Two separate police agencies investigated where he really lived.
Both of them proved he was lying.
Two burglary convictions in 1992. A police finding that he lied about where he lived. Thirty seconds.
See the court recordsNarration: “Ezequiel Morfin. Candidate for state representative. In 1992, he pleaded guilty to burglary. A second burglary conviction. Same judgment. Not accused. Not charged. Guilty. By his own plea. He lied again. About where he lived. To get a council seat. He broke the law. Now he wants to write it. Ezequiel Morfin. Wrong for the fourteenth.”
Morfin claimed he lived in a house inside Toppenish so he could take a vacant seat on the City Council. After a resident complained, he doubled down and repeated the claim. Then officers from two different police agencies went looking — and proved he was lying. Not only did Morfin not live in the right district, he did not even live in Toppenish.
“The evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that Mr. Morfin does not reside at 327 South Division St. … It is likely that his declaration of residency in Toppenish was made to meet city council eligibility requirements rather than reflecting an actual place of residence.”
— Cmdr. Christopher Mason, Richland Police Department · Feb. 27, 2025 · RPD 25-008280
RCW 35A.12.030 — Eligibility to hold elective office. No person may hold elective office unless they are a registered voter of the city and have been a resident of the city for at least one year preceding the election.
Morfin didn’t just say he lived in Toppenish. He put it on a signed application for the council seat — under a penalty-of-perjury declaration.
“I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of Washington that the foregoing information I have provided is true and correct.”
— Declaration on Morfin’s application for appointment to the Toppenish City Council, stamped received Feb. 14, 2024
That is what his application claimed. But investigators pulled his address history and found a prior residence at an apartment in Vista, California — where records show he lived from April 2019 through July 2021.
Richland PD investigation · application review & address history
Morfin bought a home near S Olden Way and Fort Rd in January 2010 and is listed as sole owner on the loan — roughly 2,495 sq ft of living space on nearly two acres. It sits 1.89 miles outside the Toppenish city limits. The address he claimed instead is a four-bedroom rental owned by someone else.
Richland PD investigation · property & utility records
Automated license-plate cameras captured Morfin’s 2007 Dodge Caliber 60 times inside Toppenish city limits. This is the real map. The house he swore he lived in is on the right. The house he actually lived in is on the left — 3.1 miles away, and 1.89 miles beyond the city limits. His car spent its days on the west side, near the real one.
Richland Police pulled utility accounts, property records, vehicle registrations and camera data — then sat on both houses and watched. Every category pointed the same direction.
His most-used vehicle was captured 60 times by plate readers inside city limits. It appeared near the South Division St. address he claimed as home exactly once.
Richland PD investigation · FLOCK camera analysis
Investigators watched both addresses on four separate days — Jan. 29, Feb. 5, Feb. 19 and Feb. 25 — including early morning hours. His vehicles sat at the house outside the city. At the address he claimed: no sign he had ever been there.
Richland PD investigation · physical surveillance
The house Morfin claimed is owned by other people, with the utilities in their names. He switched his driver’s license to that address in May 2024 — the same window he applied for the seat. Yet all three of his vehicles — a Land Rover, a Dodge Challenger with the vanity plate EZEKIEL, and the Dodge Caliber — stayed registered to the address outside the city.
Richland PD investigation · City of Toppenish utility records
On May 11, 2024, Toppenish officers responded to a call at a property outside city limits and found Morfin there holding a hammer. Investigators reviewed the footage:
“Yeah, I live over there.”
— then he hesitates and corrects himself —
“Well, that’s my house; it’s all my things, but…”
Richland PD review of Toppenish PD body-worn camera footage, 05/11/2024
Morfin buys a house near S Olden Way and Fort Rd — 1.89 miles outside the Toppenish city limits — and is listed as sole owner on the loan.
Address records place him at an apartment in Vista, California — during the stretch he would later describe as part of 49 unbroken years in Toppenish.
His application for the vacant council seat is stamped received. It lists 327 S Division St as his residence, claims 49 years in Toppenish, and carries a declaration signed under penalty of perjury.
Toppenish police contact Morfin at a property outside the city limits. On body cam he says “Yeah, I live over there” — then catches himself: “Well, that’s my house; it’s all my things, but…”
Morfin switches his driver’s license and vehicle registrations to a Toppenish address, in the same window he applies for the vacant council seat.
A resident files a formal complaint with the Toppenish City Clerk: Morfin does not live inside the city.
Toppenish Police Chief Joseph Mehline asks the Richland Police Department to run an independent investigation — specifically to guarantee impartiality.
Richland PD delivers its findings: the evidence “overwhelmingly” shows Morfin did not live at the address he claimed, and likely declared it only to qualify for office.
Five days later, Morfin resigns from the Toppenish City Council — in a handwritten note blaming “medical reasons.” The investigation is never mentioned.
Morfin quit five days after investigators concluded he had lied about living in the district. His resignation letter says nothing about any of it.
“However, because of medical reasons, I am resigning from the Toppenish City Council.”
Handwritten resignation letter · received by the City of Toppenish Mar. 4, 2025
Read the letter (PDF)
In 2025, the Toppenish City Council had to adjourn a meeting early because Morfin refused to participate and walked out of the room. A motion was made at a later meeting to censure him for his actions.
Toppenish City Council Records
The Washington Public Disclosure Commission has found Morfin in violation two separate times for failing to file the financial disclosure statement every elected official is required to file.
WA Public Disclosure Commission enforcement records
One judgment. One day in court. Two second-degree burglary convictions, each under its own cause number — signed by a Yakima County Superior Court judge on June 12, 1992.
Count I on the judgment. Committed May 6, 1992. Found guilty on his own plea of guilty.
RCW 9A.52.030(1)Recorded on the same judgment, under other current convictions, as a conviction in its own cause.
Felony · same sentencingThe standard sentencing range was 4 to 12 months. Prior criminal history on the judgment: none.
A bench warrant issued for violating the conditions of that sentence, under cause 92-1-00894-2. Bail was set at $2,000. It was not quashed until March 19, 2001.
Yakima County Superior Court · both documents reproduced above, unedited
In September 1993, a Yakima County Superior Court judge issued an order for protection against Ezequiel Morfin Jr. after a hearing at which the court heard testimony from both him and the petitioner.
Filed September 13, 1993. The court found “good cause” to grant the relief requested and ordered: “Respondent is RESTRAINED from committing acts of domestic violence.”
Yakima County Superior Court · Domestic Violence Prevention ActA protection order is a civil court order, not a criminal conviction. The petitioner is a private person, so the name is blacked out of the scan and withheld from this page. Everything else on the order is reproduced as filed.
Yakima County Superior Court · reproduced as filed, with the petitioner’s name redacted
These are the actual public records. Read them yourself.
VOTE NO
ON EZEQUIEL MORFIN
STATE REPRESENTATIVE · 14TH DISTRICT, POSITION 2
General election — ballots due Tuesday, November 3, 2026
State Representative · 14th Legislative District, Position 2 · General election, November 3, 2026.
Deb Manjarrez(Prefers Republican Party)
Vote YES for Deb
Vote YES for Deb Manjarrez Check your ballot at VoteWA.gov Register, confirm your address, or track your ballot — Washington Secretary of State.
This information is from public records, candidate statements and official documents. You can check the facts for yourself.
A thirty-second video with a narrator, music and on-screen text. The narrator says: “Ezequiel Morfin. Candidate for state representative. In 1992, he pleaded guilty to burglary. A second burglary conviction. Same judgment. Not accused. Not charged. Guilty. By his own plea. He lied again. About where he lived. To get a council seat. He broke the law. Now he wants to write it. Ezequiel Morfin. Wrong for the fourteenth.” On screen it shows the Yakima County Superior Court judgment entered June 12, 1992, cause 92-1-00780-6, a guilty plea to second degree burglary, and a second second-degree burglary conviction recorded on the same judgment under cause 92-1-00894; a sentence of four days of confinement and twelve months of community supervision; a 1999 bench warrant for violating that sentence, quashed in 2001; and the 2025 finding by two police agencies that he did not live at the address he swore to. Paid for by the Washington State Republican Party.
Paid for by the Washington State Republican Party · 11911 NE 1st St, Suite 201, Bellevue, WA 98005 · Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee
Read the court documents