Claim Charges Prosecutor Fears Hells Angels $10 Million Action Says County Didn’t Protect Gang Foe’s Family

A Spokane County deputy prosecutor filed a $10 million claim against the county Tuesday, saying authorities failed to protect his family from harassment and threats by the Hells Angels.

David Hearrean and his wife, Carol, contend Prosecutor Jim Sweetser and other county officials didn’t do enough to guard them against the motorcycle gang’s intimidation.

Hearrean, 47, is on unpaid medical leave from the prosecutor’s office and said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Several deputy prosecutors, however, expressed concern that Hearrean has turned paranoid during the past year and now sees routine stresses as life-threatening.

“This is a stressful occupation,” said Senior Deputy Prosecutor Martin Muench. “Other prosecutors in our office who’ve worked on cases against the Hells Angels have not experienced the same level of stress.”

The Hearreans, he said, have reported numerous threats to police over the past year.

“The Hells Angels must have the best intelligence unit in the state because they were always showing up where the Hearreans were,” Muench said.

Since unsuccessfully prosecuting a member of the Spokane Hells Angels for murder last year, the Hearreans, who are raising five children, say their lives have become a nightmare.

“I want to go back to work, but I’m not able to sit down and concentrate, worrying about my family’s safety,” said Hearrean, who was removed from his job as gang unit leader last month and assigned to the county’s drug prosecution team.

In their 15-page claim, the Hearreans based their request for $10 million on lost future earnings and emotional harm to the entire family.

If the county denies the claim, the Hearreans will file a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court, citing violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The claim says the county negligently withdrew police protection at the couple’s Elk home last summer, even though the Hearreans were still receiving anonymous phone calls and other threats.

The claim also says the county refused Hearrean’s request, based on a doctor’s evaluation, for a three-month paid leave of absence.

Instead, in March “the county and prosecutor’s office demoted him, cut his pay, refused to allow him access to the sick leave pool and refused to provide the leave requested,” the claim states.

Sweetser said he reassigned Hearrean to the drug unit because he felt Hearrean needed a chance to recover from the stress of the Hells Angels trial.

“I felt it would give him time to get back to equilibrium to be an effective prosecutor,” Sweetser said Tuesday.

Muench said the prosecutor’s office has tried to accommodate Hearrean’s concerns, but could not grant a paid leave of absence for stress.

Police and firefighters are the only public employees who have a paid-leave option when a doctor determines they are suffering from job-related stress. Deputy prosecutors don’t qualify for that benefit, Muench said.

Hearrean said he and his wife have gone “more than $100,000 in debt because of the past year of troubles.”

He cited these recent costs: buying a home security system, paying stress-related medical and counseling bills, and replacing the family’s cars so they wouldn’t be identified by Hells Angels.

Hearrean also used up all his sick leave and vacation time. County employees can obtain donated sick leave through a sick leave pool, but that isn’t available unless the employee first applies for state worker’s compensation, said Muench.

Hearrean submitted his compensation claim two weeks ago.

The Hearreans acknowledge they received county-provided protection twice in the past 14 months.

Shortly before the murder trial last spring of Hells Angel Timothy Myers, Hearrean and his family were given rooms in Spokane hotels for their protection.

After a jury acquitted Myers, law enforcement officers raided a number of Hells Angels’ homes and charged four of the men with intimidating Hearrean. Those charges were based on a March 1996 episode in which the Hearreans say they were surrounded by bikers at a downtown restaurant who glared at them and made threatening gestures.

After those arrests, the county assigned deputies to guard the Hearreans’ home for three days.

Then, said David Hearrean, the protection was removed because of budget restrictions.

Hearrean said a sheriff’s deputy told him, “This may be hard to take, but you are on your own.”

The alleged threats against the Hearreans include phone calls, a bomb threat to Carol Hearrean’s workplace last year, several instances of her being followed on the highway by people she considered threatening, and the death of the family dog. The Hearreans say the dog was killed by someone shooting it in the ribs with a pellet gun.

Hells Angels members have insisted they had nothing to do with any of those incidents.

Attorney Bevan Maxey, who defended Myers and the men accused of intimidating Hearrean at the restaurant, said the Hearreans are overreacting out of fear.

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