OAKVILLE, Wash. -- Marcus Searls wants $15 million dollars from Grays Harbor County; $1 million for every time he claims a sheriff's deputy forced him to have sex.
Searls filed a lawsuit against Grays Harbor County on Monday.
In February he opened Oakville's Freeworld Enterprises, a medical marijuana dispensary. The dispensary closed in June after Searls said he received a letter from the Grays Harbor County Sheriff informing himthe dispensary was an illegal business.
Searls said he was under the impression the police were not going to bother his business because he was supposedly being protected by a deputy.
Searls said that deputythreatened to arrest him when he first opened the dispensary unless he agreed to have sex with him.
KING 5 News is not naming the deputy, a 24-year veteran of the force,because he has not been charged with a crime.
In his lawsuit, Searls claims the two met on a Craigslist personal ad in January.
Searls claims the two had consensual sex, but when the deputy told him he might get arrested if he opened the dispensary he tried to end the relationship.
According to the lawsuit, the deputy would not allow that.
The lawsuit claims the deputy told Searls, The choice was not his to make, and that Searls would have to continue to provide sexual favors... if he wanted to be in the dispensary business.
This all caught us by surprise, said Grays Harbor Undersheriff Rick Scott.
The deputy in question is on paid administrative leave while an outside agency, Lewis County, investigates the claims.
Scott said the deputy admits he had a sexual relationship with Searls, but maintains it was consensual.
