a public-records lawsuit filed by the mother of one of the defendants.

Lyn Thorn subsequently destroyed other texts from her personal phone, even though they could be considered evidence, the claim alleges. Therrien-Power’s claim also notes that YPD policy prohibits using a personal phone on duty except in certain circumstances, and that work-related messages on a private phone could be reviewed by the department, as well as be subject to the Public Records Act or through discovery in civil and criminal cases.

At the time, Heather Thorn was assigned to the juvenile division of the prosecutor’s office and was handling the case. Lyn Thorn messaged Heather Thorn through Lyn Thorn’s department-issued laptop that she was involved in the investigation because the suspects were Davis students and had confessed to her.

The claim says that Lyn and Heather Thorn had exchanged messages on their phones, and Lyn Thorn told Heather Thorn that one of the boys’ defense attorneys was seeking any text messages between them as part of the evidence-gathering process for his client’s trial.

Shortly after that, Heather Thorn performed a factory reset on her phone, destroying any messages on it, the claim said. Heather Thorn, in a sworn statement included in a lawsuit filed against the city seeking the records, stated that she did the reset because of problems with her phone.

Heather Thorn, the claim said, initially offered the friends of Lyn Thorn a diversion agreement, which would result in the charges being dropped if they complied with court orders and did not get into further trouble. But that was withdrawn when court staff questioned why the other defendants did not get diversion offers, according to the claim.

Then, Heather Thorn offered to drop the charges against the two if they would testify against the other four in court, the claim said, which they accepted. Ultimately, the cases against all six were dismissed.

Lyn Thorn resigned from the YPD in June 2019 and works in a non-law enforcement role in Seattle. Attempts to reach Lyn Thorn’s attorney, Greg Scott, were not successful.

Heather Thorn was transferred shortly after the incident from the juvenile division to the felony division of the prosecutor’s office, where she handles preliminary appearance hearings and prosecutes sex offenders who fail to register.

Brusic said the transfer was not related to the allegations, adding it was a routine step in the career ladder at the prosecutor’s office.