A former Vancouver police officer was sentenced Wednesday to 80 hours of neighborhood service for mendacity about his police expertise on search warrant affidavits.
Keith L. Kircher, 37, pleaded responsible to false swearing in Clark County Superior Courtroom. He was initially charged with two counts of first-degree perjury.
Choose Robert Lewis agreed Wednesday to let Kircher full his neighborhood service in Colorado, the place his legal professional mentioned he now lives. The choose set a listening to for Could 1 for Kircher to point out proof he’d accomplished his hours there.
Kircher resigned from the Vancouver Police Division in fall 2023 and relinquished his Washington legislation enforcement certification in March 2024. His legal professional, Jon McMullen, mentioned Kircher has no need to return to legislation enforcement.
McMullen mentioned Kircher didn’t intend to do something improper however that he wished to take duty by pleading responsible to the gross misdemeanor.
The 2 warrants that falsely mentioned Kircher had labored for the Aurora Police Division in Colorado have been authored in the beginning of Kircher’s time with Vancouver police, McMullen mentioned. He mentioned Kircher later started writing that he was a code enforcement officer with town after which stopped together with that have in affidavits.
McMullen attributed the change to Kircher studying extra about the right way to write search warrants, and he mentioned not one of the information concerning the investigation included within the warrants have been false.
The choose pushed again on McMullen’s rationalization, saying the hurt of Kircher’s actions is that any false statements solid doubt within the minds of judges who should approve the warrants concerning the validity of your complete paperwork.
An investigation discovered Kircher authored 4 search warrants by which he claimed to have beforehand labored for the police division in Aurora.
Different Vancouver cops mentioned Kircher had lengthy advised individuals he was an officer in Aurora, labored on the SWAT workforce and was one of many first responders within the 2012 Aurora theater mass taking pictures, by which a gunman killed 12 individuals and injured 70.
“This story is well-known throughout the department as Officer Kircher tells it frequently,” an investigator wrote in Kircher’s file. “In fact, he has told me this story several times with specific details such as he was the third person in the door and graphic details of the injured persons.”
The Camas Police Division investigated Kircher at Vancouver’s request following a 2023 inside affairs investigation into dishonesty allegations. A search warrant affidavit states inside affairs investigators discovered proof that Kircher, who was employed by the Vancouver Police Division in August 2019, by no means labored as a police officer in Aurora.
When Vancouver investigators contacted the Aurora division in August 2023, Aurora management mentioned Kircher had by no means labored for the company and that code enforcement was not a part of the police division, in line with tons of of pages of inside affairs information obtained by The Columbian.
Camas investigators mentioned Kircher’s employment file indicated he was employed as a code enforcement officer in Aurora’s Housing and Neighborhood Providers division in 2014 and 2015.
Kircher had been scheduled to interview with Vancouver police’s skilled requirements unit Oct. 19, 2023. The day earlier than, he submitted a letter of resignation, efficient Nov. 1, 2023. Investigators notified Kircher that he would nonetheless be topic to the interview, however Kircher responded that his spouse and mother-in-law have been affected by unspecified medical issues, and he could be unavailable, in line with the interior affairs information.
The Vancouver skilled requirements unit discovered Kircher violated a number of division insurance policies, together with these concerning truthfulness, insubordination and discriminatory harassment, information present.