WASHINGTON LAW GOVERNING

MISCONDUCT OF PUBLIC OFFICERS

Link to whistleblower statues (for local government employees): http://www.leg.wa.gov/RCW/index.cfm?fuseaction=chapterdigest&chapter=42.41

 

RCW 42.20.040
False report.
Every public officer who shall knowingly make any false or misleading statement in any official report or statement, under circumstances not otherwise prohibited by law, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

RCW 42.20.050
Public officer making false certificate.
Every public officer who, being authorized by law to make or give a certificate or other writing, shall knowingly make and deliver as true such a certificate or writing containing any statement which he knows to be false, in a case where the punishment thereof is not expressly prescribed by law, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

RCW 42.20.060
Falsely auditing and paying claims.
Every public officer, or person holding or discharging the duties of any public office or place of trust under the state or in any county, town or city, a part of whose duty it is to audit, allow or pay, or take part in auditing, allowing or paying, claims or demands upon the state or such county, town or city, who shall knowingly audit, allow or pay, or, directly or indirectly, consent to or in any way connive at the auditing, allowance or payment of any claim or demand against the state or such county, town or city, which is false or fraudulent or contains any charge, item or claim which is false or fraudulent, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

RCW 42.20.070
Misappropriation and falsification of accounts by public officer.
Every public officer, and every other person receiving money on behalf or for or on account of the people of the state or of any department of the state government or of any bureau or fund created by law in which the people are directly or indirectly interested, or for or on account of any county, city, town, or any school, diking, drainage, or irrigation district, who:

(1) Shall appropriate to his or her own use or the use of any person not entitled thereto, without authority of law, any money so received by him or her as such officer or otherwise; or

(2) Shall knowingly keep any false account, or make any false entry or erasure in any account, of or relating to any money so received by him or her; or

(3) Shall fraudulently alter, falsify, conceal, destroy or obliterate any such account; or

(4) Shall willfully omit or refuse to pay over to the state, its officer or agent authorized by law to receive the same, or to such county, city, town, or such school, diking, drainage, or irrigation district or to the proper officer or authority empowered to demand and receive the same, any money received by him or her as such officer when it is a duty imposed upon him or her by law to pay over and account for the same,

shall be punished by imprisonment in a state correctional facility for not more than fifteen years.

 

RCW 42.20.080
Other violations by officers.
Every officer or other person mentioned in RCW
42.20.070, who shall willfully disobey any provision of law regulating his official conduct in cases other than those specified in said section, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.