Life Issues / Family Ethics Political Action Committee of Southwest Washington

John Horch
2022 Clark County Sheriff Candidate
Campaign Website  

Mr. Horch asks that anyone with questions about his campaign positions contact him directly through his email: info@horch4sheriff.com

Troubling Report 1: Public Record Employment Documents

Troubling Report 2: Sheriff Dept Protocol


Troubling Report 1: Public Record Employment Documents
Posted with author's permission from this public Facebook source.
Document Files: File 1, File 2, File 3, File 4
 Horch Response, CCT 11/29
Related Clark Co Today LTE, 10/27

"I have uncovered some disturbing information about John Horch, Candidate for Clark County Sheriff. I have the proof (PDF copy) that I will send to anyone who messages me. Also, please note that ... I spoke to John Horch directly regarding most of these issues and he admitted that they were true.

Summary of John Horch’s Problems as a CCSO Deputy

1) Demotions/ Terminations

· Terminated from CCSO on 11/30/1999

· Demoted from Sergeant to Deputy on 5/27/2004 for not meeting performance standards.

· IA Case# S041102: Suspended for 94 hours, removed from the bomb squad, and not eligible for specialized unit service for 2 years for theft and destruction of county property. John ripped down and destroyed “Unity through diversity” posters from 2 precinct offices (11/3/2004).

2) Anger/ Domestic Violence Issues

· IA Case# 000901: Broke CCSO computer in anger. (11/1/200)

· Had a personal Domestic Violence issue while on duty (4/19/2004)

· Case #S04-5667. John had a dozen DV incidents with his ex-wife and was the subject of the Child Recovery and Domestic Violence Intervention Unit Investigation.

3) Racism/ Sexism

· IA Case# 020601: John was reprimanded for writing a sexually explicit note to a woman during a DV call. (He wrote one of the deputies at the scene was named “Jack Mehoff.”) 7/9/2002.

· CCSO Memorandum: John was reprimanded for making racially insensitive comments about an African American Deputy and African American victim. (9/28/2004)

· IA Case #S041102: John ripped down “Unity Through Diversity” posters from 2 precinct offices. This resulted in the 2 year removal from specialty units noted above. (11/3/2004).

4) Job Performance Issues

· 3 chargeable MVA’s (1991-1994)

· Reprimanded many times for failure to investigate crimes and complete reports

· Losing evidence (a gun) from a suicide call in 2000.

I wish the press would do their job, but they don’t, and people have the right to know. I want the truth about our candidates, especially the most powerful LEO in Clark County"

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Further commentary by John Clark:
I, John Clark, have received public disclosure information regarding Clark County Sheriff Candidate John Horch, much of which is quite disturbing, including alleged domestic violence and racist behavior.
I am including the most disturbing documents as attachments and will explain them each below (this is an attempt at timeliness, as there are thousands of documents to go through which are all scattered and not in proper date order. I can send the full amount if requested). This is not even everything, as time is running out to help people learn about who John Horch really is.
While the explanations are long, they’re important because they show a pattern of poor behavior and lower than acceptable standards for any police officer, much less a Sheriff. In summary: Horch had some issues in the beginning of his career and was either fired or quit in lieu of termination in 1999, but came back a year later. Apparently, he worked through those issues and was promoted to sergeant in 2003. He had MANY issues as a supervisor, including covering up for other officers when they didn’t do their work properly, not completing his own reports, cell phone issues, etc.
When he came back to work as a deputy, his problems continued with pulling down and throwing away posters meant to promote diversity within CCSO, covering up for a VPD officer’s domestic violence incident, his own domestic violence incidents, comments to a civilian that bordered sexual harassment, racist comments, breaking a police computer in anger, and more.
Transparency is very important to the Sheriff position. I believe the voters and Clark County residents deserve to know all about the people they’re voting for. This is the highest elected office in the county: We cannot have a lying, wife-beating, racist holding the position.
Attachment: Horch Personnel File
The first documents in this attachment are regarding what I’ll call the “diversity poster incident.” This incident was from 2004 and involved several posters sent to and hung by CCSO’s Internal Diversity Committee. Horch, fresh off a demotion from sergeant for a whole host of other issues, pulled two of the posters off of walls from two separate precincts, pulled them out of their frames, and shoved the posters into the trash.
This ultimately resulted in what they called a “major” internal investigation with charges of theft, destruction of company property, and employee misconduct, for which he was counseled about treating people of all races, genders, sexual orientation, etc. equally.
Horch lied about this incident as well, stating it was his “first day back on patrol” after being demoted from sergeant, but later that was investigated and found to be false: two full work cycles (which amounts to approximately 3-4 weeks) had passed in between (see Horch Personnel File 3 attachment).
The result of this was a 94-hour suspension and his removal from the bomb squad. Horch filed a grievance and asked to be suspended from the bomb squad rather than removed but that was not honored.
The next document shows where he wrote an inappropriate comment to a woman who was being assaulted by her boyfriend. She became upset at the way the deputies were handling the situation, and so she asked for their names. Horch wrote down their names, adding a fourth name of Jack Mehoff, clearly intoning a sexual reference. Horch was said to be laughing as he walked away from the scene.
One of the included documents in this file deals with excessive on-duty department cell phone usage. While this doesn’t seem like a big deal, it amounted to several hours per day on the phone during work hours.
While Horch was a Sergeant, a VPD Officer was involved in a domestic violence incident, and the female victim called CCSO the next day to report that the officers who showed up (Horch) did nothing. He had not even written a report on the incident.
The same day, Horch was involved in a domestic violence incident of his own, which will come up in documents to follow.
Attachment: Horch Personnel File 2
The second page of this document is quite interesting. It reflects Horch’s Purple Heart award. I included this because I feel it’s disrespectful to military service members for the following reason: Horch has “Purple Heart recipient” on his campaign page. Obviously, most people immediately assume this is a military award. A Columbian writer, Ann Donnelly, also said that Horch was in the military. This is not true (which is shown in Horch Personnel File 5). This is borderline stolen valor- Horch should have corrected the claim immediately, but he did not. There are likely thousands of people who now believe Horch is a military serviceman who received a medal for injury during combat. In reality, a suspect fled from him, striking a metal gate as he drove away, which swung back and hit Horch in the hand.
In the performance evaluation from 2000, many issues are noted with poor performance from Horch as a deputy. I’ve included this document, however, because it details another show of rage where Horch broke a police computer in anger when it wasn’t working correctly.
Attachment: Horch Personnel File 3
On page 6 of this file, a situation is outlined where Horch thought it was funny to make a racially motivated comment/joke. There was a victim who was black and requesting to speak with an officer. Horch suggested they send Phil Sample, who is now a Chief at CCSO and is also a black man. He said he didn’t mean anything “inappropriate,” but the fact that he would even suggest only a black person could talk to a black person is extremely unsettling.
The next documents lend to the domestic violence incident with his ex-wife, which turned out to be a long history. Jamie, his ex-wife, said that he used his position as a deputy to be “above the law” and intimidate her and her children. She said he sent another officer to intimidate her, that he pulled her over in his patrol car to yell at her over child custody issues, he forced himself into her home, he used his shoulder to bump past Jamie and get to the kids inside the house, and several other abuses instances. She also said he threw things like remotes and phones, and even the kids’ gerbil, which he decided he didn’t want anymore so he threw it across the street into the bushes.
It’s disturbing that when Jamie said she would no longer be pursuing charges against Horch because she was afraid to lose his child support income, afraid of repercussions, and didn’t want to cause the children anymore trauma, the investigating deputy just dropped the case. Imagine if police just dropped the case every time a domestic violence victim said she was too scared to cooperate with the investigation.
Horch had also filed a complaint against Jamie saying she pushed/assaulted him. He later admitted that the allegations were false.
In a police interview of Jamie, she said she feels like she’s on the path of Crystal Brame, who was married to Tacoma Police Chief David Brame before he shot and killed her in front of their kids in 2003. This is the level of fear instilled in his family at the time.
Attachment: Horch Personnel File 4
This first page is just the official demotion paperwork from sergeant back to deputy.
The second page shows his reinstatement back to deputy after he was either fired or quit in lieu of termination. The third page shows him resigning for “personal” reasons in 1999.


 The fourth page is proof that he was NOT in the military as he’s allowed to be implied.
Pages five and six show that there was a possibility that he was going to be laid off for budgetary reasons before he quit or got fired. However, it does not appear that his absence was due to being laid off, as he would have been guaranteed a position at VPD if this had happened, as stated on page seven.
Horch lists on his website that he is a 33-year veteran of CCSO. However, the “about the sheriff” website page (https://clark.wa.gov/sheriff/about-sheriff) says he’s a 31-year veteran. This appears to be because Horch is counting his hire date from 1989, when he was a cadet, and not including the one year he was not employed at the agency. This is a really stupid thing to lie about/exaggerate, but it shows his first inclination is to do just that.

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 Images related to the above posts were obtained through a Washington State public records request.  Some are posted below, but the following are the complete files (pdf) for download: File 1, File 2, File 3, File 4.

Troubling Report 2: Sheriff Dept Protocol

Posted with author's permission from this public Facebook source:

[10/17/22] We are beyond frustrated over the way the current administration in the Clark County Sheriff's department is handling (or not handling, in this case) our daughter's accident. It has been 6 days, and no report has yet been filed, or probably not even written by the deputy that was dispatched to the scene. Our daughter and son-in-law were contacted by someone at the sheriff's office today who told them that "“We don’t typically issue tickets in these situations because it’s always a hassle and they never pay.” SERIOUSLY?!? John Horch is third in command, and yet he isn't requiring his deputies to enforce the law. This should raise concern for every citizen. Our daughter had her car totaled in this accident. She is losing income daily because she can't work, due to the severe concussion and compressed cerebral vertebrae she sustained in an accident. She is unable to go about her normal, daily activities without intense pain. She now has the hassle of having to deal with the insurance companies AND pay the $500 deductible on her vehicle for an accident that was not her fault. Yet the other driver was allowed to simply walk away, scott free, with no consequences whatsoever. If you live in Clark County, please think long and hard about who you intend on voting for sheriff in the upcoming election.


Posted with author's permission from this public Facebook source:

[10/13/22] I am usually a very optimistic person and try to see the good in people. But a current situation in our family has left me shaking my head. Our daughter Annie was involved in a bad car accident yesterday which totaled her car and left her with a severe concussion and much pain throughout her body. The accident was caused by an unlicensed, uninsured driver who failed to yield right of way in an intersection where Annie had the green light. The sheriff’s office was not even going to respond at first, but when they finally did come out (at the urging of several witnesses) the officer didn’t ticket the non-English speaking driver because in his words “he felt sorry for him.” WHAT?!? So, he didn’t feel sorry for my daughter who ended up with a severe concussion and is currently in intense pain? Whose dream car is totaled and will lose income because she can’t work? Who, by the way, is insured, is licensed , and was following the rules of the road. The responding officer never even gave his name. This is unacceptable and I believe the Clark County Sheriff’s office owes us an explanation of why this was handled (or not handled) in this manner.