(WXYZ) — Across lawsuits, harassment complaints and at least one police report, Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington is described as a womanizer who doesn’t respect boundaries.
Watch Ross Jones' video report:
Behind closed doors, his right-hand man agreed.
Secret recordings and e-mails obtained by 7 News Detroit offer rare insight into how the sheriff’s chief of staff and other officials responded in 2022 to sexual harassment claims against Washington.
They undercut public denials from the sheriff, his campaign and the county that painted prior harassment claims as meritless.
And they show what officials did—and importantly, what they did not do—when confronted with claims of harassment during the run-up to a heated election.
Today, as the county asks a judge to dismiss the most recent sexual harassment lawsuit made against Washington, the recordings and internal e-mails shed light on what county officials said when they thought no one else was listening.
“This is as bad as it can be,” said Bill Seikaly, an attorney who has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in sexual harassment cases that reviewed some of the records alleging harassment.
“I don’t know what actually happened to these women,” he said, “but it was clear that the county didn’t want to know.”
The most recent claims made against Washington come from Regina Parks, who was the sheriff’s community engagement director. Parks worked to help get Washington elected and was a regular contributor to his campaign.
In a federal lawsuit, Parks claims the sheriff touched her buttocks, propositioned her for sex and made lewd and sexual comments over a period of years. She says she reported that conduct to the sheriff’s chief of staff, Michael Turner. Turner says that never happened.
To date, the county has paid more than $130,000 in legal bills just to defend the claims against Washington.
The day before she was fired, Parks says she told the sheriff’s executive assistant that she’d secretly recorded Washington sexually harassing her.
Washington denies all of Parks’ harassment claims and, in a response to the lawsuit, says she wasn’t fired for recording him, but for throwing a fit after her “director” title was taken from her. In asking that the case be dismissed, the county calls the lawsuit “self-serving” and says “there is no evidence that any of these incidents occurred."
But two years before Parks would file her lawsuit, another high-ranking sheriff’s appointee would accuse Washington of sexual harassment. Using ehr phone, she recorded her meetings with sheriff's officials.
‘Long been a womanizer’
In 2022, Erika Erickson was Raphael Washington’s communications director. On June 24, 2022, she walked into Turner's office to share concerns about recent comments coming from the sheriff.
“It’s to the point where I’m uncomfortable enough to come to you,” Erickson told Turner, according to the recording which was made in secret.
“My name’s Erika or director. It’s not ‘babe’ or ‘baby,’” she told the chief of staff. “He told me I ‘looked fine' like his wife was 10 feet away,” she said. “He asks why I don’t wear heels to work and dresses.”
Turner could be heard making an audible sigh as Erickson went through the list.
“I will tactfully talk to him,” he replied.
Turner had worked alongside Washington for more than a decade, and as the sheriff’s chief of staff, he was Washington’s right-hand man.
Unlike press releases from the sheriff’s campaign, Turner did not offer a defense of Washington.
“Ray has long been a womanizer,” Turner said. “And he makes me uncomfortable with relationships he had around here with two people in particular that have accused him of some shit.”
“And they are right back up in this place,” Turner said, naming two female appointees who had both accused Washington of sexual harassment. They both continue to work in the sheriff’s office.
Their conversation took place only two weeks after a report revealing prior harassment claims against Washington.
As 7 News Detroit revealed that June, Washington was accused by his ex-wife of peeping through her windows on a night in 2002 while he was a Detroit police officer.
In 2008, another woman accused Washington of touching her thigh at work inside a police building and asking to see her panties.
In 2010, while at the sheriff’s office, a third woman accused Washington of persistently asking her to go out on a date even though he knew she was married.
In 2016, a fourth woman accused him of repeatedly asking her for massages — and produced text messages to prove it.
To settle the lawsuit — and another claim against a different sheriff’s employee — the county agreed to pay $85,000. Washington admitted no wrongdoing and, in each of the cases, he was not disciplined.
In June of 2022, Washington’s campaign called the allegations “rumor and innuendo” and dismissed them as not credible.
But speaking with Erickson, chief of staff Michael Turner shared a very different take.
‘Everything they’ve said is true’
In the recorded conversation, Turner was blunt when talking about his boss.
“Yeah, you did get caught peeping in the motherf*****g window,” Turner said. “Yeah, you did get a sexual harassment charge and it cost the county $85,000. That’s true. Everything they’ve said is true.”
The recordings were made at a delicate time in the sheriff’s office. In less than two months, voters would go to the polls and decide whether to give Washington the chance to finish the term of former Sheriff Benny Napoleon—who died from COVID-19 in 2020—or elect someone else.
But in his conversation with Erickson, Turner was far from delicate.
“He can’t help himself. And I shouldn’t say that. That didn’t jump out,” Turner said, as if to take the words back.
Moments later, Turner said he’s cautioned Washington to watch what he says.
“I keep telling him, those words are not acceptable anymore in the workplace,” he said.
Turner told Erickson that he would talk to Washington about her claims. But as weeks went by, she said Washington continued to make her uncomfortable.
A month later, on July 27, Erickson sent an e-mail to Turner along with Undersheriff Mike Jaafer on their personal e-mail accounts.
“I came to you, Chief, on June 24th, with what I felt like were legitimate concerns about the Sheriff’s sexually harassing behavior…I have spoken to you both about this extensively and nothing has been resolved,” she wrote.
“I’ve been willing to overlook comments from the Sheriff, like calling me Baby and Babe on numerous occasions (and as recently as Saturday) and by asking me to stay in his room in Mackinac with him several times, or asking me to wear certain clothing, etc. I understand its campaign season and a delicate time, but I did not ask for this. I feel like I am being backed into a corner.”
Watch below: As Sheriff Washington denies latest sexual harassment claims, county lawyers up
7 News Detroit shared the e-mail with Bill Seikaly, an attorney who has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in sexual harassment cases.
“She had already made the complaint. This was a follow-up,” Seikaly said.
Once Erickson’s superior had been notified — either verbally or in writing — Seikaly said the county was on notice and should have investigated her claims, regardless of whether they believed them.
“If supervisors know about sexual harassment, it imposes a duty upon them to investigate,” Seikaly said.
“This particular memo and these particular complaints would be devastating in terms of whether or not the county had any reason to be concerned about the problem.”
‘You have to protect me’
But the sheriff’s office did not investigate Erickson’s claims. Instead, Sheriff Washington, Undersheriff Mike Jaafer and Chief Turner would meet with her not long after her e-mail.
In another secretly recorded meeting, Washington told Erickson she had misinterpreted his comments, or denied making them altogether.
“Do you think when I’m saying that, that I’m being sexual?” Washington can be heard asking.
“I told you I don’t think you’re being malicious,” Erickson said.
“No. No. I mean sexual. Am I coming at you in some kind of sexual harassment (inaudible)?” he said.
Erickson replied, “Sometimes your eyes look that way. Yeah.”
During their conversation, Washington said the offer to use his hotel room was a misunderstanding: rooms on the island for the Mackinac Policy Conference were booked up, and he didn’t want his communications director to have to stay further away.
He said he would have never shared a room with her and — if Erickson was so concerned — she should have told him.
“If you’re about me and this agency, you have to protect me. You have to tell me in real time,” Washington told her.
Erickson responded: “I feel like this is being turned on me.”
In response to a public records request from 7 News Detroit seeking all allegations of and investigations into sexual harassment complaints against Washington since 2021, the county said that none exist.
Officials did not share Erickson’s e-mail or any record of her meeting with Washington, Jaafer and Turner.
When asked about the meeting with sheriff's office leadership, sheriff's spokeswoman Mara MacDonald, responded: “This is factually incorrect on several levels. There was no meeting with the four of them.”
Watch below: Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington accused again of sexual harassment
When informed that WXYZ had a recording of the meeting, MacDonald said she was mistaken. MacDonald claimed she thought there was a meeting with three stakeholders.
“I have been sexually harassed in every single job I’ve ever had,” Erickson said in the meeting. That prompted Turner to pose a question: “Have you been sexually harassed here?”
After pausing, she replied: “There's an inappropriate feeling that I have.”
But under oath in a recent deposition stemming from the Regina Parks lawsuit, Sheriff Washington was emphatic that Erickson never made a claim of sexual harassment.
“Erika Erickson never had a complaint,” Washington said.
“She made a complaint to Turner…and she made complaints to you,” said Deborah Gordon, Parks’ attorney.
“No, she didn't,” Washington responded. “She never made a complaint to me. Matter of fact, she told me she didn't have a complaint.”
Erickson would lose her job with the sheriff’s office only a few months after that meeting. It happened following an OWI arrest in Oakland County, which the sheriff’s office said was justification for not renewing her appointment.
Erickson’s attorney Deb Gordon says there is no record that details why she was let go by the sheriff’s office. She pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to probation.
After Regina Parks filed her lawsuit, it would be disclosed that she and Chief of Staff Michael Turner—her supervisor—had engaged in a sexual relationship between 2021 and 2024. Turner would retire following the disclosure; he declined comment for this story.
Sheriff Washington did not agree to an interview for this story. A judge will rule on the county’s motion to dismiss the case in the coming months.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.