| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009 4:59 pm |
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Local News 
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Everett pastor’s arrest decried The pastor’s supporters say he was treated unfairly; a police report says he was confrontational. EVERETT — More than two dozen people crowded the Snohomish County courthouse steps Friday to protest what they say was the unfair treatment of the Rev. Paul Stoot Sr., during an Oct. 7 arrest.Stoot, 46, of Everett, was jailed for investigation of obstruction of justice at the scene of a fire after he allegedly failed to follow the instructions of a Snohomish County sheriff’s sergeant. His supporters, including national civil rights leaders, claim the pastor of Greater Trinity Missionary Baptist Church was humiliated, unlawfully arrested, harassed and falsely accused of being drunk. “If these allegations are true, we are very disturbed by the manner in which a member of the Clergy may have been mistreated,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote in an Oct. 16 letter to Sheriff John Lovick. The deputies were retaliating against Stoot for a lawsuit he filed against the Everett Police Department, said Alton McDonald, the state chapter president of the National Action Network, a civil rights group affiliated with the Rev. Al Sharpton. The case, which focuses on circumstances surrounding the arrest of Stoot’s son in 2003, is still working its way through the federal courts. “What we’re seeking is justice and anything short of justice will not be accepted,” McDonald said. Stoot wrote about the incident in a letter on the Web site of a Seattle African-American newspaper, the Seattle Medium. He declined to comment Friday, saying McDonald and other church leaders from the around the region would be speaking on his behalf. McDonald said the group is asking for the deputies involved in the arrest to be placed on leave and calling for a lawyer to conduct an independent investigation. “We don’t want the police to police themselves,” McDonald said. A police report from the incident said Stoot was confrontational with deputies, and at one point asked to be jailed. He also reportedly warned the deputies they would be “all over the news.” This isn’t the first time Stoot has made headlines for his interactions with police. He has a history of challenging law enforcement officials in Snohomish County over issues of race and the way officers conduct themselves. What happened on Oct. 7 is unclear. Stoot’s account of the incident differs from the police report. The pastor was rushing to the aid of a parishioner whose home was on fire. According to police reports, when Stoot arrived at the fire scene, the sheriff’s sergeant told him to get back into his Cadillac Escalade and park it someplace else. Firefighters already were battling the blaze and hoses were stretched across the road. The sergeant had his patrol car parked to detour traffic away from the fire, the police report said. Both sides agree that Stoot parked his vehicle in front of the police car. Stoot allegedly ignored the sergeant’s demand that he immediately return to the vehicle and move it. Instead, the pastor went toward the burning building and yelled to a passenger to move the SUV, the police report said. The vehicle was moved. Stoot later was placed in handcuffs after arguing with the sergeant. Deputies gave Stoot an opportunity to avoid going to jail if he calmed down and cooperated, the report said. “Stoot started demanding that I book him into jail,” Sgt. Craig White wrote. The pastor yelled at a gathering crowd, urging the bystanders to take photos. The deputies believed that Stoot then intentionally bumped his head getting into the back of a patrol car, according to police reports. A deputy wrote that he detected an odor he thought was alcohol. At the jail, Stoot voluntarily took a Breathalyzer test, which detected no alcohol, the police report said. Stoot was released from jail on bond and he has not been charged. Snohomish County prosecutors now will review the case. McDonald claimed that upon Stoot’s release he wasn’t given back his driver’s license and $200 he had on him was missing. Snohomish County sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover, who also speaks for jail staff, said the missing property complaint is being referred to an outside law enforcement agency for investigation. Understanding the state’s obstruction of justice law can be difficult, and it is somewhat vague, King County sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart said. His department is not involved in the Stoot case. A police officer may arrest someone if the officer believes he or she is being prevented from doing his or her job, Urquhart said. “A lot of obstruction charges don’t get filed,” he said. Obstruction is similar to disorderly conduct, the charge Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. faced after his controversial July arrest in Cambridge, Mass. That case spurred a national debate about racial profiling and drew the attention of President Barack Obama. The charges were dropped. On Friday, after meeting with reporters on the courthouse steps, Stoot and nearly two dozen of his supporters crowded the lobby of the fourth-floor sheriff’s office. McDonald said he had scheduled a meeting with Lovick to discuss the arrest. After waiting for about 20 minutes, McDonald decided it was time to leave. “This is very disrespectful what the sheriff has done this morning,” McDonald said. “We don’t have all day to wait.” Moments later, Hover arrived in the elevator lobby and invited the group into a conference room for the meeting with Lovick. McDonald said no, because the offer came too late. “Anything short of justice is unacceptable,” he told Hover as he left. McDonald had tentatively scheduled a personal meeting with Lovick but no plans had been made for the sheriff to meet with a group, Hover said. Lovick declined to comment. After the Oct. 7 arrest, Stoot sought support from local and national civil rights leaders including Jackson and Sharpton. The Rev. De-Ves Toon, a spokesman for Sharpton’s National Action Network, said they have asked for an investigation into the arrest and will review the matter once more information is gathered. Jackson wrote that he understood Stoot was “disrespected and humiliated.” “We intend to investigate these claims further,” Jackson wrote. The Snohomish County chapter of the NAACP was aware of the arrest, President Janice Greene said. A legal redress committee has been asked to look into the matter. “We need a balanced investigation,” Greene said. “We only have one side of the story.” The lawsuit Stoot filed in 2005 still is working its way through appeals of pre-trial rulings in the federal courts. The suit, filed against Everett police, stemmed from a January 2003 police interview involving the pastor’s son, then 13. Among other things, the suit alleged police acted improperly when they interviewed the boy, who was suspected of sexual misconduct with a 3-year-old girl, without notifying his parents. Charges against the pastor’s son were dropped after the court found his victim unfit to testify. Stoot also backed a proposal in the Legislature to change the state’s law regarding police interviews with minors. The effort failed. Days after the lawsuit was filed, Stoot called the media to report that a church van was vandalized in an act of race-motivated retaliation. The sheriff’s office didn’t find evidence to substantiate the claim and the case wasn’t investigated as a hate crime. |
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