Sean Guard is going to have problems getting re-elected.

(To the strains of "Bad Boys, Bad Boys" playing softly in the background.). 

Washougal mayor pleads guilty to impersonating police officer

Washougal Mayor Sean Guard.

By Ray Legendre
Columbian staff writer

Originally published December 15, 2011 at 5:54 p.m., updated December 15, 2011 at 8:32 p.m.

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Statement by Washougal Mayor Sean Guard

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Washougal Mayor Sean Guard entered a guilty plea Thursday afternoon in Cowlitz County District Court to a misdemeanor charge that he impersonated a police officer almost one year ago.

Guard entered a plea to a second-degree criminal impersonation charge, indicating he did not agree with the facts presented, but acknowledging the possibility a jury could find him guilty. According to Guard, he has already paid a $500 fine and $118 in court costs and must still serve 25 hours of community service.

Prosecutors had alleged Guard used the emergency lights on his city-owned vehicle to pass slower traffic on Interstate 5 near Kelso on Dec. 24, 2010. Guard previously entered a not guilty plea July 11, but decided to plead guilty “for the good of our community and my family,” he wrote in a prepared statement.

Guard’s trial had been set for Jan. 6 in Judge Edward Putka’s court.

“Again, I apologize to our community for doing anything that has brought negative attention to Washougal, and I look forward to moving beyond this and continuing our good work,” Guard wrote, adding he was “embarrassed” by the incident.

He declared in his written statement he knew three things about his traffic stop.

However, those three things shed little light on the events that led to his stop.

“I know what I did, I know what I did not do, and I also know that whatever my actions were, they caused another person to contact authorities,” he wrote.

Guard told The Columbian three days after the incident happened that he and his wife had taken a needy family to breakfast and shopping and were driving them home when the incident occurred. He was not conducting city business, he said in the Dec. 27, 2010, interview.

Guard and his wife’s perspective on helping people — whether that meant giving others a ride, changing a tire for someone, stopping to help people whose car broke down, etc. — has changed, he wrote Thursday.

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It's likely that if anyone else wants the job, they'll be able to get it.

"Clown" doesn't work well as a campaign platform.