Last summer, a white recruit at Clark County Fire District No. 6 allegedly snuck up behind a Black colleague, threw a noose over his head and tightened it, according to a newly filed complaint.
A handful of other recruits witnessed the incident, court documents show, while others became aware once Elijah Page, 41, turned and started yelling at the other recruit to never do that again.
Page, in a federal civil rights complaint he and his attorney filed on Wednesday, said the incident amounted to a felony hate crime under Washington law. Yet the district prohibited Page and other recruits from talking about it.
At the time of the incident, the district was two months away from voters deciding the fate of a multimillion-dollar fire district levy.
“They specifically ordered that Page was not allowed to speak to anyone about the assault and that word of the assault was not to leave the fire station,” the complaint says.
Fire district officials, in a statement, acknowledged the incident occurred. However, they denied “allegations made against” the district.
“Clark County Fire District 6 is aware of the allegations made against it in a recently filed lawsuit. The district denies the allegations made against it and remains steadfast in its commitment to improvement diversity and inclusivity in our profession,” fire district spokesman David Schmitke said. “The individual who committed the act in question is no longer employed with the district.”
OPB is not yet naming the recruit alleged to have mimicked lynching Page, as multiple efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.
Page, who is represented by attorney Angus Lee, filed the complaint on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington.
The complaint portrays the district as covering up a mimicked lynching that was witnessed by multiple people. Lee said in an interview that the district tried harder to protect the recruit who threw the noose on Page.
“They’re clearly very concerned with supporting the person who committed this hate crime,” Lee said.
The incident occurred in June 2022, two months before district residents were set to vote on a new levy that would raise the district’s budget by at least $3.5 million over five years. The levy ultimately passed. The complaint estimates the levy makes up a quarter of the district’s budget.
Page was the only person of color in his recruiting cohort, the complaint says. Fire districts train new hires in-house. Training must be completed before recruits become full-fledged firefighters.
During a lunch break that day, recruits split apart to review coursework and pass the time. Page, the complaint says, talked to his wife on the phone.
Per the training, recruits practiced tying knots used regularly by firefighters. The ropes they practiced with, according to the complaint, were 10 feet long, a half-inch thick — the kind often used by rock climbers.
That’s when, the complaint alleges, one recruit fashioned one rope into a noose. He threw it around Page’s neck and tightened it, one recruit said in a handwritten memo.
Two recruits expressed in internal memos that they thought it was done in a joking manner. Many reported Page pulled the noose off and said: “Never do that again.”
According to recruits, the noose-holding recruit looked confused and asked, “Wait, are you serious?” Page said he took “great offense.”
No one intervened, the complaint says. One witness reported that Page looked “visibly unnerved as class resumed.” Two recruits did talk with Page in a conference room at the next break, but the complaint doesn’t provide details on what they talked about.
An internal investigation ultimately found “sufficient information” that the mimicked lynching occurred and violated district policy, the complaint says.
Nooses are mentioned explicitly in Washington’s criminal hate crime laws. A person commits a hate crime with a noose when they intentionally place it “on the property” of a person of color.
To Page, the district’s handling of the incident factored heavily into his decision to file the complaint.
The recruit who tied the noose was terminated but without cause. Rather than firing for the incident, district officials dismissed him ostensibly for not completing the probationary period to become a full-fledged firefighter.
Fire Chief Kristan Maurer, in the termination letter dated June 9, wrote the recruit “had not successfully met your probationary period and will no longer be employed by the district.” Mauer wished the recruit well.
In follow-up messages, Maurer, according to the complaint, assured the recruit that the district wouldn’t tell any potential future employers if they called for a reference check. Because he was fired without cause, Washington law limits what past employers can disclose.
“I cannot imagine how hard this situation is for you and your family and I empathize with that,” Maurer wrote to the recruit, according to the complaint.
Meanwhile, multiple high-ranking chiefs met with Page and other recruits, the complaint said. The leadership “ordered (Page) and others not to discuss the assault with anyone.”
Lee, Page’s attorney, called it a gag order.
“It’s really hard to find any justifiable reason to have so much concern for the perpetrator while silencing the victim, other than a cover-up,” Lee said.
Ultimately, Page graduated from training but quit shortly after. He returned to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, where he worked as a road deputy from 2018 to 2022.
The complaint cites more than a dozen injury claims, including violating Page’s First Amendment rights, a hostile work environment, and discrimination.