WHITMAN COUNTY, Wash. — Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy announced on Thursday that he will not retry a former Pullman police sergeant on charges of custodial sexual misconduct.
In early September, a judge ruled a mistrial in the case against Sgt. Jerry Daniel Hargraves.
Jurors told Tracy that some of the testimonies did not match up and there were discrepancies when the victim was in Hargraves’ patrol car. They also had more questions about the DNA found on the victim's clothing and wanted more information on cell phone locations that were presented as evidence.
“Some of the jurors were convinced beyond a reasonable doubt, and some of them were not,” Tracy said in a statement on Thursday.
Tracy added that he wanted to retry the case because he believed there were enough facts to support a conviction, but the victim "was not willing to go through the additional trauma and indignity of another trial.”
“Realistically, I cannot and will not force her to go through this again, and our system does not allow a criminal trial without her testimony. Therefore, the case is at an end,” Tracy said on Thursday.
“For any other witness in this matter, I would not hesitate to compel them to appear and testify at the re-trial. But for me to do that to the victim here would truly be to re-victimize her. The victim in this case has gone through a lot, and I admire the courage that she showed to come forward in the first place. Now I have to respect her decision,” he continued.
Tracy said a judge will formally dismiss the charges against Hargraves at a later date.
Hargraves resigned on Nov. 29, 2018, amid the investigation into sexual misconduct claims. Police said he was arrested about a month before as a result of an investigation that began in April 2018 when a female Washington State University student reported she was sexually assaulted.
Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins said the internal investigation was completed without a statement from Hargraves.
The investigation found that Hargraves violated a number of department policies, including involvement in criminal conduct, failure to activate his body camera as required, failure to make proper notifications when transporting a female and improper treatment of a person in custody, Jenkins said.