FORKS — Former Forks Police Officer Mike Gentry resigned for medical reasons May 18 while an FBI investigation continues into a woman’s allegation that he raped her twice, Chief Mike Rowley said last week.<\/p>\n
Gentry, who last week denied the allegation contained in a temporary protection order, was on 15 months of paid administrative leave between Feb. 11, 2017, and May 18 because of the allegation.<\/p>\n
The resignation stemmed from physical injuries Gentry, 33, sustained while making an arrest Jan. 18, 2014, Gentry and Rowley said.<\/p>\n
Gentry said he initially broke his wrist and sustained a tibial plateau fracture below his knee, dislocating the knee in a Forks parking lot when he tackled a 24-year-old man who had run into Gentry’s police vehicle.<\/p>\n
Walter B. Martin-Perez served 66 days in jail for hit-and-run and resisting arrest.<\/p>\n
The injuries had worsened according to a recent medical report, forcing him to resign, Gentry and Rowley said.<\/p>\n
The state Department of Labor and Industries said Gentry was “not capable” of physically performing his duties as a police officer, Rowley said.<\/p>\n
Gentry said he cannot sit, stand and walk for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time in a one-hour period.<\/p>\n
Since the incident, he has developed blood clots, traumatic degenerative osteoarthritis and a bone deformation that “causes me to fall, occasionally,” he said.<\/p>\n
Resigning “wasn’t a choice I made.”<\/p>\n
Gentry received $88,000 in full-time salary and health, dental, vision and life insurance benefits while on leave, according to city records.<\/p>\n
The alleged rape victim’s petition for a protection order was filed in Superior Court on Feb. 9, 2017.<\/p>\n
Clallam County Superior Court Commissioner Brent Basden issued a temporary sexual assault protection order that same day that required Gentry to surrender any weapons in his possession.<\/p>\n
Two days later, then-Police Department Administrator Rick Bart told Gentry he was being placed on administrative leave “due to a complaint stemming from a sexual assault protection order,” according to Bart’s written notice to Gentry.<\/p>\n
The woman said Gentry raped her in late December 2013 or early January 2014 on a logging road while taking her to her home in his patrol car after she had wrecked her vehicle.<\/p>\n
She said he raped her a second time about a year later at her friend’s house after she had been drinking and while she was lying on a couch.<\/p>\n
“I had been drinking and was numb,” she said in the petition.<\/p>\n
“Mike Gentry works in the public as a figure of authority and I fear other women are at risk,” she said.<\/p>\n
“He is intimidating and I fear [for] my safety and others’ safety,” she said. “I’ve kept this all inside, but am seeking help now.<\/p>\n
“This rape has caused me to have suicidal ideations at times.”<\/p>\n
Gentry said he did not have a sexual relationship with the woman.<\/p>\n
He said he worked with her.<\/p>\n
“I did not rape this woman,” Gentry said.<\/p>\n
“I deny there was any sort of unprofessional relationship.”<\/p>\n
Port Townsend Attorney Alexandrea Schodowski represented Gentry.<\/p>\n
She said in her written response to the woman’s claims that Gentry’s job required him to use a firearm.<\/p>\n
“The petitioner offers little proof and no evidence to support the alleged non-consensual sexual conduct or acts allegedly perpetrated on her by [Gentry],” Schodowski said, calling the woman’s assertions “flimsy allegations.”<\/p>\n
“More specifically, the petitioner cannot even list a specific date in which this alleged conduct occurred.<\/p>\n
“In addition, the petitioner fails to include why she waited until February 2017 to make these allegations and request protection,” Schodowski said.<\/p>\n
“The only contact Mr. Gentry has had with the petitioner was work-related and not personal.”<\/p>\n
Basden said there was “no basis” for issuing the more permanent order, questioning the credibility of the same allegations that had led to Gentry being put on administrative leave.<\/p>\n
“Court makes finding sexual assault wasn’t established,” according to the hearing minutes that are part of the court record.<\/p>\n
“Court rules there’s no basis, court signs order of denial, in re: firearms, no order prohibiting use.”<\/p>\n
The investigation continued, anyway.<\/p>\n
The FBI took it over from the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office around March 2017, Bart said in a June 2, 2017, interview with Peninsula Daily News.<\/p>\n
That investigation is continuing, Rowley and City Attorney Rod Fleck said last week.<\/p>\n
Fleck said a meeting with the FBI about the investigation that was scheduled for May 18 — the same day that Gentry resigned — was postponed.<\/p>\n
“They said we would be meeting with them in the near future,” Fleck said Thursday.<\/p>\n
An FBI spokeswoman would not confirm or deny the existence of the investigation.<\/p>\n
“Generally speaking, an individual’s employment status would be irrelevant to any investigation,” she said Monday in an email.<\/p>\n
Last week, more than a year after the woman made the allegations, Rowley and Gentry said they have not been interviewed by the FBI.<\/p>\n
Gentry has not been interviewed by North Olympic Peninsula law enforcement authorities, either.<\/p>\n
“Nobody has spoken to me,” he said.<\/p>\n
A Navy veteran, Gentry said he has been denied employment at five other jobs, including customer service representative and food handler-operator, because of his physical limitations.<\/p>\n
He had been in law enforcement since 2006.<\/p>\n
“It seems all I ever wanted to do was be a police officer,” Gentry said.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
This story was first published in the Peninsula Daily News<\/a>. Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The officer claims the FBI probe and his departure are unrelated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":34863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-34862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-northwest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34862"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}