Sheriff and Prosecutor stand behind Undersheriff following complaint

DAYTON–Columbia County Sheriff Joe Helm and Prosecuting Attorney C. Dale Slack are standing with Undersheriff Robbie Patterson, who also serves as the department's chaplain, when he spoke at a rally on June 25, 2022, and at Dayton's observance of the National Day of Prayer on May 5, 2022, in the face of a complaint from a Wisconsin group that is alleging a "constitutional violation occurring in the Columbia County Sheriff's Office."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, according to the letter sent to Sheriff Helm on August 11, 2022, is a national non-profit organization with over 38,000 members, of which 1,700 reside in Washington State as members of two state chapters. "Our purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism," the letter indicated.

"What a deputy does on his own time, when it comes to religious beliefs," said Sheriff Helm, "that's not for me to oversee."

Helm underscored his support for Patterson by noting that there has never been a complaint to his department about the fairness with which Patterson deals with everyone he contacts in the course of his work. "No complaint has ever been raised [about Patterson] that he hasn't treated everyone equally, with kindness, dignity and respect," Helm said.

"I have talked with Undersheriff Patterson, and if he represents the Sheriff's Office, he can be in uniform," Helm said. The sheriff also noted that sometimes an officer is on call and may be in uniform while on their own time. "I look at it like a military uniform," Helm said. "People are sometimes asked to serve in such a role while in uniform."

When contacted for comment, Undersheriff Patterson said

Prosecuting Attorney Slack "strongly disagreed with their analysis," he told the Chronicle. "Because he was seen in a work uniform," Slack said, "I would call it a polo shirt, with a sheriff's star, his name and so forth...the Freedom From Religion Foundation asserts that anything he said in the video was an action of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office, and therefore, a 'state' action.

"I disagreed," Slack said. "They're using an outdated test."

He referenced a case which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on last June, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. That's a case where the football coach would, after a football game, separate himself from the group, kneel and pray. Subsequently, team members and others joined him to pray, Slack said.

In the Kennedy case, Slack said, the "Lemon Test" was used to determine whether a government employee's speech was on behalf of the government or as an individual. "Through the years," Slack said, "the Lemon Test has been expanded and expanded and expanded. The question is: Could a reasonable person believe that a government official was speaking on behalf of the state?

"The Freedom From Religion Foundation, in my mind, uses the Lemon Test. Because of the Kennedy case, their analysis is not correct, Slack said.

The facts of the matter are, Slack said, that Patterson was on his own time, using his own video and audio equipment, but only had on apparel aligning him with the Sheriff's Office.

Another precedent-setting case, heard in the Washington Supreme Court in 2018, concerned an employee of a fire district who was using his employee email to send out a religious newsletter, Slack noted. The newsletter was heavy on the proselytizing and the employee was fired. The Washington Supreme Court ruled the employee couldn't be fired on the basis of the constitutional right of free speech, even though he was a public employee using public resources.

"Their reasoning," Slack said, "was that any restriction on an employee's speech has to be content neutral, not just religious. If you're going to stop somebody doing any speech, it's got to be all speech, not just religious speech."