Deputies Punished After Information Leaked One Lost His Job, Another Face Criminal Charges In Stevens County Case

Information leaked from the Stevens County Sheriff’s Department during a heated 1996 judicial election cost one deputy his job and resulted in a criminal charge against another.

An arbitration hearing is planned early next year in a Teamsters Union grievance over former Deputy Steve Troop’s dismissal.

Ted Campbell, a former Stevens County deputy who now works for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department, recently resolved the criminal charge against him by issuing an apology.

Campbell, 40, was charged with three counts of unlawful dissemination of criminal history record information, a misdemeanor. He was accused of releasing the accusations to three people outside the Sheriff’s Department, including one who - like Campbell - had been critical of the department’s management.

The victim of the leak, Stevens County District Court Judge Pam Payne, accepted Campbell’s apology in September and the charge was dismissed.

Under state law, victims may settle misdemeanor charges by accepting a compromise.

Payne said Campbell’s settlement offer “just seemed like the better way to deal with it for everyone’s sake.”

She said he gave no clear explanation for his action, but said he didn’t intend to embarrass her.

“What hurt so bad is that I don’t know why,” Payne said.

Campbell did not respond to requests for comment, but Troop said he “never talked with anyone outside of law enforcement. There was no politics involved as far as I’m concerned.”

Public records show Troop was fired Aug. 27, 1996, one day after The Spokesman-Review inquired about a tip that the Sheriff’s Department had investigated a report Payne bought or used drugs. Campbell had already joined the Spokane County Sheriff’s Department.

The tip was received shortly after an anonymous caller provided embarrassing information about Patty St. Clair, Payne’s leading opponent in a three-way District Court primary race. The tip about Payne did not come from St. Clair.

St. Clair said she knew nothing about the newspaper inquiry until Payne told her as a courtesy.

“I’m not interested in that kind of information, so it wouldn’t go any farther than that,” St. Clair said. “I’m not interested in that kind of back-stabbing. That’s not me.”

The Spokesman-Review did not publish the information about Payne. Sheriff Craig Thayer said at the time that he had just reopened the 1988 investigation and satisfied himself that former Sheriff Dick Andres properly concluded the charge against Payne was unfounded.

The old report was reviewed again by Lincoln County authorities, who handled the case against Campbell.

Deputy Lincoln County Prosecutor Josh Grant said the report was based on second-hand information from a woman who had a grudge against Payne because of a child dependency case Payne handled when she was a deputy prosecutor. Grant said the complainant and the person she quoted both recanted their allegations against Payne.

, DataTimes