Turner’s Turn

WALLA WALLA - While he grew up in Southern California, John Turner remembers coming up for harvest and for Christmas to the Touchet Valley.

It is, after all, whence his family hails. Turner's grandmother was Juanita Hofer, daughter of Friedrich Hofer, one of the area's homesteaders north of Prescott and also great-grandfather of Waitsburg's Gary Hofer, who taught Turner how to drive a tractor in the summers.

As the newly sworn-in Sheriff of Walla Walla County, Turner comes full circle to these Touchet Valley roots because the communities he visited as a youth are part of the territory where he now serves as the top law-enforcement official.

In a ceremony in front of a packed courtroom on Thursday afternoon, Turner was sworn in by Superior Court Judge Donald W. Schacht. He held his hand on the Bible that once belonged to Elizabeth Hofer, Friedrich Hofer's wife. On Thursday, it was Turner's own wife Jacqui who held it up for his left hand, while Turner kept his right hand raised as he repeated the solemn pledges read to him by the judge.

One by one, the members of his administration followed his example. In order, they were Undersheriff Eddie Freyer; Operations Captain Barry Blackman; and Jail Superintendent Keilen Harmon.

"My warmest and sincerest thanks for trusting me with this position," he told the court, sheriff's office employees and many of his campaign supporters.

In a telephone interview on Tuesday, Turner said he chose his core team based on recommendations from a selection committee that included Turner himself; Jeff Williams, chief of the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Affairs Medical Center police force; Benton County Undersheriff Paul Hart; and Walla Walla Police Chief Chuck Fulton.

Blackman, a 28- year veteran of the Walla Walla County Sheriff's Office, had the vision, fresh ideas and institutional memory that suited Turner, the new sheriff said. A long with that, Blackman has a "dedication to duty, demeanor and personality that's going to be a good fit for this administration," Turner said.

Blackman was born and raised in Walla Walla and served a short time in the Marine Corps before joining the sheriff's office as a jail officer for nine years. Then he switched to being commissioned road deputy, a job he held for 19 years.

Chris, Blackman's wife, was on hand to replace his sergeant stripes with his new captain's bars.

Turner said Freyer, whom he met when the two men worked as counterterrorism law enforcement officials in Iraq, served three decades with the Federal Bureau of Investigations in Pittsburg, Phoenix, San Francisco and Santa Rosa.

He is perhaps best known for being the point man in the case of Polly Klaas, a 12-year-old girl who was abducted at knife point from her mother's home in Petaluma, Calif., in 1993 and later strangled by her kidnapper. Richard Allen Davis was convicted for her murder and sentenced to death in 1996. Freyer was there from the aftermath of the abduction to Davis' sentencing.

His background in working on joint local and federal law enforcement task forces will be a valuable asset to the sheriff's office, Turner said. "He understands both sides of the fence."

Because Freyer also served on the FBI's Enhanced SWAT team in the San Francisco Bay Area for 17 years, he has been appointed to serve as the Walla Walla County Regional SWAT team commander, replacing retiring Walla Walla police department Captain Gary Bainter.

Harmon, Turner's choice for jail superintendent, is a 25-year veteran of corrections. He came to Walla Walla in the mid 1980s to play football for Walla Walla Community College after which he went to work as a correctional officer at the Washington State Penitentiary through 1999.

He most recently worked as a deputy with the Benton County Jail, where he served on the Emergency Response Team.

Although Harmon too served in Iraq (in his case as a corrections professional for the U.S. Department of State), Turner met him stateside in Walla Walla. Turner said Harmon came highly recommended by Benton County Sheriff Larry Taylor.

During the ceremony, Harmon's 8-year-old son Wesley held up the Bible for his left hand while his wife, Theresa, stood by.

Turner himself won a contentious campaign in November, beating opponent Bill White by a solid margin.

He first earned a certificate from the Delinquency Control Institute at the University of Southern California in 1987, then a Bachelor's in Public Administration from the same college. In 1996, he obtained a law degree from the Southwestern School of Law in Los Angeles. He got his start at the Manhattan Beach Police Department, and then worked for a total of two decades for the Los Angeles Police Department. He moved to Walla Walla in 2004.

His first week on the job, Turner said he will host an open house/press conference on Friday morning at the sheriff's office.