The owner of a Franklin County car business has sued the sheriffs of Franklin and Adams counties, saying he was arrested without probable cause and was the subject of false social media posts that harmed his reputation.
Terry Cissne, of Pasco, owner and operator of Eltopia Auto Plaza, is suing in federal court claiming false arrest, unreasonable search and seizure, interference with business relationships and defamation.
In April 2024 the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office warned on Facebook that customers of Cissne and Eltopia Auto Plaza could be victims of odometer fraud.
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office also posted that Cissne had been arrested and was a suspect in a joint investigation with Franklin County related to odometer fraud.
It said that both sheriffs’ offices were “reiterating the importance of vigilance when purchasing pre-owned vehicles.”
News media outlets, including the Tri-City Herald, wrote stories based on information from the sheriffs’ offices.
Cissne said in a lawsuit filed Sept. 10 in federal court that Adams County Sheriff’s Office started investigating Eltopia Auto Plaza in June 2023 and claimed that the investigation, later joined by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, resulted in unconstitutional searches, frozen bank accounts and the seizure of about 15 vehicles, cash, and licensing and title documents.
Cissne was arrested on April 4, 2024, but the criminal charge against him alleging odometer tampering was dismissed the next day after a judicial review of probable-cause materials. The lawsuit says an Adams County detective had been the leader of the investigation and arrest.
No further criminal prosecution followed the dismissal of the charge against Cissne, according to the lawsuit.
But the seized vehicles, money, records and other property were not immediately returned, the lawsuit says.
Cissne was not allowed to recover the seized vehicles until September 2024 after filing a court action called a writ of replevin, according to the lawsuit. Cissne believes that Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner or Prosecutor Randy Flyckt could have ordered the vehicles and other property returned.
The lawsuit claims that the combined effect of law enforcement restraints and seizures effectively shut down the car business for a substantial time.
The lawsuit also alleges that law enforcement personnel instructed or encouraged DAA Northwest Auto Auction in Spokane not to do business with Cissne or Eltopia Auto Plaza.
Both counties failed to provide adequate training and supervision concerning warrant applications, seizure and retention of property, probable-cause determinations, communications with third parties and public dissemination of accusations, according to the lawsuit.
It is requesting damages that include lost business income and compensation for emotional distress. The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages and costs of bringing the lawsuit.
Adams County Sheriff Dale Wagner declined to comment on current litigation, and Franklin County Sheriff Jim Raymond did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Although the charge against Cissne was dropped, the odometer rollback investigation launched by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office did result in the conviction of an Othello man, Reynaldo Valdez Garza Jr.
Court documents do not show a connection between Garza and Cessne.
Garza was found guilty after a three-day trial in Spokane in October 2025 of five felony counts of odometer tampering and sentenced in March to one year and three months in federal prison.
But the Eastern Washington U.S. Attorney’s Office says that as more people who bought cars from him came forward before his sentencing, it had compiled a list of 21 vehicles with a total of more than 2 million miles rolled back on their odometers.
Garza had purchased used cars and then installed odometers showing much lower mileage before reselling them in Eastern Washington, including in the Tri-Cities.
The average rollback for each vehicle was 126,832 miles, concealing an average of 10.7 years of use, wear and tear for each car or pickup, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Kelley, in court documents.
He put the total loss at $171,763 for about 20 known buyers. That included $36,230 on the cars for which Garza was found guilty of odometer tampering.
The prosecution’s estimate included a calculation of the vehicle’s remaining lifetime miles at the time of purchase based on a valid odometer reading, repairs buyers had done and the loss of value in selling their cars which no longer had clean mileage histories.
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