The City of Centralia paid $3.425 million earlier this year to settle a lawsuit with a man who was shot by then-Centralia Police Sergeant John Dorff in January of 2020.
Centralia-based attorney Shane O’Rourke filed the lawsuit on behalf of the man who was shot, identified in court documents as Peter Harris, in U.S. District Court on March 14, 2022.
Harris died in Centralia on Nov. 26, 2023, at the age of 50, according to a death notice printed in The Chronicle.
The Washington Cities Insurance Authority paid the settlement on behalf of the City of Centralia to Harris’s estate on Jan. 2, 2024, according to public records obtained by The Chronicle.
The City of Centralia confirmed Thursday that the settlement money came out of the Insurance Authority’s risk pool and not out of direct city funds.
The shooting involved three officers, including two — former sergeant Peter Dorff and former officer Phil Reynolds — who were fired from the Centralia Police Department in late 2021 for unrelated misconduct. The Washington state Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) has since revoked both officers’ police certifications.
The fact that the incident involved those two officers “made it difficult to defend” against the lawsuit, said Centralia Police Chief Stacy Denham.
A third officer involved in the incident, Aaron Miller, is still employed with the Centralia Police Department and has maintained a clean disciplinary record, Denham said.
Only Dorff discharged his firearm during the incident, which took place on South Tower Avenue in Centralia on Jan. 2, 2020.
A statement of complaint filed with the lawsuit in 2022 and a summary narrative released by the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office in March 2020 provide similar, but not identical, versions of the incident.
Narrative of the shooting
Both narratives agree that the Centralia Police Department was dispatched to a trespassing complaint at a business on South Tower Avenue the evening of Jan. 2, 2020.
In the lawsuit, O’Rourke states that a 911 caller had reported a subject, later learned to be Harris, was trespassing at a business and had exhibited signs of suspected mental illness.
“There was never actually a trespass order in place and therefore, no crime occurred, but at most, the reported offense could constitute gross misdemeanor criminal trespass and there was no indication of any assaultive or other dangerous behavior,” O’Rourke writes in the complaint.
At the time of the incident, Harris was “well-known by local law enforcement, including the officers named herein, as nonviolent and as a former veteran with suspected mental health issues,” O’Rourke wrote.
All officers who knew Harris reportedly knew he regularly carried a 5-foot long, 2.64-pound walking stick, according to O’Rourke. Both narratives agree that Harris had that walking stick at the time of the incident.
An officer was dispatched to the trespassing complaint at approximately 7 p.m., according to both the prosecutor’s office and the lawsuit.
Reynolds was the first officer to arrive, according to O’Rourke.
In the lawsuit, O’Rourke states that Reynolds did not find Harris in the parking lot of the business where the complaint originated, but at another business about a block and a half away.
Miller reportedly arrived to assist Reynolds shortly after, according to the complaint.
Miller reported in his statement that he initially pulled out his firearm but switched to his Taser when he saw Reynolds already had his firearm out, according to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office.
During the contact with Reynolds and Miller, Harris reportedly “became agitated and exhibited what appeared to the officers to be signs of mental illness,” according to the complaint, which alleges Reynolds and Miller “did not engage in any de-escalation protocols and did not contact a designated mental health provider.”
The prosecutor’s office reported that “Dorff was en route to assist with locating ‘the suspect’ when Miller said over the radio that the man was threatening himself and Reynolds,” according to previous Chronicle reporting.
The lawsuit alleged that when Dorff arrived, he “took a position close to (Harris) so (Harris) was now surrounded by three officers.”
O’Rourke writes that “Less than 30 seconds later, (Harris) turned slightly away from Defendant Dorff without taking any aggressive posture or making any aggressive movements or threats, and in response, Defendant Dorff advanced on (Harris) and shot him twice at point blank range.”
According to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office report, Dorff reported that when he got out of his car, he heard Reynolds instruct the man to drop the stick, at which point the officers reported the subject took an “aggressive posture” directed at the officers.
Dorff reported that he heard Reynolds say “now” which he took to mean Miller was instructed to deploy his Taser on the man, which he did, according to Meyer’s report.
The lawsuit states that Miller discharged his Taser during the contact, but the Taser connected with Harris’ leather jacket and did not have an effect.
After being hit with the Taser, Harris swiped the probes off and allegedly focused on Dorff, who had his firearm out.
The officers reported Harris told Dorff “just f****** do it. Just f****** do it. I’m ready.”
Dorff said the man was 12 to 15 feet away from him still holding onto the stick. The man then took an “aggressive step towards (Dorff),” officers reported to investigators.
“The investigators learned that Dorff, believing Miller would not have enough time to transition from his Taser, and that the less than lethal option was ineffective, and believing he did not have time to switch from his firearm to a different method, shot the man twice,” according to previous Chronicle reporting citing the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office report.
“Dorff indicated in statements to investigators that he feared he would have been killed or hospitalized,” according to previous Chronicle reporting.
The complaint states that Harris was shot in the shoulder, face and abdomen. He was transported to Centralia Providence Hospital and then to Harborview Medical center, where he spent 27 days hospitalized, including eight days in the ICU.
He experienced severe physical and mental health problems as a result of the shooting, and was still undergoing treatment at the time the lawsuit was filed in 2022, according to the complaint.
Investigation and charging decision
The Mason County Sheriff’s Office conducted an independent investigation of the incident and provided the investigation material to the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
After reviewing the investigation, Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer ruled in March 2022 that “the officer’s use of deadly force was done in ‘good faith’” and declined to file charges against any of the officers, The Chronicle previously reported.
Meyer also declined to file any charges against Harris “due to mental health issues appearing to be the driving force in his actions,” The Chronicle previously reported.
At the time, the prosecutor’s office issued a potential impeachment disclosure letter to Reynolds after concluding that part of his taped and written statements contradict each other.
All three officers were interviewed as part of the investigation, but Meyer noted he did not consider Reynolds’ responses because of that contradiction, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
The lawsuit alleged that “All three officers, to varying degrees, painted a false narrative wherein plaintiff was about to attack Defendant Dorff” and specifically accused Dorff and Reynolds of lying to Mason County investigators.
According to O’Rourke, Centralia officers and patrol vehicles weren’t equipped with cameras at the time of the incident, but security cameras at a nearby business captured footage of the shooting that contradicts the officers’ accounts.
“Their intentional crafting of a false narrative is confirmed on video and was even confirmed by the investigative agency, the Mason County Sheriff’s Office,” O’Rourke writes in the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Dorff’s statement on the incident changed “dramatically” between his first account to his attorney on Jan. 9, 2020 and his statement to Mason County investigators about a month later.
In the report cited by The Chronicle in 2020, Meyer characterized Reynold’s written report of the shooting as “one of the most unusual reports ever submitted to this office by an officer,” adding that two of the four pages of Reynolds’ report “consisted of the officer objecting to having to write the report at all,” according to previous Chronicle reporting.
The complaint noted that, as of March 2022, Reynolds had “a history of untruthfulness, excessive force, improper use of less lethal weapons, exercising common sense, committing unsafe acts … and biased policing;” Miller had “a history of violating city policies, including unsafe or improper driving habits;” and Dorff had “a history of excessive force.”
The complaint alleged that the three officers, and by extension the City of Centralia, wrongly detained Harris ahead of the shooting, committed biased policing and utilized excessive force against Harris. The complaint further alleged that Reynolds, Miller and Dorff “conspired together to violate the law and to damage (Harris),” and that the City of Centralia was liable for failing to adequately train and adequately supervise those three officers.
In Meyer's analysis of the Mason Sheriff’s Office investigation into the shooting, he determined that the stick Harris had “could be considered a weapon and that Dorff had probable cause to believe that if he was not apprehended, he would pose a threat of serious physical harm to the officers,” according to previous Chronicle reporting.
“Even ignoring the supporting information … upon seeing (the man), his demeanor, conduct, words and weapon, (Dorff) believed (the man) was threatening the officers,” Meyer wrote in the review.
Meyer also argued Dorff’s belief that the man posed a threat of serious physical harm was corroborated by the fact the other two police officers present had also drawn their firearms.
“This reinforces the conclusion that each officer, independent of the others, made an analysis of the situation and believed that (the man) was a threat and considered the stick a threat,” Meyer wrote at the time.
Unrelated misconduct
Dorff and two other officers, Michael Smerer and Jocelynn Giammalva, were fired from the Centralia Police Department in November of 2021 for failing to respond to a 911 call for aid in a domestic violence situation on June 26, 2021.
Reynolds was fired in December of 2021 after investigators discerned his involvement in that incident. He was also fired for failing to properly investigate a potential vehicular assault domestic violence incident in September of that year.
In the June incident, the four officers were dispatched to an apartment complex after a man reportedly pulled a woman into an apartment by her hair, but despite confirming the dispatch over the radio and confirming via case notes that the suspect had a current protection order against him and two misdemeanor warrants, the officers stayed at the police station to make homemade pizzas and drink milkshakes. They didn’t leave until a third call about the incident came in an hour and 50 minutes after the initial call.
When they did arrive at the scene, investigators note, “the … victim had obvious signs of domestic abuse, but refused the officers entry into the residence. The abuser ended up jumping out the back window and escaping. The officers decided to arrest the victim and booked her into jail on a felony, rendering criminal assistance, even though the victim had told the officers that she is afraid of her abuser and he has threatened he would take it out on her and her family if they assisted with police to arrest him,” according to charging documents filed with CJTC.
The four officers were also found to be “not truthful” and “only offered excuses” during the Centralia Police Department’s internal investigation into the incident.
The CJTC ruled to revoke the police certifications of Dorff, Smerer and Giammalva on June 15, 2023, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
Reynolds’ certification was revoked on Jan. 16, 2024 after the CJTC reviewed allegations from both the June 2021 incident and the September 2021 incident.
In its final order, the CJTC Commission Hearings Panel found that, while Reynolds did not “knowingly (make) misleading, deceptive, untrue or fraudulent representations” during the Centralia Police Department’s internal investigations into the two incidents, Reynolds did commit misconduct during the two incidents that qualified for his peace officer certification to be revoked.
Reynolds was previously terminated from the Centralia Police Department in March 2012 for a long list of alleged policy violations — including allegations of excessive use of force.
Prior to his March 2012 termination, Reynolds had already faced serious reprimands, including a two-week, unpaid suspension the previous July after an internal investigation found he excessively Tased multiple people under questionable circumstances and later lied about it, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
Reynolds rehired with backpay in May 2014 following arbitration, where a private arbitrator ruled to overturn the Centralia Police Department’s decision to fire Reynolds.
The arbitrator’s decision in Reynolds’ case was final and no further appeal could be made, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
While Reynolds attempted to appeal his most-recent termination via arbitration, an arbitrator with the state Public Employment Relations Commission upheld the Centralia Police Department’s decision to fire Reynolds in a formal ruling in October of 2022.
