The inspector began by establishing that Owen had been present during the termination meeting. Owen confirmed the date, the participants, and the fact that Maya had been shown the leak report and termination document. He also confirmed that Cole had stated he had personally certified the digital chain of custody and stood behind its completeness. His answers were spare, but each followed the question without embellishment.
"You told investigators Captain Williams said she would go outside the chain of command if necessary," Mercer said.
"Yes."
Cole's shoulders moved almost imperceptibly. He leaned closer to the table. The first part of the testimony sounded like what he had wanted.
"Was that the complete statement?" Mercer asked.
"No," Owen replied.
"Please read the full statement from your original notes."
Owen opened the notebook to a marked page. He took a moment to find the line, looked once toward Maya, and began. "Captain Williams said that if internal reporting failed, the Safe Communities agreement required notification outside the chain of command through the designated compliance process. She was explaining the external reporting requirement in the agreement."
A quiet murmur moved through the hearing room. Several commissioners looked at the copy of Appendix K in front of them. What Cole had described as a threat to bypass his authority sounded different when it included the words he had wanted removed.
"Did you understand her to be threatening an unlawful disclosure?" Mercer asked.
"No. I understood her to be describing the contract's reporting requirement."
Cole reached for his microphone. "That's Lieutenant Blake's interpretation."
"You will have an opportunity to respond," Mercer said. He looked back at Owen. "After Captain Williams was removed, did the sheriff ask you to provide a supplemental statement?"
"Yes."
"Did you sign it?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"It contained claims I couldn't personally verify."
Owen removed a folded sheet from his notebook. He had kept it exactly as Cole had handed it to him, without making a correction or writing a note on the page itself. Martin accepted the document and gave it to the inspector, who compared it with the electronic version already included in the review. The blank witness signature line was still blank.
The first paragraph described Maya as intending to bypass command authority. A later paragraph claimed she had received specific notice of the protected classification before the alleged extraction, though Owen had not attended such a warning and did not know of a record establishing it. Beneath those assertions, a supervisor certification bore Richard Cole's authenticated administrative certificate.
"Lieutenant Blake, did you ever tell Sheriff Cole that you witnessed Captain Williams receiving that classification warning?"
"No."
"Were you present at any meeting where such a warning was delivered?"
"No."
"Did you locate a separate record that confirmed it happened?"
"No."
Cole turned toward Martin. "I relied on command administration when I certified that statement."
"Which person provided the information?" Martin asked.
"It came through the normal administrative process."
"We reviewed the available process records. We found no meeting notice, training acknowledgement, email, or other entry establishing the warning described in this statement. Do you have something we haven't seen?"
Cole looked down at the paper. "The absence of a separate record doesn't prove a conversation never happened."