Officer Tina Griswold: How We Met

Private Investigators come into contact with police often.
When we are Criminal Defense Investigators... sometimes... ok, most times... we are, by nature, in an adversarial position with police.
Criminal Defense Investigators are often placed in the position of assisting to "impeach" a Police Officer's testimony. I was in that position for a couple years at the Public Defender before I switched to the "other side" -- civil investigation.
(My previous blog post "car attack" here explains what Civil Investigators do.)

Now, in the course of representing victims in a civil action .... where there are concurrent criminal investigations, I often am an ally of police. .
Sometimes they are my witnesses when my clients are injured.
Sometimes, police are my injured clients.

In all cases, where a crime or accident has occurred and a victim I am investigating is involved, a police report is also involved.
And somewhere along the line, on all cases, police testimony can play a pivotal part in the ultimate verdict in a courtroom or settlement conference.

I have many police officers I know I could tell you about. A couple in my family.
The one I want to tell you about now, briefly, is one who was massacred last week. Her name is Tina Griswold. Click on the title of this point to link to a story about Officer Tina Griswold.

I met her one day when I was leaving an interview in a RV connected to a house in a bad neighborhood that gave me major creeps. The subject I was interviewing, as a Private Investigator, was the victim of a drunk driving accident. Broken arm and two lower back disc injuries. This is all I or the attorney who sent me, knew.

When I was sitting with the white male, 25 years old, I observed fresh track marks on his arm and the rot of meth mouth. Despite the fact, I asked if he was using, he said, no... he just stopped.
He said he was off meth for two weeks.
I didn't believe him, pretended I did... as I went through the list of questions I always do when investigate a potential case for an attorney.
Ultimately, I got to a key question I always conclude such interviews with...
"Any secrets or confidences you care to share with me?"
The interviewees usually ask what I mean.
This guy with the track marks did just that.

"Like what?" he asked.
"Like criminal charges, convictions, dwi's...any dead bodies buried in your backyard?"
I always deadpan the last question.
And the truly innocent usually crack an involuntary smile, a vigorous denial, or joke... when I ask about the bodies in their backyard.
However ... some people do have bodies in their backyard.
If not literally, figuratively.
This guy did.

He said, "Well I did kill my sister and paralyze my brother in law but they're not in my backyard."

He went onto to explain, he was drunk one night ten years ago, driving his sister and bro-in-law to the store for cigarettes at midnight when he hit black ice and smashed headlong into a tree on the passenger side. He killed his sister instantly, paralyzed the brother-in-law and he just got our of Walla Walla penitentiary after a ten year stint.... exactly one month before I met him.
Not one tear was shed in his telling of the story. Not a flicker of remorse.

Within one two weeks of his release, he said, he was hit by a drunk driver and wanted a lawyer to represent him. He told me he "wanted a ton of money."
Add that to the fact... that he did what he did to his sister and bro in law... did his ten years... without evidence of regret or shame... and I knew his case was a no-go.
I appreciated the fact that the universe handed him back justice upon release by being hit by another drunk driver.
I felt there was no moral or ethical place for a lawyer in this case. Major bad karma.
His dead sister, and paralyzed brother aside... he was still an active drug user, regardless how much he denied it.

And so I told this guy the lawyers "would be in touch" with him.
I backed out of his driveway, turned my jeep to the left.
Went to a stop sign.
Stopped, turned left, and within 6 seconds was surrounded by police.
One of them, Tina Griswold.

No guns were drawn at that point.... still, the greeting was a bit harrowing.
I saw hands on guns.
"Identity yourself" was all I heard.
My window was open.
I said "Private Investigator, I'm getting for my ID" I said, which I held out the car window.

I showed my ID, my state license, the attorney's card to the Officer Griswold.
"What were you doing in that house?" she said.
"A guy in that house was victim of a DWI I am investigating," I replied.
"Did you know he killed his sister in a DWI? Paralyzed his brother?" she asked incredulously.
"Not until he told me," I said.
There was a pause then broken by my question.
"Is that why you stopped me?"

"No." Officer Griswold replied. "We watched you go in. There's alleged criminal activity in that house. It's a well known crack houses."
"Then why'd you let me go in?" I asked.
"Because we thought you were a part of the whole deal."

Officer Griswold explained there was a blond who was associated with the stolen car ring.
As everyone relaxed, myself particularly, Officer Griswold and I exchanged business cards.
She too was a blond.
She too was about my size.
She apologized for alarming me.
I thanked her for protecting me.
She asked me how I liked investigating. I asked her about law enforcement.
She told me if I never needed anything to call.
I said the same.

There was one cup of coffee in there... when I saw met her at a coffee shot.
Not the coffee shop she was killed in.
But one in Tacoma.

She is one of the four massacred Lakewood Officers in today's memorial...include Officer Brenton... and that's five officers assassinated in 30 days.
This is the darkest time in law enforcement in WA State... and the largest police memorial this area has ever seen.

Certainly it is not 911.
Hundreds more officers, firemen, civilian heroes died there. Thousands of innocent Americans.
Yet for us here, in our little corner of the Pacific Northwest, two police massacres... taking five officers in one month...while they were resting, not working... its bit much to absorb.
Or expect.
We have well over 20,000 officers here from across the country now and counting.

May Tina Griswold and her four slain brothers rest in peace.
I know their families will not.
For them, the holidays will never be a fully joyful time.

Again please link on the title of this post to find out more.