A lawsuit between the father of fallen Washington State Patrol Trooper Justin R. Schaffer and Thurston County, in which the county is accused of gross negligence for its role in Schaffer’s death in 2020, has been moved to Lewis County.
Former Chehalis Police Department Chief Glenn Schaffer, father of Justin Schaffer and the representative of his estate, initially filed the personal injury lawsuit against Thurston County, the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office, the Washington state of Social and Health Services, Highline West Seattle Mental Health Center, Behavioral Health Resources, Olympic Health and Recovery Services and Healthcare Delivery Inc. in King County Superior Court on June 5, 2023, according to court documents.
Schaffer is represented by Rush, Hannula, Harkins & Kyler, PLLC.
“Defendants’ negligent, reckless, careless and indifferent conduct in continuing to engage in a high-speed pursuit and in failing to monitor, treat, medicate and detain a dangerous, mentally ill criminal defendant proximately caused permanent emotional distress and damages to Chief Schaffer in an amount to be proven at trial,” attorneys state in the complaint.
All defendants except Thurston County were dismissed from the case before a change of venue jurisdiction resolution moved the case from King County Superior Court to Lewis County Superior Court was filed on June 7, 2024.
The case was formally filed in Lewis County Superior Court on July 3.
“This case involves an unreasonable, reckless high-speed pursuit of William David Thompson … and the failures of the defendants to properly treat, monitor, medicate and detain Thompson, a dangerous, mentally-ill individual,” attorneys representing Glenn Schaffer state in the complaint.
Justin Schaffer was one of several state troopers who attempted to stop a high-speed chase March 24, 2020, by placing spike strips on Interstate 5. Police were on the tail of robbery suspect William David Thompson, who reached speeds of more than 100 mph in his Ford pickup. He swerved around the strips and veered directly toward Schaffer, striking him and killing him.
Moments later, Thompson targeted a second patrolman and hit his car instead. Eventually, Thompson lost control of his truck and crashed. He was arrested after an hour-and-a-half standoff with police.
Thompson, 43, was sentenced in July 2022 to 45 years in prison for murder and attempted murder.
A competency assessment completed in early April 2020 found Thompson not competent to stand trial, and the case was put on hold while Thompson received treatment. The case resumed after a Washington state Department of Health review released in October 2020 found Thompson competent to stand trial. He was transferred from a treatment facility to the Lewis County Jail in March 2021, and was held on $5 million restricted bail until he entered his Alford pleas in June 2022.
The pursuit began when a Thurston County Sheriff’s Office deputy who was on patrol near the 3800 block of Maytown Road Southwest in Olympia on March 24, 2020, recognized a truck associated to Thompson, who was suspected of stealing a bottle of lighter fluid from a mini-mart in Olympia the day before, according to court documents.
“Thompson spotted the deputy and, at 2:19 p.m., he took off in his vehicle,” the plaintiff’s attorney stated in the amended complaint.
The deputy pursued Thompson as he fled onto southbound Interstate 5 toward Lewis County.
“Within the first minute of the pursuit, speeds had already reached 90 mph. Within the first two minutes of the pursuit, deputies reported that Thompson was ‘swerving in and out of traffic’ and ‘driving on the shoulder,’” according to the amended complaint.
At 2:22 p.m., a Thurston County Sheriff’s Office supervisor reportedly radioed the pursuing deputy to ask the reason he had initiated the pursuit. When told Thompson was a robbery suspect, the supervisor authorized the deputy to continue the pursuit “if speeds keep low enough,” according to the amended complaint.
However, deputies continued to pursue Thompson even after he continued to drive recklessly and increased his speed to over 105 mph.
A second deputy took over the pursuit at 2:24 p.m., at which point Thompson was reportedly driving at 120 mph, according to the amended complaint. The deputy reportedly radioed that Thompson was “driving on the shoulder, passing recklessly, swerving, passing a semi on the shoulder and trying to cause a collision,” according to the amended complaint. “However, the second deputy never radioed to advise that speeds had increased to 120 mph.”
Thompson drove recklessly at speeds of 110 to 120 mph on southbound Interstate 5 up until Exit 79, where Thompson struck Justin Schaffer.
Justin Schaffer and the other personnel who responded to aid in the pursuit were not told that speeds had reached 120 mph, according to the amended complaint.
Justin Schaffer was placing spike strips when Thompson swerved to hit him, according to the charges against him.
Thompson reportedly “had a unique type of delusion with government and law enforcement entities, which led him to believe they were out to get him and his parents, and that Thompson felt the need to kill and hurt them first,” the amended complaint states.
The amended complaint states that Justin Schaffer, who was treated by fellow officers and EMT personnel at the scene before being airlifted to Providence Centralia Hospital, where he died at 3:17 p.m. that day, “suffered catastrophic pain and suffering before succumbing to his death.”
Justin Schaffer was 28.
Glenn Schaffer responded to the scene while officers and EMT personnel were treating his son. The alleged complaint states that “what Chief Schaffer saw upon arrival was unimaginable and continues to haunt and consume his thoughts three years later.”
According to the state patrol, Thompson continued driving south after striking Schaffer and attempted to hit a second trooper.
He eventually stopped after crashing his vehicle at milepost 77 on an overpass. He was arrested after a standoff.
The amended complaint alleges that “despite observing the dangerous and reckless nature of this high-speed pursuit, the deputies of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office did not slow their vehicles down and/or call off the pursuit. They continued to pursue Thompson at a high rate of speed in direct violation of the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department’s policies and procedures and the state statutes governing vehicle pursuits by law enforcement agencies.”
Dispatch notifications were then made to other law enforcement agencies, including the Washington State Patrol, for assistance.
The amended complaint alleges that the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office failed to adopt provisions recommended by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission back in 2003 “that would have increased public safety during police pursuits,” and failed to provide officers “clearer guidance in their judgment with regard to when a police pursuit should be terminated if public safety is unreasonably affected.”
The plaintiff further alleges that Thurston County failed to provide proper mental and physical health care to Thompson when he was in custody at the Thurston County Jail between December 2019 and January 2020.
During that time, the amended complaint alleges, “Thompson was not properly monitored or supervised by trained jail staff personnel to address his deteriorating mental state.”
From March 2019 to March 2020, Thompson was in and out of Thurston County Jail custody for multiple offenses, including second-degree assault, third-degree assault, harassment and DUI, according to the amended complaint.
He was released on bail on Feb. 5, two days after the court ordered the jail to transport Thompson to a Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) facility for mandatory mental health treatment due to a judge finding him incompetent to stand trial for the third-degree assault charge he was in custody for.
The order, dated Feb. 3, 2020, required Thompson to be transported “within one day of the receipt of an offer of admission of the defendant for restoration treatment.”
“Thurston County Jail personnel allowed Thompson to post bond and then they released him to the public, ignoring the court’s competency restoration order issued two days earlier which stated that Thompson was to be ‘placed into the custody’ of DSHS,” the amended complaint states.
“Defendants knew that Thompson suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had episodes of psychosis and would commit acts of violence in the community by virtue of his mental health illness, yet failed to property monitor his condition, failed to provide antipsychotic medication needed to prevent Thompson from deteriorating, failed to provide accurate and prompt information to the court and counsel, and failed to detain Thompson despite a court order requiring Thompson to be detained and treated,” the amended complaint alleges.
Glenn Schaffer and his attorneys are asking for damages “in an amount to be proven at trial” and “such other and further relief as the court deems just and equitable.”
Thurston County has denied all allegations against it.
A trial had not been scheduled as of Thursday afternoon.
