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Police officer sues local family for defamation

Chuck Allen/Post Register
March 26, 2009

In August 2008, Quincy Police Officer Aaron E. Doyle and Haley M. Taylor, a probation officer with the Department of Corrections, began a romantic relationship.

By the end of the year, the relationship soured. The fallout from the breakup has led to Doyle being placed on administrative leave, based on accusations made against him by Taylor and her parents, Taylor losing her job, a public confrontation between Doyle and Taylor’s mother, Peggy Gray, at Quincy Valley Medical Center, which led to Gray quitting her job as assistant director of nursing, and a defamation lawsuit filed by Doyle against Taylor, Gray and her husband, Robert Gray.

Accusations of bizarre behavior

The relationship between Doyle and Taylor became strained a month or so after they began seeing each other, according to statements given by Taylor and the Grays to Grant County District Court when they sought restraining orders against him in February.

They stated that one night during September 2008, Doyle was at the Grays’ residence near George, where Taylor also lives, for a barbecue. That night, Doyle began urinating in the back yard within view of the family. Peggy Gray and Taylor also accused Doyle of deliberately exposing himself to them on another occasion and of grabbing Peggy Gray in an inappropriate manner.

They stated that Doyle would enter their home without permission and make threats against them. The family also declared that Doyle used their home as his address with the Quincy Police Department, even though he was living in Moses Lake with a roommate named Sarah Stuber.

Despite their accusations of strange behavior by Doyle, correspondence and communications between Doyle and the family continued through December, according to copies of cards, e-mails and text messages received by the Post-Register.

Doyle denies the claims made by Taylor and the Grays.

In his response to their request for a restraining order, Doyle stated that he never entered the family’s home without permission, acted in an improper fashion while in their home, or made threats to Taylor or the Grays.

The family’s request for a restraining order was denied in Grant County District Court.

Doyle contended that he is a victim of domestic violence perpetrated by Taylor on Dec. 20. He claimed that she assaulted him after he said he wanted to break up with her and then she broke his telephone when he tried to call 911.

Taylor loses her job

On Jan. 1, 2008 a sergeant with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, Greg Knutson, was talking with Taylor when he heard her say that if she was in the same room with Stuber, Doyle’s roommate, she “could kill her.”

Knutson called Stuber, who is a 911 dispatcher, to tell her of the conversation.

According to Knutson’s statement, he said he later thought Taylor was not making a serious threat.

“Now that I have come to know Miss Taylor better, I truly believe that she did not literally mean that she would or could kill Miss Stuber, I believe the comment was made out of anger and frustration,” Knutson stated.

Stuber filed a temporary restraining order against Taylor. The order was served at Taylor’s place of employment. She was soon fired from her job with the Department of Corrections.

Confrontation at hospital

In their statements to the court, Taylor and the Grays said they did not have contact with Doyle for a couple of weeks in January and thought he had left the area.

On Jan. 21, Peggy Gray, who was working a shift as a nursing supervisor, learned that Doyle was at the hospital. He was a patient at the hospital’s SageView Clinic and also works for the hospital as a per diem paramedic.

Gray, who stated she thought Doyle was bothering the nurses, angrily confronted Doyle and asked him why he was there. Gray said she demanded that Doyle leave the hospital. When he didn’t, she said she called 911.

Stuber, who was with Doyle at the hospital, also called the Quincy Police Department. Two Quincy Police officers responded to Stuber’s telephone call. In the lead officer’s report, he stated that Gray’s 911 call was never dispatched by the Multi-Agency Communications Center.

During his investigation, the officer determined that Doyle had a legitimate right to be at the hospital. Gray quit working at the hospital the next day. In her statement to the court, she said she quit because she was afraid of Doyle.

Complaints to Quincy Police Department

Shortly after, the Grays and Taylor brought their complaints against Doyle to Quincy Police Chief Bill Gonzales, his staff and the city administration. They also made complaints about Doyle to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

The city put Doyle, who happens to be a witness in a domestic violence case against Quincy Police Sgt. Scott Jones for an incident that happened last summer, on non-restrictive paid administrative leave while the family’s allegations of unprofessional and illegal conduct are investigated.

Gonzales said the city is waiting on the findings of the investigation, which is being conducted by its risk-management company Canfield & Associates, before it takes any further action.

Doyle files lawsuit

On Feb. 5, Doyle filed a lawsuit in Grant County Superior Court against Taylor and the Grays through the Moses Lake law offices of Dano, Gilbert & Ahrend.

The lawsuit was amended on March 3. In the suit, Doyle contends that the Grays and certain officers of the Quincy Police Department have conspired to “intimidate, harass and obtain revenge against Officer Doyle.”

“These actions are intended to obtain Officer Doyle’s dismissal from the QPD and from his position as a paramedic with the Quincy Valley Medical Center,” states the complaint. “And to intimidate him and subject him to impeachment as a witness in a pending criminal proceeding against a fellow QPD officer, Sgt. Scott Jones.”

Doyle argues that Taylor and the Grays have made demonstrably false and morally repugnant statements about him to the Quincy Police Department, Quincy Valley Medical Center and the City of Quincy, as well as members of the general public and government agencies not reasonably concerned with the subject matter. The complaint further charges that Taylor stole a court-sealed notice of termination document from his home, which contains the results of an investigation of Doyle, made by a former employer, the Sheriff’s Department of Sierra County, Calif.

Doyle asks the court to have Taylor and the Grays return him the document, award him his attorney’s fees, and a monetary judgment for actual and punitive damages.

The attorney for Taylor and the Grays, Brian Chase, of Quincy, filed a response with the court on March 10, arguing that the Grays are protected from Doyle’s lawsuit because they are afforded “absolute immunity” against the suit through the state’s anti-SLAPP laws. SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. The law was created to give citizens immunity against lawsuits if they make a complaint about a public employee to a government agency.

“Despite all this talk about defamation, damage, truth and reputation, this lawsuit is nothing more than an attempt to stop behavior that is protected by the First Amendment’s petition clause and (the anti-SLAPP law), both of which grant the right of individuals to petition the government for redress of grievances,” Chase argues.

Chase further states that Taylor and the Grays have a right to receive attorneys’ fees and a penalty of $10,000 each from Doyle for bringing the lawsuit against them.

A hearing on the case is expected to be held in April.