Judge rules in favor of Lewis County in lawsuit filed by former county animal shelter employees
Nov. 6—Two years after four former Lewis County Animal Shelter employees filed a lawsuit against their former boss and other Lewis County officials, a Thurston County Superior Court judge issued a judgment Friday, Oct. 25, in favor of the county.
The four plaintiffs, Marcie Dekoker, Rita Payne, Lucy Ford and Robin Williams, have the option to appeal the Oct. 25 judgment.
The former shelter employees resigned from the Lewis County Animal Shelter in May 2021 after an internal investigation resulted in no major action against then-Shelter Manager Jennifer Teitzel, their boss.
The employees had accused Teitzel of creating a hostile work environment, forging documents, falsification and improper handling of funds.
After the county's own investigation into the claims resulted in no findings of wrongdoing, the employees alleged that the county "failed to properly investigate, failed to investigate all allegations of improper governmental actions, (were) not properly supervised, and released a final report that confused the issues of improper governmental actions and retaliation against protected whistleblowers."
Dekoker, Payne, Ford and Williams, represented by Jim Buzzard of Buzzard O'Rourke Attorneys at Law, filed their lawsuit against Teitzel, then-Lewis County Public Health & Social Services Director JP Anderson and Lewis County in Thurston County Superior Court on Aug. 2, 2022. Trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 27, 2025.
The defendants made a motion for summary judgment, in which a judge rules on the case without a full trial, and a motion for spoliation and sanctions, in which one party asks a judge to punish the other party for intentionally destroying or altering evidence, on Sept. 20, 2024. A hearing for those motions was scheduled for Oct. 25.
Judge Carol Murphy granted the motion during a hearing on Oct. 25 and issued her ruling during that same hearing.
While summary judgments are typically only issued in cases where the parties have no disagreements on what the facts of the case are — which was untrue in this case — Washington state law allows a judge to issue judgment on cases where at least one of the parties hasn't done what was required of them for the case to proceed.
In this case, the defendants, represented by Shannon Mary Ragonesi of Keating, Bucklin & McCormack and Megan Burrows Carpenter of Jackson Lewis P.C. in Seattle, argued that the plaintiffs intentionally deleted text messages that should have been entered as evidence.
The texts were reportedly between the four employees about Teitzel and the lawsuit, according to court documents.
While the plaintiffs argued that they did not have a legal duty to preserve the messages, that they showed "no conspiracy against Jennifer Teitzel" and that the "relevance of the missing text messages is minimal," the defense argued that "absent plaintiffs' counsel reviewing each and every text message related to this matter, they cannot claim that the text messages had little importance or relevance ... Given the plaintiffs' admissions at deposition that they regularly discuss this matter via text, the logical conclusion is that the text messages would have probative value and could have great importance in showing their general dislike and plan to oust Jenefer Teitzel from the animal shelter."
The defense further argued that the evidence shows the four employees "had animosity towards (Teitzel) even before she was hired, and these contentious feelings only grew as she worked as their supervisor," according to court documents.
One witness who submitted a declaration reported an encounter with Payne shortly before Teitzel was hired in which Payne allegedly said, in reference to Teitzel, "they'd better not hire her or there will be hell to pay," according to court documents.
"Plaintiff Rita Payne said there would be 'hell to pay' if defendant Lewis County hired Jennifer Teitzel, and she and her co-plaintiffs made good on that threat," Teitzel, represented by Burrows Carpenter, stated in a brief in support of the motion for summary judgment. "When they learned that Teitzel planned to discipline plaintiff Marcie Dekoker, they undertook a coordinated effort to oust Teitzel from her position. When that plan failed, they quit as a group to manufacture legal claims. On top of that, they deliberately destroyed evidence of their communications with one another, which is undeniably relevant to the case."
Dekoker, Payne, Ford and Williams pushed for Teitzel's removal in April 2021, alleging that she asked staff to falsify medical records, created "official-looking, but fake" donation receipts, misappropriated funds and fostered a hostile work environment that ultimately ran off the shelter's veterinarians.
Teitzel was hired as the Lewis County Animal Shelter manager in the summer of 2020.
The Chronicle's previous on the allegations by the workers can be read online at .
In a declaration in support of the employees, Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza stated that he has known Dekoker for over 25 years, 23 of which Dekoker was employed with the Lewis County Animal Shelter, and said he soon "began to hear of issues and concerns with the way (Teitzel) was running the office. This included how she was treating the employees and how they were no longer able to assist in the way they had before."
Snaza stated that he spoke with Anderson "in passing" about the situation at the shelter, and "was told changes were happening and all for the best."
While Teitzel was working at the Lewis County Animal Shelter, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office discovered that funds were missing related to an account Teitzel oversaw in her previous position in the Lewis County Corrections Bureau, which she left in the summer of 2020 to become manager of the Lewis County Animal Shelter.
The case was ultimately turned over to Washington State Patrol for investigation in June 2022, several months after the county fired Teitzel as manager of the Lewis County Animal Shelter in February 2022 due to the county's decision to "go in a different direction," according to previous Chronicle reporting.
"I feel strongly that matters concerning allegations against Ms. Teitzel should have been taken more seriously with upper management, and that the concerns brought by Ms. Dekoker and other employees should likewise have been taken more seriously with upper management," Snaza wrote. "In addition, once JP Anderson or other individuals realized there was possible criminal behavior, it should have been turned over to the proper authorities. Instead, Ms. Dekoker was released, and her concerns were not taken seriously."
Lewis County conducted an investigation into the whistleblower complaints, which concluded in May 2021.
An investigation by the county found no evidence of retaliation against the complainants. And while the investigation found that the use of cash donations was not in compliance with county policy, cash funds "in its entirety is an issue, not just when it was used by Ms. Teitzel," the investigation findings read.
"No evidence" of a hostile or toxic work environment was found, according to the county.
Allegations of falsified vaccination records or that Teitzel adopted out a dog without properly quarantining it first "were unfounded."
The Chronicle's previous delving into the findings of the investigation can be read online at .
Dekoker, WIlliams, Ford and Payne were reportedly asked to return to work in May 2021 following a paid administrative leave. They formally resigned on May 25, 2021.
In June 2022, a few months after the county fired Teitzel in February 2022, the Washington State Patrol began investigating Teitzel for fraud that took place while Teitzel worked in the Lewis County Corrections Bureau between 2019 and 2020.
She was ultimately convicted for stealing over $10,000 from the Lewis County Corrections Bureau via fraudulent credit cards and was sentenced in June 2023 to nine years in prison.
