West Richland will pay $25K to settle civil rights suit against former police chief

West Richland has settled a civil rights claim opened by a former resident, who says the police illegally detained him without suspicion and in retaliation for social media comments he made criticizing the police chief.

The city will pay Eric Molina $25,000, plus attorneys fees, to settle the case and avoid a trial.

“A person need not agree with the content of my client’s speech on social media to recognize that his statements were fully protected under the First Amendment,” Molina’s attorney Bret Uhrich said in a statement.

“We give our law enforcement enormous power to enforce the law and in return we expect that they will use this power responsibly and act like adults, instead of using it to settle personal scores out of petty revenge,” he said.

A legal settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing.

Molina, 30, filed the civil rights claims Jan. 23 in U.S. District Court.

He claimed then-Police Chief Ben Majetich and three officers retaliated against him for expressing his First Amendment rights and violated his Fourth Amendment rights to reasonable search and seizure.

Majetich retired in May 2022 after eight years with West Richland Police Department and a three-decade career in law enforcement.

An attorney representing Majetich and three officers named in the suit could not be reached about the settlement.

Current Police Chief Thomas Grego also referred questions to the attorney.

Warring neighbors

The allegations stem from a Feb. 18, 2021, incident involving Molina and Majetich in front of Majetich’s West Richland home.

The two were neighbors at the time. Molina, a musician who was in between jobs and staying with his parents, was driving home from getting a burger when he reportedly parked in front of Majetich’s driveway to check his family’s mailbox.

He says in court records that he parked there to avoid getting stuck in a snow bank and he did not believe Majetich was home.

But Majetich was home and about to drive his car out of his driveway. As Molina was exiting his car to walk over to the mailboxes, Majetich reportedly yelled to him, “What the hell are you doing?” to which Molina replied, “Getting my mail.”

Majetich reportedly told Molina not to leave and that he was being detained. Three officers were called to the scene.

Molina, who live streamed most of the events on Facebook, was not arrested. But officers did tell him not to block Majetich’s driveway in the future, and he was cited by Grego, who was then a captain in the department, with criminal harassment.

After the incident, Molina moved across the state, and later to Oregon. In court documents, he said he was seeking damages for the “psychological distress” caused by the incident.

He claimed police followed him home on at least four different occasions after the incident, but the officers denied that happened.

Majetich later sought an anti-harassment petition against Molina in Benton County District Court that restricted him from coming within 150 feet of his home. But the petition was ultimately denied.

He has said in social media posts that Molina has “harassed and stalked” him.

Motorcycle incident

The incident at Majetich’s driveway seemed to have been the boiling point after the two exchanged months of social media posts online.

Molina was the victim in a separate road rage incident, and he had been especially critical of Majetich and Benton County prosecutors during the investigation and after prosecutors decided not to charge the aggressor.

But Molina — who has called the police names, such as “pigs” — defended his social media posts as free speech, and said Majetich was intimidating him behind the scenes to stop talking about the case.

The incident between Molina and a member of the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association took place in September 2020.

Molina was driving in West Richland when three men on motorcycles blocked his vehicle at an intersection because he was driving too fast, according to court documents.

One of the cyclists — who later voiced remorse for his actions — allegedly approached and struck Molina’s driver-side window, demanding that he get out and fight him and threatening him if he ever saw Molina again.

Police were called to the scene and a report was filed. The cyclist who struck Molina’s window said he was speeding in a neighborhood with children in the outside, and had run a stop sign.