WA sheriff’s trial underway on false reporting charges

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — After a delay due to illness a jury has been selected and attorneys have delivered their opening statements in the trial of a county sheriff in Washington state. KNKX reports opening statements were given Wednesday afternoon after the trial was delayed because Pierce County Sheriff Troyer had the flu. He is charged with two misdemeanors stemming from his off-duty encounter with a Black newspaper carrier, Sedrick Altheimer, in January 2021. Troyer has pleaded not guilty to false reporting and making a false or misleading statement to a civil servant for claiming to an emergency dispatcher that the newspaper carrier was threatening to kill him.