EVERETT — An Everett firefighter and paramedic quietly retired last week, less than a month after his arrest in an underage-sex sting.
The arrest wasn’t the first time that David Peter “Pete” Vier, 60, had been accused of misconduct.
Or the second time. Or the third.
In 2012, he allegedly admitted to his fire chief and an assistant fire chief that he’d secretly put a GPS tracker on his ex-girlfriend’s car. The woman’s family had become suspicious when Vier reportedly kept showing up in places she went, including a hiking trip, a coffee shop and a pharmacy parking lot.
It was especially odd because, at the time, Vier lived in Coupeville and worked in Everett. His bosses had warned him to stay out of Edmonds, where the woman lived, records show.
The woman accused Vier of stalking her. She obtained a protection order. Edmonds police conducted multiple investigations, though no charges were filed.
At the time, Vier’s bosses at the Everett Fire Department told the woman to seek domestic-violence services, and told Vier to get counseling.
Vier also was investigated by police in Island County for allegations made by his ex-wife, though none of those cases led to charges. In 2010 and again this September, he was investigated after burglaries at the woman’s home. He also was arrested and booked in 2005 for investigation of domestic violence.
On Nov. 19, Vier was arrested in the Seattle police sting and put on paid leave. He later was charged in King County Superior Court with attempted commercial sexual abuse of a minor. He reportedly scheduled a meetup with police who were posing as the father of a 15-year-old prostitute. Prosecutors alleged that Vier asked the phony father if he had any other teenage girls available.
Vier reportedly brought condoms, sex toys, male-enhancement medication and personal lubricants to the meet-up.
Vier is free on $50,000 bail. He retired from the Everett Fire Department on Dec. 9, city spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said.
“The city had begun an internal investigation following Mr. Vier’s arrest, with the possible outcome of initiating the termination process,” Pembroke said Tuesday.
After his arrest, the city of Everett released records showing that Vier was demoted last July from his previous post as a fire department division chief.
Details of his demotion have not been made public. Records show that Vier agreed to the demotion and to a $24,000 pay cut from his earlier $111,480 salary. Division chief is the third-highest rank in the Everett Fire Department, a post he kept after the GPS-tracking admission.
The Edmonds Police Department’s file on Vier involves three separate cases since 2011. The Herald obtained the 42-page file through a public records request.
One case was opened in September 2011 after the Edmonds woman’s family found the GPS tracker on the underside of her car.
She had broken up with Vier after a nine-month relationship. She sought a protection order in 2011 after he continued to send her emails, which included romantic poetry quotes, records show.
Edmonds police seized the GPS device as evidence. They asked the product manufacturer for billing information for the device. The records don’t make clear whether the company complied.
Vier wore his fire department uniform to attend a court hearing in the protection- order case. At the courthouse, Edmonds police asked Vier about the GPS tracker. Vier told the officer he had “no comment” but did not deny the allegation that he’d placed it under the car, records show.
The woman also provided Edmonds police with email exchanges she had with Everett Fire Chief Murray Gordon in early 2012. She wrote him about her concerns about Vier.
Gordon wrote back that he twice talked to Vier about the situation. He also conferred with police in Edmonds and Everett, plus prosecutors and the city’s human resources department.
That summer, Assistant Fire Chief Bob Downey told Edmonds police that the Everett Fire Department “compelled Vier to go to counseling regarding these matters,” records show.
Vier reportedly told Edmonds police that Downey “told him to stay away from the Edmonds area.”
Vier said he had tried to avoid Edmonds but ran into his ex-girlfriend while visiting another woman he was dating.
There was not enough evidence to seek a stalking charge or an anti- harassment order violation, investigators determined. The Edmonds case was closed.
Everett Fire Department officials were “aware of allegations of off-duty interpersonal conflicts involving Mr. Vier,” including the Edmonds woman’s allegations, Pembroke said Wednesday.
“This incident did not result in formal charges, and so did not rise to the level of formal discipline or sanction by the department,” she said.
Vier had worked for the city since 1991.
In an email he reportedly sent to the Edmonds woman in 2011, he complimented her on being a great judge of character.
He then wrote: “Well one bad penny got through, me.”
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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