Suspended Police Officer Denies Making Threats Henry Says He Doesn’t Know Why He Was Put On Leave

A Spokane police sergeant who was on stress-related disability for seven years before getting his job back in 1991 denies threatening a department chief.

Sources connected to the police department said Bob Henry, 51, was again put on leave May 8 after making threats to a high-ranking department administrator because he hadn’t been promoted.

Police Chief Terry Mangan also denied Henry made such threats.

Henry was put back on paid administrative leave to review whether he suffers from a medical condition that led to his earlier disability, Mangan said. He refused to discuss the medical condition.

“At no time did I threaten a chief,” Henry said Wednesday in an interview at his home on West Broadway.

He said he asked for but was not given details about why he was put on leave earlier this month.

Henry said he’s been told that he comes across as threatening. “My physical and verbal communication projects great strength.”

Henry, who learned of the decision before starting his swing shift duties, said he was asked to surrender his gun, which he did.

“I had to walk out of there without my gun. Great humiliation for a police officer, and for what reason I don’t know,” he said.

Henry told Mangan that he would cooperate, then spoke briefly with Deputy Chief Larry Hersom in Hersom’s office.

“I’m very angry about this,” Henry said he told Hersom. They spoke briefly, then Henry said he left.

Efforts to reach Hersom have been unsuccessful.

Henry said he was disappointed but not angry that an expected opening for a lieutenant’s position never actually came open.

Henry won stress-related disability retirement in 1984 after he was diagnosed with depression caused by stress. He said part of the stress stemmed from a 1980 incident in which he accidentally shot a 14-yearold boy.

David Collicott was wounded in the neck when Henry’s gun accidentally fired. Henry was arresting the youth following a car chase that ended near North Central High School. The incident led to a settlement against the city for nearly $150,000.

Henry was reinstated in 1991 by a police pension board.

He believes top administrators in the department are dealing with him directly because of his history in the department, an assertion Mangan denies.

“I think where I’m concerned, I’m always the exception,” Henry said. “I’m the bad guy.”