A female Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office detective has filed a $30 million tort claim against the county alleging sex-based discrimination and a hostile work environment over the past decade, among a series of complaints. The allegations came to a head after another detective allegedly circulated a sexual video of the woman that was created with artificial intelligence.
Detective Samantha Robinson’s lawyers of Seattle-based law firm, Carney Badley Spellman, submitted the claim to county officials on October 23.
The claim outlined a track record of alleged misconduct that began when Robinson was interviewing with the sheriff’s office in 2015 and grew as she climbed the ranks. In addition to the alleged AI video, Robinson claimed to have been hit twice with prosthetic penises by sheriff’s office investigators, with one of those incidents occurring when she was pregnant.
The following allegations are based on Robinson’s tort claim filed with the county.
In her claim, Robinson alleged that Whatcom County detective Derek Jones created an AI-generated video of Robinson having sexual contact with his father, and Jones shared it with the detective unit and patrol deputies. Jones served as Birch Bay neighborhood deputy from 2021 to 2023 before being promoted to detective.
Robinson was at a homicide trial in April when she received hostile texts from people ridiculing her about the video. Robinson later overheard Jones joking about the video and asked lieutenant Keith Liderman for an investigation to be launched. An investigation into Jones was not initiated and Jones was not disciplined.
Instead, Robinson said Jones retaliated against her by falsely accusing her of helping Homeland Security Investigations deport immigrants, which is a fireable offense in Washington state. Sheriff Donnell Tanksley requested an investigation into Robinson, who was cleared of wrongdoing.
Tanksley wrote in a statement to The Northern Light that, upon learning of the tort claim allegations, he requested an outside firm, PST Investigations, conduct an internal investigation.
Tanksley also placed Jones on administrative leave and asked the Mount Vernon Police Department to conduct a criminal investigation of the alleged AI video. Jones, whose LinkedIn profile shows he is open to work, did not respond to requests for comment. The Northern Light has not independently reviewed the video.
The sheriff declined to comment further on potential pending litigation or the ongoing internal investigation.
Jed Holmes, spokesperson for the Whatcom County Executive’s Office, said the office had not been informed of specific allegations in the report prior to receiving it late last month.
In the complaint, Robinson’s lawyers outline that her experience working in a hostile work environment with the sheriff’s office started before she had even been hired as a deputy in 2015. After her panel interview for the position, Robinson learned from a lieutenant that now-retired undersheriff Jeff Parks reportedly described Robinson as, “looking like she would cause someone to have an affair,” according to the complaint.
A couple of years later, Robinson was promoted to a crisis negotiation position to which other male deputies had applied. Robinson was told she had slept her way to the top, which caused her emotional distress and made her reconsider accepting the position. In 2019, Robinson was selected as a field training officer and told by coworkers that the promotion was because she was a woman.
In early 2020 while Robinson was pregnant, she was helping recover stolen Halloween costumes when detective Derek Bogle allegedly threw a costume with a prosthetic penis at Robinson’s face, causing male deputies to laugh. A similar incident occurred that November, with Robinson’s supervisor, then-sergeant Keith Linderman, allegedly hitting Robinson in the face with a stolen dildo. Humiliated, Robinson told Linderman this was not appropriate behavior for a sergeant, to which he reportedly agreed. Linderman was later promoted to lieutenant.
Robinson considered quitting in 2021 after she had queried County Executive Satpal Sidhu about when the sheriff’s office lobby, which had been closed because of Covid-19, would reopen to the public. Now-retired chief Kevin Hester publicly reprimanded Robinson after learning of the email, despite other male colleagues having emailed Sidhu, who reportedly had an “open door” policy. A lieutenant reportedly told Robinson the treatment from both Hester and Sidhu was unacceptable.
In 2024, Robinson became increasingly concerned about the conduct of undersheriff Steve Harris, which included denying Robinson of additional resources while working on an attempted murder case where the suspect was on the run. Robinson asked Chief Erik Francis to intervene on several occasions, and a female sergeant requested Francis help Robinson. Francis eventually told Robinson to make a written report, which she sent to the Human Resources Department.
Robinson was among 12 other colleagues who reported Harris, who was subsequently put on paid administrative leave for over a month during an independent investigation. Tanksley reinstated Harris once investigators determined that Harris’ conduct was unprofessional, but did not meet the threshold of unlawful discrimination or retaliation. Robinson’s claim described the investigation’s conclusion as a “gravely erroneous determination.”
Robinson’s mental health also decreased in 2024 as a result of allegedly being pressured to join a new Internet Crimes Against Children taskforce, which Robinson didn’t believe she had proper training or equipment to minimize potential harm from reviewing graphic images and videos.
A year later, in January, Robinson first requested a meeting with sheriff’s office officials about her concerns on the taskforce but that meeting was repeatedly denied until April. During that time, Robinson complained to Chief Erik Francis about her deteriorating mental health, but the sheriff’s office declined two leave requests.
During the April meeting, Robinson cried about the emotional toll from work, which had brought her to the point of being unable to bathe her daughter. Robinson informed Francis that she was leaving the taskforce after he denied her request to transfer from it during the meeting. She was asked to return to the taskforce two weeks later on condition that she wouldn’t be exposed to graphic images, which was broken during an emergency operation a few months later.
The alleged AI-generated video of Robinson having sexual contact with Jones’ father also circulated in April.
By mid-2025, Robinson reportedly began having panic attacks and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder from the hostile work environment and humiliation. Despite taking anxiety medication, her panic attacks and nightmares continued, and the sheriff’s office granted Robinson with medical leave.
Robinson’s lawyers argued in the October 23 complaint that Robinson’s experiences showed a toxic, male-dominated work culture that sexualized and marginalized women.
Whatcom County has two months to respond to the tort claim before Robinson is able to file a lawsuit against the government.
