| Photo: KING 5 |
| Dispensary owner Marcus Searls wants $1 million for each of the 15 times he said he was forced to have sex with a Grays Harbor Sheriff’s deputy. |
Dispensary Owner Wants $1 Million For Each Time He Was Forced To Have Sex With Deputy
A man who opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Grays Harbor County, Washington has filed a multimillion-dollar federal claim, alleging that a male sheriff’s deputy threatened him with jail to extort sexual favors.
Marcus Searls of Elma, Washington said the deputy was on duty when some of the sexual encounters took place — and even that the two had sex on the hood of a patrol car. (I think I’d ask $2 million for that time.)
The deputy in question claims that no extortion took place, Undersheriff Rick Scott told KIRO. hasn’t been named because he hasn’t been charged with a crime. He is on paid administrative leave while an outside agency, Lewis County Sheriff’s Department, investigates the allegations, reports Drew Mikkelsen at KING 5.
| Photo: KING 5 |
| Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Rick Scott: “This caught us all by surprise” |
Searls is seeking at least $15 million from Grays Harbor County and $1 million from the city of Elma, reports Jeff Pohjola at KIRO. That’s $1 million for each time he says he was forced to have sex with the deputy.
He also alleges mistreatment by an Elma police officer. He said that earlier this month, he was forced to stay in the back of a closed squad car when the temperature was more than 80 degrees, and that caused him to have an asthma attack. He wants another million dollars for that.
Searls said that at first, he engaged in consensual sex with the deputy, who had been with the sheriff’s department for 24 years. He says that was threatened with arrest over his marijuana dispensary when he tried to end the relationship.
“This caught us all by surprise,” Undersheriff Scott claimed.
Searls said he opened Freeworld Enterprises, marijuana dispensary, in Oakville in February and shut it down in June. He said the sheriff’s office and the city of Oakville hounded him out of business.
He said he had been under the impression that law enforcement officers were not going to bother his business because he was supposedly being “protected” by a deputy.
In his lawsuit, Searls said the two met on a Craigslist personal ad in January. He said they had consensual sex, but when the deputy told him he “might get arrested” if he opened the dispensary, he tried to end the relationship.
According to the lawsuit, the deputy told Searls “The choice was not his to make, and that Searls would have to continue to provide sexual favors … if he wanted to be in the dispensary business.”
The complaint was filed Monday in federal court.