Remaining Charges Dropped in Sturgis Shooting Case

As predicted, the remaining weapons charges against two Seattle Police Department officers involved in a shooting during the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota have been dropped.

Per The Seattle Times, the judge in the case determined that the federal law allowing officers to carry weapons anywhere while off-duty took precedence over state law outlawing weapons in establishments that serve alcohol.

Also, as I said previously about this case, now that that judicial system has run it's course and found them innocent, it doesn't serve anyone any justice to insinuate that the officers were in the wrong... After all, we're all innocent until proven otherwise, even the police.

Sturgis Shooting Update: Charges Dropped Against Ron Smith

Prosecutors in Meade County South Dakota announced today that they have dropped the last remaining felony charge against Detective Ron Smith, the Seattle police officer who shot a member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club in a crowded Sturgis bar in early August. The shooting occurred while Smith was off-duty and attending the motorcycle rally there as a member of a rival motorcycle club named the Iron Pigs, which consists almost exclusively of law enforcement and firefighters, and the prosecutor suggested that the Hells Angels started the fight after being provoked by the patches the Iron Pigs were wearing on their jackets.

Detective Smith had originally faced two felony charges associated with the case, a perjury charge that was dropped last week, and the assault charge that was dropped yesterday. Smith and other members of the Iron Pigs Motorcycle Club, of which Smith is a member, still face misdemeanor charges related to having concealed weapons, but I suspect these will likely be dropped due to a federal law that allows off-duty police officers to carry concealed weapons across state lines and inside areas where such weapons are normally prohibited. Smith still faces an internal police department investigation into the incident as well, but the dismissal of the felony charges makes it unlikely any discipline will be recommended.

However, as soon as the announcement was made by the press there were numerous accusations from the public of prosecutorial favoritism and biased investigatory practices on the part of the police in South Dakota since an off-duty officer, albeit from another jurisdiction, stood accused... but is this true?

While there is anecdotal evidence that such things occur, there is no evidence of this being the case at this time. Of course, nobody knows why the grand jury that heard several witness statements and reviewed video taken from the bar decided to charge Smith with assault in the first place and prosecutors have not released any specifics about the investigation which caused them to disagree with the grand jury findings... and this is a good illustration of why transparency in such cases is very important... but this is not unusual since a felony assault case is still pending against the Hells Angels member that was shot by Smith.

Ultimately, personally, I'm inclined to take Smith's word for what happened that night, and I say this for several reasons. I say this because I believe in presumed innocence and as a citizen of the US I expect to be treated as an innocent person unless I am found guilty in a court of law. Smith was not found guilty, thus if I am to ever hope to be treated as an innocent person myself, I must extend that consideration to others as well, whether they are police officers or not.

So, while comments in response to this case rage back and forth between supporters of police and those who are, perhaps with good reason, distrustful of the police and the justice system... I would ask those people to still consider walking in the shoes of the accused and think about how it would feel if people treated you as if you were guilty, even after a court found you innocent or charges were dropped against you. In other words, I recommend that people accept the findings in absence of any proof otherwise.

I personally know all too well how it feels to be falsely accused and how people still treat you like you are guilty even after the system finds otherwise, and it's a very painful experience... as I now suspect officer Smith now knows that feeling well too. So I can only hope that he and his fellow officers learn the right lessons from the experience; that all people deserve to be treated with respect even when accused of a crime, because they can never know when a mistake might have been made and the person they arrested was wrongfully accused.

Sure, that's a long shot... but to treat Detective Smith otherwise would make me a hypocrite and would be no different than supporting the mistreatment of any accused person at the hands of the police because doing so throws the concept of presumed innocence right out of the window.

After all, if you expect others to value your rights as a human being, you must also be willing to value theirs just as much.

This Week In The News

The arrest of Asa Eslocker in Denver

There have been several interesting stories in the news over the last couple days, so let's take a look...

Media Feels The Wrath of Police Miconduct?

Let's look outside of Seattle for a second first....

With the seemingly unlawful arrest of an ABC news reporter and producer in Denver Colorado at a hotel near the Democratic Party's National Convention this week we certainly thought that maybe the media would be a bit more sensitive about complaints of police misconduct and unlawful activities that could have political motivation, such as what occured in Seattle at the Seattle Police Officer's Guild during a Republican candidate for governor's public press conference just a week before the arrest of Asa Eslocker in Denver.

Well, while several other questionable police actions in Denver were ignored by the press, some media sources have picked up on how the police in Minnesota have taken to the practice of preemptively arresting, seizing the property of, and harassing people they suspect MIGHT protest during the Republican Party's Convention in Minneapolis next week. Some reports are even indicating that children as young as five have been caught up in the raids having been handcuffed with guns pointed at their heads.

We'll have to wait and see how this develops and if the press remains biased towards the police version of events as the build up to the convention continues. In any case, it's a very disturbing precursor to the upcoming convention.

(UPDATE: More up-to-date information on the, apparently ongoing, raids is available at http://twincities.indymedia.org)

More News From Sturgis

State's Attorney Jesse Sondreal has issued a statement to the press suggesting that the Hell's Angels member who was shot by off-duty Seattle Police detective Ron Smith had instigated the fight between the two that has resulted in the HA member, Joseph McGuire, being brought up on assault charges.

However, there is still no explanation as to why Detective Smith was also brought up on charges of aggravated assault and perjury, both felonies, as well as carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. The perjury charge is particularly worrisome in this case as it suggests that Detective Smith misled the grand jury when he testified a day after the August 9th incident.

Sondreal suggested that others might be charged but has not commented on the video evidence presented to the grand jury nor any specific testimony given that would explain why Smith, and other Iron Pigs motorcycle club members were also charged in the barroom brawl and subsequent shooting.

(More coverage of the Sturgis shooting can be found HERE and HERE.)

Critical Mass Rides Again

The monthly Critical Mass ride went off without a hitch yesterday after last month's violence in response to a hit and run driver where police did their best to blame the bicyclists instead of the motorist that hit them. Of course the police are taking credit for the uneventful event, even though the ride went off without a hitch for many years without a problem before and without such an aggressive police presence. Police have hinted that, while they escorted this month's ride, they documented all traffic violations made by the riders and will likely use that information to crack down on participants during their next ride.

I watched a portion of the ride and, frankly, the only real threat to public safety that I saw was a motorcycle cop almost hit a kid on a sidewalk just to catch up to the main group of riders after he had stopped to talk to a woman on a corner. He stopped short of the kid, who was between his parents, and gruffly said "Get out of the way!" before speeding off down the SIDEWALK and then onto a one way street going the WRONG WAY... Seems the rides were safer without the cops.

(I would have taken a picture of the incident I witnessed but I still haven't been able to replace the camera that mysteriously ended up missing from my baggage during my last business trip)

That Folklife Shooting

Seems I might have been right when I suggested that the person accused of shooting three at Seattle's Folklife festival may not have done it intentionally, but as a result over a struggle for his gun, for which he had a legal concealed carry permit. Although he had plead guilty to third degree asssault over the shooting, a judge released Clinton Chad Grainger to two years of community supervision after he had served 78 days in jail awaiting trial and sentencing.

Grainger's lawyer, Kearney Lee Hammer, seems to have successfully argued that Grainger "had become involved in a scuffle with an acquaintance at the festival" and that "The second man lunged for a holster holding the weapon on Grainger's ankle in an attempt to seize the gun and use it against Grainger." While the police and prosecutors attempted to paint Grainger as mentally ill, they failed to provide any evidence of this or of their presumed version of events.

Photos in the news after the attack showed a bloodied and obviously beaten Grainger being paraded through crowds at the festival while being pelted with garbage in a lynch-mob type scene. Of course, there have been no charges pressed against any of the other participants in the melee that resulted in the accidental discharge of the weapon nor the subsequent beating Grainger received.

...interestingly enough, Grainger appears to have said that he obtained his CCW permit while in the process of studying to be a cop.

Seattle Police Officer Indicted On Multiple Charges In Sturgis Shooting

Originally posted on 08/28/08 at 08:58, updated 09/05/08 at 11:40, perjury charge against Detective Smith was dropped.

Multiple charges have been filed today against Seattle police officer and Iron Pigs Motorcycle Club member Detective Ron Smith upon the recommendation of a Meade County grand jury over the August 9th shooting incident where Detective Smith, who was off-duty in attendance at the Sturgis motorcycle rally, had shot a Hells Angels Motorcycle Club member twice inside of a crowded Sturgis bar.

At the recommendation of the grand jury, the officer has been charged with multiple counts including perjury, aggravated assault, and carrying concealed pistol without a permit or abiding by a permit of a reciprocal state. The grand jury had heard 7 hours of testimony on the Sunday following the incident and considered further evidence and testimony on Wednesday, August 27. Smith could face up to 15 years in prison for the aggravated assault charge and five years for the perjury charge. Both are felonies. The two alternative charges he faces are misdemeanors.

While recent changes to the Seattle Police Department's disciplinary system makes committing perjury as part of an officer's official duty in the course of an internal investigation an offense that requires immediate termination, it is unclear if committing perjury while off-duty would apply. All officers involved in the incident have been put on administrative leave for the course of SPD's own internal investigation into the shooting incident.

(NOTE: The perjury charge against Detective Smith has since been dropped by state's attorney Sondreal who has also alleged that his investigation found that the Hell's Angels instigated the fight which resulted in the shooting.)

Also, while the department does have a policy of firing officers accused of felony offenses, the city was recently forced to rehire an officer who was charged with a felony but plead guilty to a misdemeanor instead, indicating that Smith and other officers will likely remain on paid administrative leave during the course of the investigation at least, which can last up to 180 days or more.

In addition to Smith, the four other Iron Pig MC members who were with Smith may also face charges of carrying a concealed pistol or an alternative charge of failure to abide by a permit of a reciprocal state. Also, it appears as though the person who was shot will also face charges of assault as well. The other Iron Pig MC members who were with Smith in Sturgis who face charges of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit include: Scott Lazalde of Bellingham, James Rector of Ferndale, Erik Pingel, of Aurora, Colorado, and Dennis McCoy of Seattle.

Two of the Iron Pigs MC members who were charged are SPD officers; Ron Smith and Dennis McCoy. Also, two other Iron Pigs members who were charged are US Customs Agents; Scott Lazalde and James Rector. There was no word yet as to Erik Pingel's occupation or relation to the Iron Pigs MC, which is reportedly comprised of only police officers and firefighters.

Sturgis state attorney Sondreal said in an e-mail this morning that the grand jury found that Smith lied while testifying before them the day after the shooting. Sondreal's press release issued the following statement:

"The grand jury must've decided that Mr. Smith, having taken an oath to testify truly, in a state proceeding, stated intentionally and contrary to the oath, a material matter which he knew to be false."

At this point there has been no comment from officer Smith, who claims to have shot in self defense, but the Seattle Police Officer's Guild, who previously insisted that the officer would be exonerated by video evidence taken from the Sturgis bar, has issued the following statement.

"The Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) has been made aware of the findings of the Meade County Grand Jury surrounding the events which occurred in Sturgis South Dakota on August 9th of this year. We are certain that once all the facts are known, the involved SPOG members will be vindicated and absolved of any wrong-doing. Until that occurs, we are heartened by the news that Detective Ron Smith is recovering from his serious injuries and that no other parties were injured except for Detective Smith and his alleged assailant.

We would also encourage members of the community to remember that mere charges do not imply guilt and that the involved officers are innocent until proven guilty.

For more information contact SPOG at 206-767-1150"

Smith, in addition to being a member of the Iron Pigs motorcycle group and a Seattle police detective, is also on the board of directors for the Seattle Police Officer's Guild and editor of it's monthly newsletter "The Guardian". Online editions of that newsletter were quickly pulled offline after the incident. Smith and other SPD officers who were with him have been put on administrative leave pending an internal investigation into the incident.

While there have been no reported incidents of misconduct that involve SPD officer Sgt. Dennis McCoy, Detective Ron Smith reportedly has a history of disciplinary actions against him, including one 2005 incident at a Seattle Seahawks game where he allegedly taunted Seahawks fans which instigated a fight while he was working as security and another 2005 incident where he allegedly threatened to shoot a bar manager in Tacoma Washington while off-duty after the bar manager asked him to leave. Investigations into both matters found the officer guilty of misconduct, but the disciplinary actions merely resulted in a 2 day suspension for the first incident and a written reprimand for the threats he made in the Tacoma area bar.

Details about another alleged misconduct case against officer Smith, also in 2005, indicates that the officer may have had run-ins with the Hell's Angels previously when he apparently pressed charges against a Hell's Angels club member for making threats over the phone. However, it appears that the call was recorded and when played back to prosecutors the charges were dismissed and a subsequent internal investigation referred Smith for Supervisory Intervention as he appeared to be the person making threats during the conversation instead by telling the club member that Smith was a part of "the biggest gang of all" and that he should "watch his back".

No word yet on any trial dates or if the video taken from the Sturgis bar which was shown to the grand jury would be made public.

Sources:
The Rapid City Journal
The Seattle Times
The Stranger
The Seattle Post Intelligencer

From The E-Mailbag

I received this message last night from an anonymous reader in regards to the Sturgis shooting story that we've been following lately and I thought it would be interesting to share it with my readers to see what they thought about it...

"Sir, you should check your facts before printing things on your blog if you want legitimacy..
1) The victim in the Sturgis brutal beat down is NOT a LT
2) Get a copy of the discipline report for the victim of the beat down via public disclosure to learn he was never discplined for threating to shoot a bar manager.
3) Call Hector Castro and ask him why he is being sued for SLANDER for reporting the same erroneous info
4) Irregardless is not a word.
5) Make the correction before the LT sues you..."

(For those who don't know, Hector Castro is the reporter who wrote the article in The Seattle Post Intelligencer which alleged Ron Smith, the officer who is suspected of shooting a Hells Angels MC member in a Sturgis bar last week, had a history of sustained misconduct complaints that included taunting fans while working at a football game and of threatening to shoot a bar manager who tried to throw him out of a Tacoma Washington bar.

I've forwarded this on to Mr. Castro to determine if it's a hoax, but I don't expect a reply. The paper and other news outlets that repeated the same allegations have not issued any retractions or corrections though.)

So, readers... what do you think you would do about this one?

Off-Duty Seattle Police Officer Involved In Sturgis Biker Shooting -Updated

(originally posted on 08/11/08 - updated 08/28/08, Officer Smith has been charged in the incident as have the four other officers with him and the person who was shot as well.)

An off-duty Seattle police officer and member of the "Iron Pigs" motorcycle club, (a biker group comprised of law enforcement officer and firefighters), is being investigated after being detained as a result of a shooting in Sturgis South Dakota this weekend. The Seattle Police Department has confirmed that it has put SPD officer Ron Smith, and 4 other officers who were with him, on administrative duty while Sturgis police and other local authorities investigate the shooting that left one "Hells Angels" motorcycle club member hospitalized.

The shooting occurred around 1:00am inside a bar called the Loud American Roadhouse that held about 500 patrons at the time of the shooting. Accounts differ as to how many shots were fired, from 2 to 8, but the officer involved alleges that the shots were fired in self defense after a fight broke out between members of the Iron Pigs and Hells Angels, according to the Seattle Police Officer's Guild.

Some witnesses who have given testimony to a grand jury convened in South Dakota and others in various motorcycle forums who claim to have been there suggest that the fight broke out over Iron Pigs MC members displaying their "colors" which is something most biker groups are discouraged from doing while at the Sturgis rally as it is seen as a provocation.

The previously unnamed officer, Ronald Smith, reportedly has a history of disciplinary actions against him, including one 2005 incident at a Seattle Seahawks game where he taunted Seahawks fans which instigated a fight while he was working as security and another 2005 incident where he allegedly threatened to shoot a bar manager in Tacoma Washington while off-duty after the bar manager asked him to leave. Investigations into both matters found the officer guilty of misconduct, but the disciplinary actions merely resulted in a 2 day suspension for the first incident and a written reprimand for the threats he made in the Tacoma area bar.

While some police officers have threatened us and journalists in Seattle with legal action in regards to the reports of previous misconduct rulings involving this officer, the reports of these prior misconduct allegations were apparently confirmed by the president of the Seattle Police Officer's Guild himself in an interview with The Seattle Times about the Sturgis shooting incident:

"O'Neill said the Seattle detective involved in the shooting has been investigated by the department a handful of times, once for allegedly taunting someone at a football game, but he has not received any "serious" discipline. He said the detective contacted him, as his union representative, since the shooting."

Details about another misconduct case against officer Smith, also in 2005, indicates that the officer may have had run-ins with the Hell's Angels previously when he apparently pressed charges against a Hell's Angels club member for making threats over the phone. However, it appears that the call was recorded and when played back to prosecutors the charges were dismissed and a subsequent internal investigation referred Smith for Supervisory Intervention as he appeared to be the person making threats during the conversation instead by telling the club member that he was a part of "the biggest gang of all" and that he should "watch his back".

(we should also note that officer Smith, as a guild board member and editor of the Seattle Police Officer's Guild's newsletter "The Guardian", has contacted us, and other blog writers, in the past to issue threats of legal action and other intimidating messages over articles published about misconduct and pieces critical of content posted in their monthly newsletter.)

The police guild has issued statements of support and insists that the officer was attacked without provocation. They state that they anticipate that he will be vindicated when video evidence taken from the bar becomes available. However, investigators have said the video is currently too dark to make out any details and they hope to have it enhanced by the time the grand jury reconvenes around August 27, so the assurances of the officer's innocence by Seattle Police Guild members is not based on any actual evidence or known independent witness testimony.

Alleged witness accounts reported in the press up to this point appear to contradict the officer's accounting of events to the media with the officer stating that he was being kicked and hit by several people and fired out of fear for his own life. Witness acocunts seem to be indicating that the officer who fired shots was standing and shot at a single person who was fighting with someone else or else there was more than one Iron Pigs MC member who was armed inside the bar that night. Additional commentary in the latest reports in the Sturgis area press from people who claim to have been there raise some disturbing accusations as well, however no testimony given to the grand jury has been confirmed so there is no way to verify any accounts reported in the press or various message boards.

Regardless of the nature of the shooting, the officer may face legal consequences for having a concealed weapon inside an establishment that serves alcohol while he was drinking. While off-duty officers are exempt from laws governing where they may cary their off-duty weapons by federal law, the law does not permit officers to cary weapons while under the influence. Witnesses say the officer was taken into custody inside the bar and the officer has admitted in a recent Seattle Times article that he had been drinking but insists he was not drunk. He was reportedly administered a BAC test but no results have been released and the federal law is not specific about what constitutes being under the influence.

(To highlight how rules about concealed weapons apply to officers, a recent politically motivated nightclub sting operation in Seattle, dubbed "operation sobering thought", resulted in the arrest of some nightclub employees because they allegedly allowed known undercover officers into bars with their service weapons. This would appear to indicate that Seattle Police believed officers should not be allowed into establishments that serve alcohol.)

The Seattle Police Department has sent a contingent of officers to Sturgis to oversee the investigation but insist that they will not interfere with grand jury and associated Sturgis police investigation. Authorities in Seattle and Sturgis remained quiet about details of the investigations and information surrounding the identity of officers involved and the wounded individual until recently. Sturgis authorities have also stated that the officer has been released after questioning by a grand jury that had been hastily convened over the incident, but there is no indication currently whether any charges will be filed. The individual who was shot still remains in the hospital recovering from his injuries as of 08/21/08.

Meanwhile, the Iron Pigs MC websites have been going down all over the US leaving many to suspect that the bike club members are trying to clean up the questionable content and images that were posted on their sites in response to the increased scrutiny caused by this incident and to avoid giving the appearance of being instigators to the grand jury that is currently investigating the shooting. Motorcycle enthusiest sites have been rife with descriptions and accounts of content in those sites that mimic terminology and imagery used by so-called "outlaw" motocycle groups like the Hells Angels and suggest that the incident may have started due to the Iron Pigs usage of a "three-piece rocker" patch on their jackets which allegedly denotes membership to such types of organizations.

A number of civil suits were filed recently over another off-duty police officer shooting incident in Seattle's Post Alley where a different officer allegedly hit a woman with his motorcycle, shoved her into a wall, and then shot a local defense attorney when people in the late-night bar crowd had allegedly attacked him over the incident. It's unknown as to whether that officer was a member of the Iron Pigs group and if that officer was among the five officers involved in the Sturgis shooting.

UPDATED 08/11/08 16:16- added information on a somewhat unrelated shooting incident involving an off-duty officer on a motorcycle per commenter request.
UPDATED 08/12/08 01:32- added more information as it became available in news reports and for information about the grand jury hearings held in Meade County, South Dakota.
UPDATED 08/15/08 23:33- More information from recent Seattle Times article and various sites and fixed the link to the correct "Operation Sobering Thought" article.
UPDATED 08/18/08 14:11- Added details about and sourced witness accounts reported in the Meade County press.
UPDATED 08/21/08 10:03- Referenced latest article from The Black Hills Pioneer.
UPDATED 08/23/08 11:42- Referenced information posted in The Seattle Times about a misconduct complaint filed against officer Smith over a different incident with another Hell's Angels MC member.
UPDATED 08/23/08 23:08- Referenced a Seattle Times article where the president of the police guild confirmed previous allegations of misconduct were filed against this officer as reported in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Note: While we were aware of the officer's identity we did not publish that information out of respect for concerns expressed in the media for the officer's safety until the officer's identity was released in the Seattle Times on Aug 15.

Seattle Media Intimidated Into Silence?

An interesting aspect of the Sturgis shooting story seems to have made a lot of people wonder why all the media and blogs in Seattle kept silent about the name of the Seattle police officer who shot a Hells Angel Motorcycle Club member in a South Dakota bar while off-duty this weekend. It seems a good question since the Meade County authorities have already released his name due to the Grand Jury testimony being taken over the case and so has the media outlets in South Dakota and elsewhere.

So why, when the officer's name is readily available, won't anyone in Seattle dare utter the officer's name?

That's what I tried to find out. I have questioned several media contacts in Seattle asking if they've heard of any pressure coming from the Seattle Police Officer's Guild or the Seattle Police Department over keeping the officer's name out of print even after his name was widely released in the South Dakota press. It seemed odd to keep his name out of the Seattle media due to security concerns when his name has been revealed elsewhere after all... and people were calling them and us on it.


Of course, as you can see above, some of our readers took us to task when we didn't release his name when we knew it as well. Well, first, when we realized who it was it hadn't been released yet, but we kept a lid on it originally because we don't want to see any officers or their families hurt due to the valid concerns for the officer's safety. But, after the officer's name became public knowledge we wondered why the press in Seattle still kept it quiet... after all, his name was reported in at least 4 different articles and television stations, albeit in states other than Washington. While the original reason hopefully was for the officer's family's safety, that reason didn't seem plausible anymore, unfortunately.

Since officer safety didn't seem a valid reason anymore and since the press, with it's own legal departments and on-staff lawyers, won't print the name, we sure as heck wanted to be cautious about it as well. After all, the Seattle Police Officer's Guild is no stranger to using lawyers to intimidate people into being quiet about misconduct. For example:

• Seattle Police Guild Threatens to Sue Anti-Police Misconduct Group -1991
• Seattle Police Guild Hires Detectives To Investigate Filers Of Misconduct Claims -1999
• Seattle Police File Charges Against Complainant For Harassment -2001
• King County Police Guild's Rise To Power Through Litigation And Politics -2005
• King County Sheriff Filed Complaint Against Seattle PI For Reporting on "Conduct Unbecoming" -2006
  

It's clear, given their past history, that the police officers make good on their threats to investigate or sue reporters and their employers for publishing their stories. So we had reason to worry and we wondered if others had the same reasons in mind when keeping it quiet.

Adding to our own reasons for being cautious was an incident where this site also had to deal with threats of legal action when, ironically, the same person involved in the Sturgis shooting himself threatened legal action when we published a picture from the Seattle Police Officer's Guild's monthly newsletter "The Guardian" which was critical of civil rights that was also published in the Blogging Georgetown blog (who also told us that they were similarly threatened as well).

With pressure like that, it's little wonder why the free press in Seattle might not be as free as you think. However, this case of self-censorship on the part of the press may not be the direct result of any undue pressure.

One reporter responded to our questions by speculating that it might be a case of reporters holding to a long standing tradition in Seattle of not naming people who might be the potential subject of a criminal investigation when they have not yet been charged or detained. This seems like a valid policy that should be applied to officers and citizens alike and may well be the case as the officer in question has not been charged over the shooting nor for bringing a firearm into a bar while off-duty in a different state. However, this reason didn't stop reporters in South Dakota from revealing his name. So, perhaps there are different journalistic standards in play, but we'll never know for certain.

No matter what the reason, for now, the officer's identity remains a secret... though only to the people of Seattle. Given past pressures police have put on the press in Seattle, it's no wonder that people are asking why the media is keeping information from the public, even if the reason is ultimately innocuous.

UPDATED 08/13/08 16:18 - One area reporter's response noted.
UPDATED 08/15/08 10:13 - The Seattle Times finally released Lt. Ron Smith's name