Sheriff explains facts surrounding jail-death review

Published 1:30 am Thursday, August 28, 2025

“There was a claim made that we sat on this review panel and didn’t share it, but that’s false,” Pacific County Sheriff Daniel Garcia told other county leaders.

His remarks made at the Pacific County Board of County Commissioners meeting on Aug. 26 were in response to an allegation made during the commissions’ Aug. 12 meeting by Pacific County General Administration Chief Administrative Officer Paul Plakinger after the discovery of a report regarding the in-custody death of Crystal R. Greenler on Dec. 13, 2022.

A week before that meeting, Pacific County Jail Services Director Jim Byrd was handed a flash drive by PCSO Chief Criminal Deputy Randy Wiegardt containing jail files. Among these was a June 1, 2023, report completed by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.

Garcia clarified on Aug. 26 that the report from Thurston County isn’t the same as the in-custody death review, which remains to be done.

According to public records, the report evaluated jail policies and how they may have played a role in Greenler’s death. These issues involved training, facility emergencies, the staffing plan, inmate safety checks such as hourly checks, jail health care, access to healthcare, detoxification/withdrawal management, and clinical care review.

Differing interpretations

Plakinger torched the sheriff’s office at the Aug. 12 meeting alleging the report was mismanaged and that had any of the general administration staff had handled the report in such a manner they would have been fired.

The issue comes down to how the county interpreted the report as being the unexpected fatality review panel mandated by Washington state law following an in-custody death.

State law mandates a panel — composed of a ‘team’ — be assembled to review an in-custody death within 120 days of the incident to evaluate policies and form recommendations to prevent future incidents. However, the report by the TCSO was completed by just one individual, Lt. Kenneth Clark. In an email dated May 31, 2023, then-jail overseer Michael Parker noted that TCSO was tasked with looking at the agency’s policies.

“Another part of this is the internal investigation which reviews our Lexipol policy and the actions that occurred on the day and time of the incident to verify whether policy had been adhered to,” Parker stated in the email. “This portion of the investigation is being conducted by the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office.”

Clark sent Parker the report the following day on June 1, 2023.

It is unclear why the record remained unavailable, including not being provided in response to several public records requests for information concerning Greenler’s death. The county settled a wrongful death lawsuit on Oct. 7, 2024, for $2.95 million.

The settlement was reached the same day another individual died in the jail.

Garcia explains

According to Garcia, the county has had the report for over two years.

“I’d like to submit a couple of things for the record, and I would like to address some last commission meeting,” Garcia said. “So, some comments were made in regard to the legislatively mandated in custody death review panel … The in-custody death review panel had not been done for either death and they still need to be done. We had lined up a couple of state recognized experts and anybody who has ever dealt with state recognized experts it’s not easy to coordinate schedules.

“The investigations were completed by [June 1, 2023], and then they were shared with the, at the time civil attorney and the [public records department] on [July 6, 2023]. So about one month later they were [Public record disclosed] and they were supplied for [public disclosure]. So, the uhm review panel when you look at what a review panel is, it is quite in-depth, and these are very important to be done.

“So, what was done were investigations and of those investigations one was a review of the policy, which was to be submitted to the review panel for their purposes of knowing what was our policy and what was done and how it was done,” Garcia added.

Review still pending

The revelation means that after over two years since Greenler died in custody and 10 months since Curtis S. Kirschbaum died in custody, neither review has been completed. The county issued a second formal extension of the reviews on July 28 pushing them out another 60 days.

“So what you guys were given is not the review panel and it still needs to be completed,” Garcia said. “We had it set up and agreed-upon by two of the experts that they would do both at one time. So that still needs to be done. …

“I am super grateful and thankful to you guys for not jumping to conclusions, not making egregiously false statements and not running to the risk pool with things that are not true — thank you guys,” Garcia added with evident sarcasm.

Under state law, an unexpected fatality review panel report is not admissible in civil proceedings, meaning that since the TCSO report is not the panel, it can be called into question for the ongoing case against the county by the Kirschbaum family.

An attorney representing the family was not immediately reachable for comment.