March 13, 2010 in City

Angry citizen spurs county to reassess office security

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Spokane County officials are looking for ways to improve security in their Human Resources building after an incident in which an angry man walked past the reception desk.

County commissioners on Tuesday directed facilities manager Ron Oscarson to look for ways to make the building more secure without adding guards and metal detectors.

Human Resources Director Cathy Malzahn called for some sort of barriers to make it more difficult for visitors to get past the lobby without permission. Human resources departments can be a focus for anger in a bad economy, Malzahn told commissioners.

Staff assistant Janine Grohman said an angry man – 60-year-old Steven Craig Leeper – came to the office about 11:15 a.m. March 5 and demanded information about a successful harassment complaint his late wife filed nearly two decades ago as a county employee.

Grohman said Leeper followed her when she walked toward the back of the office to find someone to talk to him. She said she turned around and marched him back to the counter, but “there was no reasoning with the gentleman.”

He blamed the county for his wife’s death in 2005 and said he wanted to “finish what she had started,” Grohman said.

Employee development director Don McDowell and Grohman said Leeper shouted obscenities in their faces at a distance of 6 to 8 inches. A female companion tried to calm Leeper, but he told her to “shut up in some very un-nice words,” Grohman said.

McDowell said Leeper eventually agreed to wait outside, where he resumed his tirade. He left after a confrontation with three sheriff’s deputies. He was not arrested.

Several employees agreed Leeper threatened to “take us all out or down,” and vowed to return.

“I don’t have any doubt that, if he had had a gun, he would have used it that day,” Grohman said.

The next day, Spokane police were called to a home in the 5800 block of West Parkwest Court, where a woman said Leeper had pushed and shoved her. She had gone when police arrived, and no action was taken.

Leeper said in an interview Friday that the woman in his home was a domestic violence victim he was trying to help.

Asked about the fear his actions created among county workers, Leeper said, “Oh, good, I’m glad it did and I’m going to be back.”

He said he plans to sue the county and wanted to get officials’ attention, but he denied making a death threat. Leeper said he’ll be calm when he returns.

“I need somebody to step forward and be my counsel,” he said. “I’m going to get them for murder.”

Leeper’s wife, Eleonor “Jan” Neidig-Leeper, was one of four female employees of the county Community Development Department who filed a sexual harassment complaint in 1992. The case was settled in 1994.

Later, Leeper said, his wife had to fight for a position for which she was “next in line.”

“They gave her all of the responsibility but none of the authority,” he said. “It took about two years, but the good-old-boy system bullied her out of there.

“The stress of being bullied out killed my wife, I swear.”

Leeper also blames a doctor for alleged failure to diagnose the congestive heart problem he said was the direct cause of his wife’s death.

Three comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  cowboy on March 13 at 8:59 a.m.

  put electronic card passes on each door. boy that is hard.

• 

  Marksman on March 13 at 10:22 a.m.

  Maybe the County Commisioners(are the rest of you “Leaders” listening?) should be studying why Citizens are angry enough to act that way? You have transformed from public servants to demanding servitude from the public. That is no way to run an American government!

• 

  cowboy on March 16 at 9:43 a.m.

  Next time go to the dollar store and buy a fake badge then just flash it as you go through the door it worked for Jay Olsen