A Bainbridge Island police detective has resigned following an internal investigation that determined he violated the agency’s code of ethics after he was caught trying to illegally keep a wild king salmon he hooked while fishing this summer near Kingston.

Victor Cienega, an officer who has been with the Bainbridge Island Police Department for roughly five years, and was its Officer of the Year in 2013, resigned on Oct. 4.

Bainbridge Police Chief Matthew Hamner said this week he couldn’t talk specifically about the Cienega case because it was a personnel matter, but could speak generally about the conduct expected from police who wear the Bainbridge badge.

“On or off duty, we hold our officers to a very high standard,” Hamner said.

It’s vital for the department to retain the trust that’s been built since he took the helm nearly four years ago, Hamner said.

“The only way to maintain that is to have accountability,” he said.

“To maintain trust in the community, citizens have to know that the officers who serve them are held to the highest standards and the chief ensures that they are.”

Cienega was off-duty at the time of the fishing trip that prompted the internal investigation. He had been fishing with his best friend, a deputy with the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, and a relative the evening of July 23, in his friend’s 17-foot Hewescraft near Jefferson Head, south of Kingston.

The trio were trolling with two lines. And when it was Cienega’s turn to watch the fishing poles, he snagged a salmon, according to documents released to the Review following a request under the state’s Open Records Act.

Protected fish

The fish was a wild Chinook salmon, which is listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Cienega and the deputy, both longtime fishermen, later admitted they quickly knew the fish was wild.

But instead of throwing the fish back, Cienega kept it, which was soon discovered by a Washington State Fish &Wildlife enforcement agent who was conducting fish checks at the boat landing in Kingston when Cienega and his partners put ashore.

The wildlife officer seized the salmon and Cienega was later cited for “unlawful fishing in the first degree,” a gross misdemeanor crime.

An internal affairs investigation, the Bainbridge department’s only internal affairs investigation this year into complaints involving officers, was launched two days after Cienega returned to work the next Monday and told his supervisors about the incident.

Higher-ups in the Bainbridge department quickly decided an independent look was needed, and the Bremerton Police Department was asked to conduct the investigation.

At the close of the probe, Cienega agreed he had violated department policies but disagreed with the claim that he had tried to use his position as a Bainbridge police officer to get out of trouble when he was confronted about his catch by the wildlife officer.

Officer questioned

The investigation, however, also cast other doubts.

Investigators said Cienega intentionally mismarked his fish catch card after hooking the Chinook salmon, and checked the box for a hatchery fish instead of a native one.

They also questioned whether Cienega tried to hide the fact that the fish was a wild one, and not a hatchery fish, when the wildlife officer asked Cienega to show him his catch.

The wildlife officer was surprised when Cienega displayed the fish belly up, which made it impossible for the officer to see if the salmon had the small, telltale sign of being a wild one on its back; its adipose fin, which are clipped off hatchery fish to make them easy to identify as keepers when caught.

That move struck the wildlife officer as odd, and when he asked if Cienega didn’t know how to tell a difference between a wild fish and one raised in a hatchery, Cienega wouldn’t give a straight answer.

Investigators also noted it appeared that Cienega had reviewed his friend’s written statement to the wildlife officer about their fishing trip after the deputy was asked to provide one days later.

Cienega looked over the deputy’s statement before writing his own account, investigators said, during a visit to his best friend’s home in Poulsbo. Investigators found some of the phrases in both statements nearly identical.

Cienega later denied to investigators that he had read his fishing partner’s written statement, which conflicted with the version of events given by the deputy to investigators, however.

Quick start on probe

Bainbridge police learned about the fishing incident soon after it occurred.

According to documents released by the Bainbridge department, Cienega met with his supervisors on the Monday morning following the Saturday night fishing outing and said he had been caught with a wild Chinook salmon.

In an Aug. 1 memo to Deputy Chief Horn, Cienega’s sergeant said Cienega had come into his office that morning, shut the door, and recounted what had happened on Saturday night: “He said that he knew it was illegal to have the fish and appeared remorseful about the situation. He told me that he always tries to do the right thing and he did not want to cover this up.”

“This fish is protected and should have been thrown back,” Horn wrote in his memo to Chief Hamner. “Detective Cienega stated he tries to uphold his ethics and prides himself on doing the right thing. He is upset with himself and stated he accepts full responsibility for whatever happens with this investigation.”

Cienega and his fishing partner gave a more detailed explanation for keeping the fish when pressed later by investigators. Cienega and the deputy said later they knew that wild salmon must be released when caught, but Cienega and his partner said the fish was bleeding badly after being hooked and they thought it would die soon after it was put back in the water.

Cienega said the fish was “bleeding pretty good” so he made the decision to bring it aboard. He said he knew it was a native fish.

“I knew I shouldn’t have kept it, but at this point you know … it still wasn’t flapping or bouncing around or nothing,” he said during an interview with Bremerton police. “I made a decision just to put it out and keep it.”

The wildlife officer later noted that when he was handed the fish at the boat launch, he noted no blood was visible and the fish was still alive and gasping for air.

Cienega admitted to the investigators that he thought he had violated the department’s police code of ethics by not following the law, but disputed using his status as a police officer to influence the Fish &Wildlife officer.

Investigators noted that Cienega told the wildlife officer that he was a police officer with the Bainbridge department soon after he was confronted about the wild salmon.

Awkward moment

The wildlife officer later told investigators that he had been “badge flashed” before, and Cienega’s comments about being a police officer — and his mention that his roommate at the police academy was a fellow wildlife agent — left the wildlife officer feeling awkward at the “dynamic” point of his investigation.

He said he pulled Cienega aside to stress the severity of the charge of keeping a wild fish: “It’s not something that I can treat nonchalantly … it’s the main reason we’re out there,” he told investigators.

Cienega repeatedly said he wasn’t trying to influence the officer. “That was not my intention. I didn’t say, ‘Hey man, I’m law enforcement. Come on. Come on dude, give a brother a break.’ Not at all.

“I was very respectful. I saw he was getting uncomfortable, upset … and I said, ‘Listen, you have no problems. I’m in law enforcement. I will fully cooperate.’ No time that I did try to use my authority or to gain any kind of benefit from him. I understand he has a job to do. I just wanted to put him at ease.”

Stepping down

Cienega was notified on Aug. 8 by the police chief that an internal investigation had been started.

The allegations, Hamner wrote, included four violations of police department policies, including its code of ethics, conduct and performance rules, and also an alleged violation of the city’s standards of conduct for employees.

Cienega stepped down a little more than a month after he had been interviewed by officers from the Bremerton Police Department. He did agree that he had violated the performance measures in Bainbridge’s police department manual, and that he had violated the city’s employee policy on standards of conduct.

Cienega gave notice that he was stepping down via an Oct. 4 email sent from his iPhone to the chief just before 11 p.m.

“Chief Hamner, I am officially giving you my resignation. October 4th was my last day with the Bainbridge Island Police Department,” he wrote.

Hamner accepted the resignation the following day.