Songer hires Loren Culp to run the county jail

Maybe you've heard the rumors and you thought, nah, that ain't gonna happen. Well, it did.

In a move that would sound like a Saturday Night Live skit if it were not so dangerous, on March 1, Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer announced the hiring of his fellow Constitutionalist lawman, Loren Culp, to supervise the county jail.

The Klickitat County Democrats leadership team got word of this impending hire a couple of weeks ago, and we've been working with our friends at the Klickitat County Citizens for Responsible Government to develop a response, should Songer go through with this hire. One aspect of that response is already underway. We've gathered information available in the public record that clearly demonstrates Culp's unfitness to wear any sort of law enforcement badge, and we've been sharing what we find with local media. We know we cannot prevent Songer from hiring whomever he wants, but we are striving to make it known that Culp could be a disaster for our county should Songer be unable to finish his term and Culp is appointed to the role.

Culp is an unwise hire, to put it mildly, and not just because of his authoritarian mindset. Like Songer, Culp's tenure as a lawman has an ugly spot to it. During Culp's tenure as a cop in the small town of Republic, a 17-year-old girl reported to the Ferry County Sheriff's Office that her step-father had been sexually molesting her for twelve years. Culp was brought into the investigation, and he ended up interviewing the victim. During his interview of the girl, Culp implied that she was lying. In his written report, he stated that he believed the step-father and not the victim. You can read more details about Culp's harmful behavior and Songer's feeble and predictable attempts to defend it here.

Stay tuned for further developments.