Geiger Accuser Allegedly Faked Videotape Evidence Pilkington Rehired, But Possibility Of Lawsuit Hangs Over County

A Geiger Corrections Center officer is accused of staging events in a videotape used as evidence against a co-worker fired for allegedly hugging an inmate.

Michael Horstman, 48, faces misdemeanor charges of tampering with evidence. But Horstman was only part of a conspiracy to get Sunny Pilkington fired because some co-workers considered her a trouble-maker, a union attorney testified during a 1994 arbitration hearing.

Pilkington won back her job at that hearing.

Geiger investigator Edwin Rosario, who helped make the video, also was charged with evidence tampering. A judge threw out the charges against him in November when the special prosecutor handling the case didn’t show up for a court hearing.

Now, city officials are “reviewing the actions” of prosecutor Dan Catt, said city attorney Jim Sloan, who would not comment further.

Catt, a deputy city prosecutor, was out of town and could not be reached for comment. He was assigned to the case because it would be a conflict of interest if the county prosecuted a case involving its own facilities and employees.

Firing Pilkington and bringing charges against her accusers already has cost county taxpayers more than $68,000.

The cost continues to grow and could increase dramatically if Pilkington sues the county.

A suit is “more than a possibility,” said Pilkington’s attorney, Carl Maxey.

Pilkington said the dispute has made her work life miserable.

“I’m real shaky out here,” she said during a brief interview. “I’m a female in a male institution and I think they’re gunning for me.”

Horstman did not return messages left on his home answering machine.

“My boy didn’t do a damn thing,” said his attorney, John Clark. He accused the county of trying to make his client a “scapegoat” in case Pilkington sues the county, as expected.

Rosario also denied any wrong-doing.

Arbitrator Carlton Snow ordered the county to reinstate Pilkington 20 months after she was fired. Snow did not confirm the union’s allegations of a conspiracy, but did poke gaping holes in the case Geiger had built against Pilkington.

In his 33-page findings, Snow wrote that Horstman “had strong motivation to be dishonest” when he reported seeing Pilkington hug a male inmate one time and catching the pair in a darkened room another time.

About two weeks before Horstman made his claim, Pilkington reported him for drinking on the job. Her charge was investigated, but Snow’s findings and court records do not say whether it was proven.

What’s more, Horstman “had attempted for several years to become a corrections officer,” Snow wrote.

After Pilkington was fired, supervisors promoted him from van driver to corrections officer, and gave him Pilkington’s badge number.

Horstman’s account of catching Pilkington in a darkened storeroom was especially suspect, Snow wrote.

Horstman claimed there was no reason for the lights to be out, since the light switch was right next to the door. And he helped make a video-tape showing the switch operating the light.

But the switch is not wired to any indoor light, according to court documents. Horstman now is charged with rigging the lights during the taping to make the video fit his description of events.

“The scenario in the video is clearly a false depiction,” Geiger electrician Bruce White wrote in a court affidavit.

The county withdrew the tape as evidence during the arbitration hearing, according to court documents. Snow never mentions the tape in his findings.

Pilkington claimed she took the inmate into the room to get tools. She told Snow she was searching for the real switch - located in the center of the room - when Horstman walked in.

In the other episode, Horstman reported seeing Pilkington embracing the inmate in the center’s plumbing shop. He reported that the inmate’s pants were partially unbuttoned.

Corrections supervisor Charles Hagens, who arrived at the plumbing shop shortly after Horstman, also said Pilkington’s pants were unbuttoned.

Pilkington denied that the inmate’s pants were unbuttoned and told Snow she only put her hands on his shoulders to prevent him from passing out.

The inmate, identified in Snow’s report only as Inmate Zackman, had an abscessed tooth and had not eaten that day, Geiger’s nurse told Snow.

While Pilkington denied hugging Zackman, another corrections officer did hug him, then told her supervisors about it, Snow reported.

That officer, who isn’t named in the findings, was not reprimanded, let alone fired. She said she hugged Zackman because he was distraught over the death of his father.

Snow’s report criticizes Rosario for a sloppy investigation of Horstman’s charges.

Rosario, a former Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy, conducted interviews without taking notes or using a tape recorder, Snow wrote. He later “directly quoted several interviewees in his report” to Jim Lindow, Geiger administrator at the time.

The report quotes supervisor Andrea Beck saying Pilkington admitted hugging an inmate. Beck testified to Snow that she didn’t make the statement and asked Rosario to correct it before giving his report to Lindow.

The change was never made.

Lindow, who now is county administrator, could not be reached for comment. Snow said in his findings that Lindow had little choice but to fire Pilkington, based on the information he received from Rosario.

Pilkington had no choice but to spend a great deal of time with Zackman, Snow noted. She was in charge of preparing Geiger for a federal inspection and Zackman was the inmate assigned to plumbing repairs.

Geiger officials had plenty of reasons to want Pilkington off the job, Snow wrote.

In her three years as a corrections officer, she reported a male officer for having “inappropriate conduct” with a female inmate and filed a sexual harassment claim against a supervisor.

None of the people involved are named in the findings, and the outcome of those cases isn’t known.

Pilkington got good reviews for uncovering a drug dealer and preventing an inmate suicide. The day before she was accused of hugging Zackman, supervisors praised her preparations for the federal review, Snow wrote.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ADDING UP THE COSTS Firing Sunny Pilkington and pressing charges against two of her colleagues at Geiger Corrections Center has cost county taxpayers at least $68,540, so far. Here are the known costs: Pilkington’s wages from the time she was fired until she was rehired. Neither she nor her attorney, Carl Maxey, would disclose the settlement amount, but her wages would have been $42,040 to $56,720 for 20 months, based on the county’s wage scale. County officials who would know the exact amount weren’t available for comment Friday. Edwin Rosario’s wages of about $15,000 for the four months he was on leave. Michael Horstman’s wages of about $11,500 during the six months of work he’s missed so far. He remains on paid leave. Those figures do not include the cost of providing benefits to Rosario and Horstman while they were off work. The county also reimbursed Pilkington for her lost benefits, said Maxey. Dan Hansen, staff writer