Once a High-Valued IT Professional, Now Homeless and In Search of Justice

The following article is based on a reader's email and was published with his permission.

Updated 04/19/09 11:21 - fixed link to NAACP retaliation story.
Updated 05/17/09 22:20 - added new information concerning deputy Schrimpsher's background.
NOTE: Story Update 01/14/10 - Prosecutors file to dismiss conviction against Simmons after motion to vacate is filed.


Early in 2005, James E Simmons III flew into Seattle to work as a consultant. With several years-worth of experience in information technology security and regulatory compliance, his skills were highly valued, sometimes bringing in over $90 an hour on each contract gig.

James says that he first ran into trouble one night in 2005 when he was returning home from a jazz club and asked a Seattle police officer where he could catch a cab. The officers didn’t answer him, but instead questioned him about a cigarette he was holding and jumped out of the cruiser after James replied that it was nothing and dropped it.

The officers claimed that the cigarette was a joint and that it contained crumbs of crack when they arrested and held him for four days, which cost him his contract gig. However, when the case went to trial a year and a half later, the charges were dismissed when the two officers who arrested him didn’t bother to show up at court and because of a lack of actual evidence other than the word of the arresting officers.

Fortunately, that time, even though he was arrested, he was able to continue working in the IT field since the case was dismissed. But, unfortunately, he returned to Seattle again for another contract job… and something even worse happened.

According to James, he was waiting at a bus stop when King County Sheriff’s Deputy James Schrimpsher accused him of selling crack. In Schrimpsher’s report, Schrimpsher claims he had seen Simmons sell from two different bus stops while he was working the Metro Transit patrol and when he attempted to detain Simmons at the second bus stop that he had bitten his arm during arrest so Simmons was charged with assaulting an officer and possession with intent to distribute.

However, Simmons claims that Schrimpsher fabricated his account of seeing Simmons deal at two locations because the first location Schrimpsher cited in his report didn’t even have a bus stop, at least according to an investigator hired for his defense who went to photograph the locations mentioned in Schrimpsher's report.

Simmons also claims that he never bit Schrimpsher and that this was a cover story for when Simmons was stomped on until his collar bone broke and then tasered until he defecated, and then tasered again in, what Simmons claims, was an apparent attempt to humiliate him by forcing him to defecate himself again. Simmons also says that the evidence used against him was never found on his person, but happened to be in the cruiser already when he was thrown in by Schrimpsher.

When the case went to trial, Simmons was found not guilty of assaulting an officer but was still convicted to 12 months on charges of possession with intent based on deputy Schrimpsher’s testimony, despite the contradictions raised by defense investigators.

Of course, Simmons' allegations may seem questionable until we consider Simmons’ background as a gainfully employed IT professional who made good money… why would he be dealing crack cocaine without the need to do so and with the risks being so huge?

Simmons further claims that the only reason officers singled him out is because he is black and was well-dressed. While his claims that he was framed because of his race might cause some to be skeptical, consider that the number of complaints of racial profiling have been rising in Seattle and that police haven't been above retaliating against people who have reported racial profiling incidents either.

If that's not enough to give a bit of credibility to James Simmons' story, consider this as well…

Late in 2007, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr took disciplinary action against two officers for dishonesty in relation to a drug bust the two performed in December of 2006, while working on a Metro Transit detail. One of the deputies resigned and the other deputy, James Schrimpsher, was fired in December 2007.

When officers are disciplined on grounds of dishonesty, especially when it relates to arrests or prosecution efforts, that officer is placed on a Brady list which is distributed to defense and prosecuting attorneys to inform them that the officer’s testimony should not be considered reliable.

This is why, in general, when officers get in trouble on allegations of dishonesty or perjury, the cases which depended on their testimony are supposed to be reviewed to determine if any relied entirely on their word and if there were any reasonable claims of impropriety.

When King County deputy Schrimpsher was terminated, prosecutors claimed that they performed just such a review, but it only turned up one ongoing case that they subsequently dismissed. But was that really the only case that should have been dismissed or overturned?

If that wasn't enough, also consider that Schrimpsher, during his time with the Phelps County Sheriff's Department in Missouri as a Detective he apparently cost the county a case against a suspected drug dealer due to his mishandling of evidence, at least according to this court document filed in October of 2004.

So it seems that Schrimpsher not only has a questionable history handling drug evidence, but also has skipped between at least two departments with his last jump from Phelps County to King County resulting in a rather steep drop in rank.

Simmons says that he is now unemployed and homeless because of the conviction, which makes it impossible for him to find work in the IT field in which he was once a hot commodity. He’s since turned to alcoholism because of the trauma being beaten and convicted have caused. Even still, now he wants to try and do something about what happened to him, but has been unable to find an attorney who would take his case on a pro-bono basis, since he’s now homeless and unemployable.

It would seem to me, independent of whether Simmons’ claims are factual or not, that the firing of Schrimpsher on grounds of dishonesty would merit his case being seriously reviewed in order to determine whether this was another case of dishonesty on Schrimpsher’s part or not.

The fact that Simmons did have so much to lose adds to the credibility of his claims, as well as the fact that, before the arrests, he had a security clearance as well.

With all of these factors in his favor there would seem to be enough probable cause to, at the very least, ask some very serious questions about the case against Simmons... a case which he claims was based on nothing more than the word of a cop that racially profiled him, lied about his reasons for beating him, and who was later fired for allegations of dishonesty in another drug bust case.

If you would like to contact James Simmons or have information that could help him, please let us know at news@injusticeinseattle.org and we'll pass the information along to him. He's still desperately looking for an attorney to help him clear his name so he can take back the life he once had.

Second King County Deputy Acquitted, Will Paul Schene Be The Third?

Video from a SeaTac holding cell that led to charges being filed against King County Deputy Paul Schene of misdemeanor fourth degree assault on 15-year-old Malika Calhoun.

Yesterday, a King County jury found King County Sheriff's Deputy Don Griffee not guilty of assault in the fourth degree for allegedly punching Johnny Bradford in the face while he was handcuffed in the back seat of a cruiser. Bradford was being question for allegations that were later found to be untrue and officers noticed that, when he was being released, that he had blood on his face when he didn't prior to being placed in the cruiser with Griffee.

During the trial, officers testified that they confronted Griffee after they asked Bradford why he was bleeding and Bradford told them that Griffee had punched him. One officer stated that he believed he heard Griffee say "Back in the old days, when someone called a cop a (expletive), that deserved some dental work."

Griffee, in his defense, testified that he never punched Bradford, but that he just "grabbed his chin to get his attention" and the jury cited that as sufficient reasonable doubt to not convict him of punching a handcuffed detainee, even though the jury said the other testimony and evidence, which included photographs of Griffee's hand with blood on it, as credible. Though, it's certainly true that if a civilian tried that defense that it probably wouldn't work as well as it did for the deputy.

This outcome was similar to the federal criminal deprivation of civil rights trial against King County Deputy Brian Bonnar that ended in acquittal in December. During that trial deputies testified that, when detaining Irene Damon after a car chase, Bonnar looked around and twice dropped his knee on Damon's face after she was handcuffed and that he lifted her up by her hair and slammed her face against the patrol car.

After reading the verdict in that case, the judge addressed the jury:

“What happened here was not what we expect of our law enforcement officers. There was a substantial amount of evidence that he (Bonnar) did not meet the standard of law enforcement in our community... There was substantial evidence his conduct wasn’t appropriate.”

But it still wasn't enough to win a conviction and Bonnar still serves as a deputy in King County, as it is likely now that Griffee will as well with his acquittal yesterday... and may well be with the case against King County Deputy Paul Schene in his upcoming trial for Assault in the fourth degree on 15-year-old Malika Calhoun.

Will video of Schene assaulting a 15-year-old girl be enough to convince a jury in that case? Or will Schene take a page out of the defense book for other officers and convince jurors that there's enough reasonable doubt in this case as well insofar as Schene felt the small girl was a sufficient threat, after she kicked off a soft-soled shoe that hit the deputy in the shin, to justify kicking her in the stomach, throwing her against a wall, and then punching her twice when she was on the ground?

I wouldn't put it past an overly-trusting King County jury to buy it or for prosecutors to drop the ball again, especially after these last two cases.

Why is it so hard to prosecute a cop?

Some even suggest that it's because cops know better than even the criminals they arrest how to skirt the law without being caught, that their knowledge of the system makes them ideal crooks.

Some say it's because prosecutors are unwilling to go full out against a cop like they do against criminals because the police might stop helping them with cases. After all, a prosecutor's conviction rate depends on close cooperation with law enforcement.

Some say it's because of the cultural biases we have drilled into us from an early age that forces us to accept the story of a cop even when that same story from a citizen wouldn't protect them from a guilty verdict. This is certainly plausible given that 76% of the US population feels that the police are very trustworthy, ranking them fourth out of all occupations in trustworthiness. This would explain why juries accept a cop's word as true when used against a suspect except when that suspect is another police officer.

Nobody knows for sure what the reason is, but it's clear that the justice system doesn't work the same against cops like it does against us... and it's likely because of a combination of the above.

Ultimately, these failures of our dualistic justice system don't just harm the people that were hurt by police officers, it harms us all because it merely serves to perpetuate the believe by police officers that they are not subject to the same laws as the rest of us are... that they are above the law and may act as they please.

It only proves to them that they are free to brutalize someone else... and next time, that victim of a failed justice system that cannot hold police officers accountable to the law could be you.

Did the King County Sheriff use this site to make a press release?

Visits from the King County Government network on 03/10/09

It was a weird day yesterday... Now, I'm not sure about this so I'll leave it up to the readers, but it almost seemed like the King County Sheriff's Office used one of my posts and comments as a basis for a press release.

Take a look at this press release given to local news outlets late in the morning yesterday, but only got posted to the Seattle Post Intelligencer's 911 blog and local TV station Q13Fox. Make note of everything after the released timeline...

Then take a look at what I posted yesterday about a proposed protest against the King County Sheriff along with my comments in response to a reader's question...

Is it just me, or did the King County Sheriff's Department just use a post from my site, a site opposed to police misconduct and detainee abuse, as a basis for their press release yesterday that defended their actions in response to one of their deputies being accused of assaulting a 15-year-old girl? After all, they both make the same points, just worded differently, and it came out just a bit after a barrage of visits from the King County Government's network.

Anyway, I honestly don't know what to think about that... because, well, it would be quite ironic if it were the case. Don't you think?

PS: Oh, and as for that protest, I don't even know if they went through with it because, as I unfortunately predicted, absolutely nobody in the local media covered it. Hopefully there's a bit more notice if they do something like that again.

Rally Today Against King County Sheriffs Department

-Updated 03/10/09 - 14:29- if anyone attended this rally let me know how it was and what was said, I'd appreciate it. I was not able to cover it due to the short notice.


I received the above press release via email last night, apparently around the same time anyone else did. I thought about not posting it, but decided that I'm obliged to... but with some caveats.

First, let me be clear that I was not one of the supposed "other groups and activists" mentioned in this press release. I had no part in this, was not talked to or consulted about it, nor was I informed of it prior to the official press release, which was all I received about it from the October 22nd Coalition who appears to be working in conjunction with the National Action Network.

Second, I don't support it. To be specific, since I know so little about it and based on the content of the release, I'm not able to support it. Heck, I can't even go to it because of the short notice.

I really can't support it because calling for a rally at the very last minute, a full 12 days after the release of the video showing Malika Calhoun being assaulted by King County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Schene and almost a full month after the initial story broke about Schene being charged with assault over the attack, seems a bit late to the game, especially since neither sponsoring group had anything at all to say about it up to this point.

In fact, it appears ill-planned and ill-conceived to on give everyone not even a full day's notice of such a rally. It appears doomed to offer only a token show of support which will only give the appearance that nobody in King County cares about police brutality. If it were properly planned we would have heard about a planned protest well in advance so word could have gotten out and it could have been better attended.

Third, I can't support the aim of the protest, which is to hold King County Sheriff Sue Rahr solely accountable for what Paul Schene did.

If you think the sheriff should have done more than just put him on paid leave then protest against the county that negotiated the current contract with the police union that determines how she can discipline officers in cases like this.

While you're at it, lobby the state legislature to reform the Public Employee Relations Commission (PERC) that always sides with the police unions against local governments when they try to enact accountability reforms but are turned back at the bargaining table by aggressive police unions. Tell them to give local governments the power to enact the police accountability reforms that their citizens have demanded instead of kow-towing to powerful police unions and their political endorsements.

Have a problem with Schene only being charged with a misdemeanor that caries a MAXIMUM one year sentence? Don't blame the sheriff, she doesn't choose what he is charged with. Don't blame King County Prosecutors either for only being able to charge him with the laws that exist. Protest the state government to pressure them into enacting a law against official misconduct and make it a felony offense for officers to abuse detainees like Schene did to Calhoun.

Don't like it that Schene likely can't be fired even if he's convicted for a misdemeanor in this case? Lobby the state government to give local departments the discretion to fire officers for misdemeanors like this and reform the PERC so it stops overruling departments that do fire officers for similar offenses and penalizes them for doing so on top of giving officers back pay and forcing them to rehire bad cops.

But... since these two groups apparently don't understand the situation here and didn't bother to ask around, they are over-simplifying the problem by going after Sue Rahr, who has actually been amenable to accountability reforms... and who has not come to the defense of Schene like Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske would have.

Instead, these groups seek to punish her for trying to do what we, as police accountability activists, would hope most police leaders would do in a case like this, which is to be open about what happened and press charges against an officer who did something wrong without being shamed into doing so in the press first.

Instead, these two groups who refused to include other police brutality activists in their plans are going to put up a half-hearted and poorly planned protest based on an ill-informed premise that will ultimately do more harm to everyone's efforts to improve police accountability than anything. Especially by over-simplifying a very complex problem that needs reforms imposed from far higher up than they are targeting.

Let me be honest here... I loathe having to say all this, I have few allies in Seattle and there aren't many people who support improved police accountability here, so it's important to cultivate relationships with anyone who wants to stop police misconduct. I wish I could support this, I wish I could be there... but I wasn't given enough information to support it and the information I see doesn't address the issues that need to be addressed to help reduce cases of police misconduct in this area.

But, I don't do this to make friends, I do this for the people who suffer from police misconduct and I owe it to them to make sure my efforts are directed towards reducing police misconduct, so I cannot betray that and support efforts that appear, to me, to potentially do more harm than good to that effort.

So, my apologies to the October 22nd Coalition and the National Action Network, but I cannot support your planned rally tomorrow in good conscience. I wish you luck in the future and hope that, next time, you work harder to reach out to other groups and plan your efforts better. I hope I'm wrong about your rally today, but based on what I received I can't support it.

Resetting Expectations in the Malika Calhoun Case

The Vice of Injustice and Virtue of Justice
frescoes at the Arena Chapel in Padua by Giotto

The video (here) of King County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Schene assaulting 15-year-old Malika Calhoun has left many outraged. People all over the world are presuming that the deputy will be fired and even convicted of some criminal offense that will land him in prison for some period of time.

People also presume that Malika will win a civil suit and are wondering at the millions this deputy's apparent lack of self control will ultimately cost the cash-strapped King County government.

...even though none of these presumptions are even close to the reality of Seattle.

Let me be clear, there is a strong possibility that all of these presumptions are misplaced.

In fact, based on all the recent case history available, it is unlikely that the deputy will be found guilty of anything.

It is unlikely that the county would be able to fire him even if they tried.

And it's likely that Malika will, at absolute best case, stand to possibly win $250,000 in a civil case, if she doesn't settle for something half of that before hand... or lose the civil case she hopes to file... even though the criminal and civil defense for the deputy, which the county will pay for, will cost more than double anything Malika stands to win as compensation for what she suffered.

Why?

Let's address each aspect by looking at each presumption and compare them to similar recent events.

1.The deputy will be convicted and go to prison.

In Seattle it is rare that police officers are charged in similar cases. When they are, it is rarer still that they are convicted. Even then, when a conviction seems likely they plead down to lesser misdemeanors that carry deferred conviction deals that wipe their records after a year of good behavior, with no jail time.

Given that the deputy only faces a misdemeanor already, even if convicted it is exceedingly improbable that he would spend any time in jail even if this went to trial and he were convicted. For which, the county would be stuck with prosecution AND defense costs which may exceed $300.000 no matter what.

For an example, look at the last trial which was against King County deputy Brian Bonnar on federal civil rights violations based on accusations that he used excessive force when he allegedly beat a handcuffed woman after a car chase. While other officers testified against him, prosecutors still could not gain a conviction and the case cost the county nearly $400,000 in defense fees.

2. The deputy will be fired.

It is unlikely the deputy will be fired, especially if he is not convicted and, even if he is, a misdemeanor conviction is not enough on its own to fire him based on state laws and precedents that protect officers.

Let's be clear. Even if King County Sheriff Sue Rahr did fire him, the Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) would likely force King County to reinstate him with back-pay and additional penalties as it's likely the deputy would be able to argue that other officers who have done the same, or worse, were not fired thus his firing would be discrimination.

It's likey he could do this because, in the past, King County has been very lax in how it disciplined officers ad that established a precedent for how future disciplinary actions are viewed by the police union-friendly PERC board. So, even if the county tried, it is unlikely that they could fire him.

For an example of this problem, just read the Conduct Unbecoming series in the Seattle PI.

3. Malika will win millions in a civil case.

First, it's important to understand that Seattle and King County use the same private lawfirm to defend themselves and their police officers from civil rights suits. While the officer's attorney, Anne Bremner, has drawn criticism for arguing that the video seen around the world doesn't tell the whole story. She, and her firm, are very ruthless in how they defend against police misconduct lawsuits.

They are so effective that they have only lost one case in a decade and that suit cost the city twice as much in legal fees than the award of $269,000 that was given to Romelle Bradford who was wrongfully arrested and punched by a Seattle Police officer.

There are a number of cases that they have settled, but those only net their victims half as much at best, such as the case of Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes who was savagely beaten and falsely arrested outside a nightclub in Seattle. His case settled for half as much as Bradford won, $185,000, even though Alley-Barnes clearly suffered far more serious injuries and both were entirely innocent of any crime.

(For a list of the latest known lawsuits to settle or win in Seattle, refer to here)

This case is somewhat different because Malika wasn't subjected to a false arrest. Therefore, if the case even makes it to trial and if it won, I think we would see an award of $100,000-$150,000, if that. If it settles, maybe $75,000.

Latest litigation outcomes against Seattle's PD

In any case, nothing close to a million.

Of course, I don't want this to be the way that it is. Nor do I think that it's right that the state of Washington and Seattle/King County put such a small price tag on our civil rights when they are violated.

But the harsh reality here is what it is and the sooner people understand what the realistic outcomes of this disturbing case are, while this case is still in the spotlight, the more hope we might have in improving the situation here in convincing people that changes are needed.

What Do We Tell Our Children About Police Brutality

From early childhood our children are taught to trust the police. We tell our sons and daughters that if they are lost that they should look for a police officer to get help. Our schools warn our children to be wary of strangers and to seek the police if a stranger tries to lure them away...

But, more and more, I worry that the strangers we should warn our children to stay away from might include those that wear a police uniform as well.

After all, how do we reconcile the contrasts between the picture of a friendly officer helping a child, like illustrated above, and that of the brutal reality of a child, (now identified as Malika Calhoun) being viciously beaten by a sheriff's deputy on the news as we've all seen recently?

Our children give us questioning looks when seeing this or hearing discussions about it. They are confused, they are told to trust the police but here is a police officer harming a child... or other stories that have also been in the news recently:

• Washington DC officers accused of stealing toys meant for underprivileged kids.
• A Palm Beach Sheriff's Deputy wanted for allegedly raping a child.
• A Police chief in Virginia caught in an online child sexual solicitation sting.
• A police officer from Alabama accused of transporting kids across state lines to rape them.
• A King County Sheriff's Deputy videotaped brutally attacking a 15-year-old girl.

How do we explain to our children why they should trust the police after they see or hear stories like these? Should you tell them they should still trust the police when they know of family members who have been abused by the police or even when they see police brutality themselves like these fifth graders did in Seattle?

Or, should we be teaching them something else in the light of this brutality, that they should treat the police as they do any other stranger, as unworthy of their trust?

Seattle and King County are prime examples of how difficult it is to honestly tell a child they should trust police when we know our city and county cannot even fire the officers that they know are dangerous and supposedly want to fire.

For just one example take the case of King County Sheriff's Deputy Denny Gulla, who has been accused molesting three different 14-year-old girls but who remained a deputy even on top of other complaints like assaulting prisoners, making a pass at a high school senior, videotaping a gang beating for his training video and pulling over his lover's husband and threatening to shoot him in the "mother-fucking face."

As far as we know, he's still a deputy in the King County Sheriff's department since it was only last year that they finally put him on a brady list, but still couldn't fire him. How do we tell our children to trust the police when the one they trust could be officer Gulla or the officer who beat that young girl?

All these stories, when also tied to one's like officer Gulla, show that some deeply disturbing people can become police officers and remain in authority even after developing a history of alleged abuses against children.

Which leads me to wonder whether I would be a responsible parent for telling my children to trust the police instead of fearing them like they should any potentially dangerous stranger on the street.

After all, it's been proven that even the strangers in uniform can harm our children as much, if not more than, any other stranger who offers candy to children in a dark van could.

Perhaps it would be more responsible for us to instill in our children the cold hard realities that most of us already understand... that the police are not here to protect and serve us...

the police are here to protect and serve themselves.

Until that changes, until a real system of accountability and disciplinary transparency is created, none of us are safe... not even our children.

So, what do you plan on telling your children?

What Happens To Justice When There Is No Video

 

Map of vistors reviewing our post about the video of King County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Schene beating a 15-year-old girl

The video of a 15-year-old girl being ruthlessly beaten by a much larger King County Sheriff's Deputy sparked interest across the globe, as it rightly should. Many don't believe that such abuse happens, and even with such videos there are many who still say that the girl, and any others brutalized by police, must have deserve it for some reason or another.

It makes us mindful of how far a climb we still face in convincing people that police accountability and transparency is necessary to protect the public from those that are entrusted with power to enforce our laws, lest they become lawless themselves. When even brutal videos like this cannot persuade many that abuse happens and shouldn't happen... what else can we do?

But more to the point, and I hope those reading excuse my brutal frankness, the girl that you see in that video is lucky.

No, she is not fortunate for being assaulted by a deputy that refused to control his rage, even when he knew full well that his actions would be recorded. But she is fortunate that her case was one of the very few that are recorded by video... and doubly so that this video actually made it into public view.

For every one case like this, there are hundreds that are not filmed, that are not witnessed, and that never reach the light of public view.

Even so, even when cameras record police brutality here in Seattle, Washington (in the middle of King County), and even when an internal investigation concludes such assaults were excessive force, and even when, as was true in Schene's case, the officer is less than truthful about such events, such as what happened in Mark Hays' case here in Seattle last year... there is still often no justice to be had.

If having video is a steep hill, imagine the cliff one faces when the brutality or mistreatment they suffer at the hands of police or jail guards is not recorded. imagine how hard it is to keep that to yourself for the rest of your life while knowing that if you tell others you'll be judged to have "deserved it somehow."

Imagine never being able to trust in the police again, knowing that you could never call them if you were the victim of a crime out of fear of being attacked again.

Imagine, being one of the hundreds whose story is never told, who never find justice, who never have lawyers take their case, or people all over the world demanding justice for them... but, of course, justice is not just a sack of money given to a victim to pay for their medical bills and the suffering they went through at the hands of the police. Nor is it just about holding the officer who did the crime to account.. it's more than that.

In response to the video I received a few messages from readers who felt the need to tell their own stories, one of which agreed to have it published...

I forgot the year but it was in the mid 80's. I wish I would have done something about it then but I was young and stupid.

I had been at the J&M cafe in Pioneer Square with fisherman friends from Alaska. We drove up to capitol hill, (a section of Seattle), to a house where a guy I met lived to see if his sister wanted to come with us for a little more fun on the town.

We pulled up to the house and I got out of the passenger side of the vehicle and went up to the house, knocked on the door and a guy answered and said no one was home.

I walked back to the car and got in and the driver started the car and all of a sudden police lights went off behind us. We had not moved at all. The police officer went to the driver's window and asked for license and registration. He immediately came to my side and tapped on the window. I rolled it down and he said step out of the vehicle.

I had a lit cigarette in my hand and as I got out he said put that cigarette out. I took one more puff and threw it down and the next thing I know the officer jumped me and threw me to the ground. (He) started hammering my face in the pavement as he kept saying "I said get your hands behind your back!" My hands were already behind my back but he kept beating me!

As he continued the beating he put the handcuffs on and pulled me up by my hair. Another officer had arrived and grabbed me and slammed me on the hood of his patrol car. A car was coming down the street and he immediately grabbed me by the hair again and walked me to the middle of the road. He slammed me on the hood of the oncoming car after they came to a stop. And he yelled! "This is what your going to look like if you don't get the fuck out of this neighborhood!"

They loaded me into a squad car and charged me with resisting arrest and threatening an officer. My face was covered with blood. They released me in the middle of the night from a holding cell with no medical attention.

I had a public defender come to my court hearing sometime later. He said that the officers statement reflected his concern that I was going to burn him with my cigarette. I remember the judge as she looked at the paperwork shaking her head and then calling my attorney up for a private conversation. At that point all charges were dismissed and my attorney said that's it, it's over. The charges were dropped.

I wish there was something to this day that I could do about it! They should have paid for what they did. God knows how many more people were beat by those officers. This had a profound effect on my life and the fact that I have no regard for law enforcement.

Thanks for providing a venue online to share this information. This is the first time I have talked about it since the incident.

You see, justice is supposed to be about returning a victim's life to as close to as it was before that person became a victim of another person's crime. It's also supposed to act as a deterrent for others who might think of committing the same crime in the future.

Yet, for victims of detainee abuse, there is never either, even when they win a civil suit. Because effective reforms never come that would help prevent future attacks. Officers often remain on the force to attack others in the future. And the victim must now face the world with the understanding that, while police might be there to protect others from criminals, nothing really protects them from the police.

Without reforms, there is no justice... and without video, for many, there isn't even acknowledgment that they were the victim of a crime... there is never anything even close to a normal life ever again.

The girl you've seen in that video still faces a tall hill to find a life that approaches normal again, even though she's lucky that the video was recorded and released... The rest of us, in the absence of video, still sit at the bottom of a cliff wondering if change will ever be possible when videos like this can't even move a molehill.

Video Released Of King County Sheriff Beating 15 Year Old Female Detainee

Updated video that shows what happened before, during, and after the girl was assaulted in the holding cell.

As we reported earlier this month, King County Sheriff's Deputy Paul Schene plead not guilty to fourth degree assault over what took place in the video shown above. If convicted he only faces a maximum of one year in jail.

The video was taken on November 29th in a SeaTac, Washington holding cell, south of Seattle, Washington. The video shows deputy Schene, another deputy, and a 15-year-old girl, (now identified as Malika Calhoun), he arrested on suspicion of auto theft for driving her parents' car.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer, who obtained the video after the judge allowed it to be released, also quotes from the deputy's report:

Schene wrote that the shoe hit him in the right shin, "causing injury and pain." He wrote that he "placed" her into handcuffs and that she needed medical attention for a "panic attack."

He wrote that he required treatment at Auburn General Hospital for a "blood filled pocket" on his shin, according to his report. The video, however, appears to show his shin strike a metal toilet in the cell as he pushes the girl against the wall.

Schene's attorney, Anne Bremner, who represents most officers in Seattle in criminal and civil cases, argued desperately with the judge in this case to keep this video from being released, suggesting that there is more to this story than we're seeing...

You tell me, what more could there be?

Police Misconduct NewsWatch for 02-13-09 - Local Edition

A lot of news going on in Seattle so instead of a regular News Watch I'm turning the focus local for this issue... even though I have a lot of catching up to do for some national stories I'm looking into.

Arrested For Standing While Black
Tim Harris at the always intriguing Apesmas Lament tells the tale of a Real Change newspaper vendor named Donald Morehead who was selling copies of the local advocacy weekly paper when a Seattle Police officer allegedly knocked one of his teeth out, slammed his head against a cruiser, and then arrested him...

Morehead's crime?

Apparently nothing more than standing while black one of the city's "drug enforcement zones". The officer arrested Morehead on unspecified charges, though Morehead had no drugs and only a few copies of the paper and $20.00 from the copies that he had already sold.

The money was confiscated as alleged "drug money" and Morehead spent 16 days in the King County Jail until people at the paper raised enough for the $160 bail.

Tim first mentioned the case in a post on the fifth when he first discovered Morehead was in jail from a public defender who was representing him and started collecting money for his release shortly afterward.

This type of racially-based enforcement activity has been becoming more common in Seattle with the NAACP noting the issue towards the end of last year which also sparked allegations of retaliation when officers later charged a witness of a racial profiling incident named Yvonne Gaston who testified for the NAACP's news conference, of assaulting an officer a day after that conference... strangely enough, weeks after the alleged incident occurred.

Harris has recently joined with other community activists in an effort, Initiative 100, to force the city to allow voters to decide whether or not the city should build a new jail to house more prisoners or work on alternative ways to reduce the need for more jail space... like not arresting so many people on questionable charges.

Though now out on bail, Morehead is still facing charges, though no word yet about whether a legal defense fund has been established for him.

King County Deputy Charged For Beating A 15 Year Old Girl
Update: The video has been released
King County sheriff deputy Paul Schene has been charged with 4th degree assault for allegedly kicking, punching, and pulling a 15 year old girl while booking her into jail.

The incident was recorded by security cameras at the jail where the officer and his partner were booking two teenage girls into juvenile jail under suspicion of auto theft in November of last year.

He alleged in charging papers that she had assaulted him when she was removing her shoes and, according to the girl, one slipped off her foot and hit the officer in the shin.

An investigator reviewing the tapes to prepare the case of assaulting an officer against the girl saw the deputy kick the girl, shove her against a wall, take her down to the floor in a hair-hold, and then punch her twice.

Ex-Civilian Review Board Member Running For City Council
Perhaps just as interesting on a local level as was the nomination of SPD Chief Gil Kerlikowske as drug czar was the announcement from ex-OPARB member Pete Holmes that he is running for an unspecified city council seat in the next election, according to The Seattle Weekly "Daily Weekly" blog.

Holmes was one of the then three member civilian review board that sharply criticized Kerlikowske for allegedly working behind the scenes to influence an internal investigation of two officers who were accused of planting drugs and lying on arrest reports. The board then had it's last report to city council censored because of it's criticism of the department's internal investigation process before it was disbanded and all of it's members replaced.

Holmes graduated from Yale University, earned his law degree from the University of Virginia, and currently works at a local law firm specialized in commercial bankruptcy law.

Victim Of Police Excessive Force Forced To File Lawsuit On His Own
Jonah at The Stranger Blog (SLOG) has an update on the case of Mark Hays who was subjected to a barrage of punches to the head and knees to the torso when he was arrested in November of 2007 by undercover SPD "Anti-Crime Team" officers after he and a friend had jaywalked in front of their unmarked SUV. The tail end of the beating he received that night was caught on a dashcam video of a responding SPD officer's cruiser.


An internal investigation into that arrest found that the officer who beat Hays had used excessive force and that he was misleading when interviewed by investigators looking into complaints about that violent arrest, even though Hays himself was found guilty of assaulting an officer for allegedly jumping on one of the officer's backs during the incident.

It appears, according to Jonah, that Hays has now filed a civil suit against the city seeking $750,000 in damages for the beating, for improperly withholding public records, and for conspiring to deny a proper investigation into allegations of misconduct... all without a lawyer to represent him.

I certainly wish him all the best, but worry about why he's going it alone at this point.

Miscellaneous News

Just some random news items for you so far today...

Seattle Police Oversight
The Stranger has gotten a hold of the proposed candidate list for the Office of Police Accountability Review Board members. (The OPARB is the public-facing portion of Seattle's civilian oversight system). The list appears pretty unremarkable but we are looking into it.

Remember though, that the police guild does have the right to fight against any proposed OPARB members put forward by city council; so if they aren't happy with any of these proposed members, the list might change before it goes forward. From a preliminary glance though, it appears to have a majority of police-friendly members so we doubt it will change much.

King County Police Oversight
King County Sheriff Sue Rahr has announced the sheriff department's new budget and, due to county-wide budget cuts, she has dropped all recommendations made by an oversight review panel to enact changes to the police misconduct and investigative processes and policies in her department. We're not sure yet how this will affect the proposed addition of a civilian oversight component for the sheriff's department that was negotiated into the latest contract agreement between the county and the King County Police Guild... but it probably doesn't bode well.

Miscellany
I might be on the radio tonight talking about the latest contract agreement between the city of Seattle and the Seattle Police Officer's Guild. As you know from reading the site, I tend to be a bit verbose, but to make matters worse I was a bit nervous during the recorded interview so I really rambled on when I should have been more concise than usual instead. Hopefully I'll sound better than I think I did and the interview will make it on to the show... we'll see.

Even if I'm not on the show, tune into KBCS 91.3 FM tonight at 6:00 for One World Report, it's a really good show that has done a great job covering police misconduct and accountability issues as well as many other interesting and important topics not usually covered in the news.

Update: The interview did make it on to the show, which is available online at their site as well. I guess I did ok, but I really could have done a better job explaining the issues. Improving the way I frame and present these issues is definitely something for me to work on. So, at the least, it was a good learning experience for me.

To get a better idea of what we were discussing, here's the link to the article on how the police contract fails to implement accountability reforms.

King County Sheriff Ignores Complaints

Some of you may remember this story about a woman who's house was searched against her will without a warrant, who was detained and intimidated in the back of a police cruiser while partially dressed for refusing to let the search continue, and then had her home ransacked by a SWAT team who was looking for her boyfriend who wasn't even there... all because the police claimed she was a victim of domestic violence despite her insistence that she wasn't and had no apparent injuries.

Well, the story still isn't over for her unfortunately. It seems as though she's tried multiple times to file complaints against the officers who violated her rights that night and the King County Sheriff's office refuses to even record the complaint, let alone investigate it. She even attempted to file a complaint through the Seattle Police Department's OPA, who forwarded the complaint to the KCSD, where it was promptly ignored as well. We advised her to file a complaint through the King County Ombudsman, but she hasn't heard any response from that office either.

Furthermore, she's been stuck with the bills for fixing the damage the police did to her home when they repeatedly searched for her boyfriend who wasn't even there. The sheriff's deputies reportedly knocked several holes in her ceiling looking for crawl-spaces and busted a door as well. Despite her attempts to file complaints, the county refuses to respond.

Oh, but it doesn't end there. Not only did the police detain her for refusing to let them search her home without a warrant and refusing to say she had been abused when it was clear she hadn't... She was sent to a nearby hospital against her will so they could examine her to make sure she wasn't hurt. While the hospital released her after a few hours when finding no injuries, she's now stuck with the ambulance and hospital bills as well!

...and the county refuses to even hear her complaint, let alone reimburse her for the damage and unwanted bills they inflicted on her that night.

Of course, if you hadn't guessed by now, the King County Sheriff's office does not have any civilian oversight, all complaints are handled by sheriff's deputies... and we all know how much cops care about investigating misconduct performed by fellow officers.

She is still in the process of trying to find a lawyer to help after she'd tried repeatedly to handle this through the official channels. We wish her the best of luck! Hopefully, the county will learn that investigating complaints and being accountable for damage done by police misconduct is cheaper than dealing with lawsuits that victims have to file when they are given no other option.

Woman Reports Mistreatment By King County Sheriff's Deputies

We received a rather disturbing email earlier this week from a single mother of two who told us her story of a very frightening encounter with King County Sheriff's deputies who had ransacked her house without a warrant despite her refusing them permission to search it, detained her when she insisted that they stop searching her home, drove her to an abandoned lot to intimidate her while she was partially dressed in the back of a cruiser in an attempt to garner a coerced confession... and then forced her to go to the hospital against her will after she didn't confess...

What crime did they allegedly try to intimidate this woman into confessing to?

They did all of this to her because they accused her of, get this, being a victim of domestic violence.

...and it doesn't end there, here is the first part of her story:

"The police came to my house and told me they received a call about a potential case of domestic violence and that they believed that I was the victim. I answered the door and told them nothing was wrong but they insisted that they needed to come in and search the house to make sure that nobody else was in there anyway. I was at home with my two kids and I told them there was nobody other than the kids in the house. The police came in anyway and after they determined there was nobody else in the house they decided to conduct a more "thorough" search instead of leaving.

During this second search I kept asking them to leave but they opened my pantry and saw what they must have thought was an entrance to an attic. One of the officers then started to bang on the wood that sealed the crawl space between the ceiling and the roof where the insulation of the house is, yelling that he saw my boyfriend up there and to come down so he wouldn’t have to hurt him. He actually ended up breaking it, as it was not really a door and couldn’t be opened.

Then they decided to go into my closet and into a zipped suitcase where they found some guns (the guns are legal and my boyfriend has a concealed weapons permit). By this time I was extremely angry and kept demanding that they leave since they were destroying things in my house and going through my room searching in places where a person couldn’t even hide.

In response to my demands that they stop searching my home they handcuffed me and put me in a police car parked in front of my house. I asked the officer if I was under arrest and he said no, I was being detained because I was getting in their way. I asked to talk to my kids, who were asking for me, and he said no.... all he kept saying was that he knew that my boyfriend had hit me and that I needed to tell them that. I repeatedly told them that what they were saying was not true. But every time I told them that he did not hit me, they just seemed to get angrier at me.

They then drove me to an elementary school parking lot well after midnight and asked me if I was ready to talk to them now. I told him he couldn’t just hold me there and that he needed to arrest or release me, he then told me, “I can do whatever I want.” The officer got out of the car and left me sitting in the back of the police car while he was talking and laughing with other officers that were there. I tried to get the attention of the other officers by banging on the window because I was really scared after that officer told me he could do whatever he wanted to do to me, especially since I was naked except for a t-shirt and robe.

What I didn’t realize is that the police had called and ambulance and I was forced, against my will, to go to the emergency room. They claimed that I needed to go to detox, which is really funny considering that this had been going on for well over an hour and they didn’t decide that I was that drunk until they wanted me out of the way, (not to mention that all they did at the hospital was keep me in the hallway strapped down to a stretcher)."

It doesn't end there, unfortunately for her, because the police were quite busy after they got this alleged victim of domestic violence out of the way...

"I finally got back home later that morning and discovered that, in my absence, they called out the swat team and busted holes in my ceiling and trashed my home. They tried to justify it by saying that they thought my boyfriend was hiding in the crawl space between the ceiling and roof, but my boyfriend wasn’t even there.

They ripped my bed apart throwing my mattresses all over my room, flipped my couches over and dumped out my dresser drawers.

They went through my kitchen trash, which they left dumped all over the bathroom floor, and kicked in my bathroom door which wasn’t even locked or closed.

They took my son’s cell phone from him and left it outside in the rain on the neighbor’s driveway, which I didn’t find it until the next morning.

They also took my house keys and car keys but never returned them. They later tried to claim that they gave my keys to the ambulance attendant, but when I called the ambulance company and the hospital they said they had no record of any keys being given to them that night."

Oh, but it doesn't end there... You know that complaint process for the King County Sheriff's department that's been getting good reviews... welll.... Maybe that review panel didn't check to see what complaints the department refused to document:

"After the incident I tried to obtain the police report for almost a week but they kept telling me that the Sergeant hadn’t approved it for release. I also tried to file a complaint with the internal investigations unit for the King County Sheriff’s office and spoke to a Sergeant who was rude and would not even document my complaint saying, “Since you received the paperwork to file a claim for the damages to your residence, what else was there to complain about?”"

Now, before someone comes along and says that the police tore apart this woman's house without her permission, detained her for obstructing an investigation for which she was the purported victim, intimidated her and her children in an attempt to illicit a coerced confession, and then forced her against her will to got to a hospital for which she was left with the bill for... all for this woman's own good...

I remind you that the woman insisted that she was not a victim of any crime. To suggest that such aggressive tactics that would normally be considered a violation of a criminal suspect's civil rights should be permissible for use against a possible victim of abuse is patently absurd, irregardless of whether or not she was the victim of any crime. Because if she had been abused, the actions of the police that night only served to further traumatize the victim of a crime, thus making them abusers as well... and if we apply the tenet of presumed innocence in this case, the police should have been forced to accept her insistence that she was not the victim of a crime.

In other words, to suggest that the police were somehow justified in traumatizing someone they suspected of being a victim of a crime is patently insane. But, more than that, if the police can use an excuse like this to violate search and seizure laws, detain people without just cause, use coercive interrogation practices on them, and involuntarily institutionalize them... essentially allow the officer to do as he or she pleases with you... all without consequences or proof that a crime even occurred violates every tenet of the US justice system and the constitution.

Then imagine how easy it will be for them to do things like this to you or me, all without fear of any repercussions.

We certainly hope that she and her family can at least recover their losses from the damage done to their home, even if the police refuse to help her recover from the abuse she may have suffered that night by investigating her complaints of police misconduct.

The person who reported this story has given us permission to publish her story, but because of our policy regarding the protection of identities for people who may have been mistreated in custody, we have removed any identifiable information in order to protect potential victims of abuse from any further abuses.

King County Review Panel Gives Sheriff Good Grades!

This is the kind of story that I like to write about, that I want to write about, police management doing what it takes to improve discipline and accountability and getting results. King County Sheriff Sue Rahr is doing what it takes to reign in officers that are involved in misconduct, according to an oversight panel established by King County to review King County Sheriff's department policies and procedures after scathing reports of misconduct were appearing one right after another in the local news.

The report states that the sheriff has made disciplinary procedures more transparent and has positioned more line supervisors into positions where they can spot misconduct and react to it much faster. Additionally the sheriff has implemented changes to the citizen's complaint process that has improved accountability and transparency. This has resulted in noticeably fewer reports of misconduct from that department for a while now, especially when compared to the SPD's increasingly common reports of abuses and brutality.

Now, that's some real results! In fact, I commented on this back here about a story where the sheriff fired a deputy and another resigned over falsification of testimony charges. Indeed, some officers have been whining about these common sense policy implementations, but just like children who can't raid the cookie jar anymore, that will settle down when they realize throwing a tantrum won't grant them the right to misbehave again.

The panel and the sheriff both say more needs to be done, especially with contract negotiation rights between the sheriff and the police union, currently done between the County Executive and the union. They both say the sheriff needs more input in that process, and given the results the sheriff has brought about so far, I couldn't agree more.

The same problem that Seattle and King County face in regards to fierce union opposition to oversight and accountability efforts is playing out across the entire country, says a representative from NACOLE, the National Organization for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. So, while Sue has made great strides to correct corruption problems in her department, without changes to the contract she's limited to what she can do just as Seattle is now.

Of course, It's still a sad contrast between the progress made at the King County Sheriff's Department and the Seattle Police Department. Sue Rahr has empowered her department to deal with misconduct issues while Gil Kerlikowske seems utterly unable and unwilling to manage his officers... in fact, the officers of his department and the guild seem to be managing him instead.

Congratulation Sue, your efforts are greatly appreciated and we hope you're able to keep up the great work on behalf of the public you serve!

Thanks for giving me something nice to write about for a change!!!

King County Sheriff Officers Update

Here's an update on a post I wrote earlier about two sheriff's deputies being caught falsifying reports:

Some additional details have come to light thanks to a disgruntled King County Sheriff's Deputy who leaked details about internal policy changes in an effort to try and defend the accused officers on a public message board. This deputy states:

Rahr has a new policy. ANY complaint from the public having to do with any KCSO deputy goes straight to Internal Affairs. Bypassing any immediate management. The old policy was that any complaint would first be looked at by that persons immeidate sgt.

This seems to me as though it is a very good policy that fits with the same model most modern police departments use since most corruption spreads by higher ranking corrupt officers promoting and pulling other corrupt officers into their command and demoting or harrassing any good officers who complain about corruption or misconduct. By bypassing immediate commanders when complaints occur, you prevent any corrupt commanders from blocking potentially valid investigations due to favoritism or bias.

While this sheriff's deputy, who is probably using government resources on government time to post opinions and leak internal information on a public message board in an effort to smear her boss, is of the opinion that this process makes officers who are accused guilty until proven innocent, it is clear that officers still have the right to defend themselves and the officer's opinion is that internal investigators are "against them" which is indicative of a corrupt force that views the public and anyone who is not a part of their little group as being the enemy.

Furthermore, the officer's viewpoint ignores the fact that when police officers abuse civilians and detainees that they are treating people as though they are guilty before they have had their chance to defend themselves. Also, when people are branded with an arrest on their record, even when proven innocent in court, they are treated by police as though they were guilty anyway, despite being proved innocent.

So it's clearly disingenuous for police officers to complain of being treated as though they are guilty before they had a chance to defend themselves while they still treat innocent civilians that way. Besides, Sue Rahr's new policy is clearly fair and not at all unusual in any way. I commend her for implementing this obviously necessary measure to ensure that all complaints of misconduct are dealt with in a fair and balanced manner!

Gil May Be Incompetent, But Sue Isn't

King County Sheriff, Sue Rahr, has taken a hard line on police misconduct within the King County Sheriff's Department while Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske has proven to be utterly impotent against the Seattle Police Officer's Guild's efforts to protect corrupt officers at any cost.

As an example of her commitment of maintaining the public's trust in their police and justice system, two King County Sheriff's officers are no longer on the police force after being caught providing false testimony on written police reports. Sheriff's office spokesperson Sgt. Urquhart told reporters "The Sheriff has been pretty consistent. If you lie, cheat, or steal, you're going to get fired." This, of course, is the polar opposite of Gil Kerlikowske's apparent policy of "Lie, brutalize innocent citizens, and interfere with federal investigations and I might promote you."

One officer resigned over the incidents, and another was fired. When contacted by the press, the fired officer told reporters "I wouldn't testify against my partner.", as if the unspoken code of silence between police officers was some sort of legal defense for corruption and misconduct... as it apparently is in the Seattle Police Department.

While I remain consistently baffled by how many stories of police misconduct the Seattle Police Department consistently provides this site and the major news outlets with, we should be mindful of how few stories of misconduct there are from the King County Sheriff's Department lately, even though that department was the subject of many high profile misconduct stories just a few years ago. I think this kind of hard work towards fixing problems should be praised in this day and age where cover-ups and absurd excuses are the norm.

Indeed, thank you Sue Rahr, for providing me with so little to write about lately by performing the obligations of your job and your duty to the people... which is something that Gil Kerlikowske consistently refuses to do. Sure, you may have made mistakes in the past, but I think it's better to forgive and encourage someone who ultimately does what is right than dwell on their past mistakes. So keep up the effort towards running a clean department, it is appreciated by the public you serve.