A Lewis County employee was reportedly let go from his job this month after earlier receiving criticism for social media posts and comments made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
According to Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod, Lewis County Deputy Coroner Paul Bromm was fired from his job with Lewis County earlier this month.
“He is no longer employed with this office,” McLeod said.
McLeod declined to expand further on the staffing change, declining requests to provide any reason or justification for the staffing change. Bromm was still employed by Lewis County as of Wednesday, Sept. 16, when The Chronicle wrote about criticism of his online statements from a state lawmaker and Lewis County commissioner.
Bromm’s termination from his job with Lewis County came following a period of public outrage and backlash over social media posts deemed by some as insensitive or inappropriate.
In the days following Kirk’s assassination on Wednesday, Sept. 10, Bromm posted a series of images and comments to his personal Facebook page making light of Kirk’s assassination. The posts almost immediately inspired backlash.
The attention was in part prompted by state Rep. Joel McEntire, R-Cathlamet, and Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope, who each responded to the images with posts of their own with outrage. McEntire labeled the posts and Bromm “disgusting.” Swope urged locals to send concerns about the posts directly to McLeod in a post that included McLeod’s county email address.
According to records acquired by The Chronicle through a public records request, the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office filed a Potential Impact Disclosure (PID), often referred to as a Brady letter, before Bromm was terminated. The letter is dated Sept. 12, just two days after Kirk’s assassination. Brady letters, which are almost exclusively used for members of law enforcement, are meant to disclose conduct that might impact an officer's credibility as a witness or in other situations.
The letter signed by Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer states that it will not have an impact on Bromm’s credibility as a witness in the future, but that the prosecutor elected to “err on the side of disclosure" of Bromm’s conduct, according to certain legal precedents.
It further adds that the letter and adding Bromm to the PID list is warranted concerning the post's impacts on Bromm’s role as a deputy coroner.
The Brady letter stated that the biased social media posts compromise Bromm’s ability to fulfill his role of conducting “unbiased investigations into deaths that occur within the boundaries of Lewis County.”
“A review was made of several posts made on social media by Mr. Bromm,” the letter states. “Those posts may show a biased against an identifiable group.”
The letter also addresses concerns over infringement on Bromm’s First Amendment rights. The First Amendment bars any government entity from passing laws or taking actions that abridge someone's right of free speech.
“Without question such speech is protected under the First Amendment,” the letter states. “However, in the exercise of freedom, there may also be consequences.”
