Why no arrests in death at jail?

An open letter to Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks and Sheriff Mark Brown:

I have one simple question for the chief law enforcement officers of Island County: Why have there been no arrests for the murder of Keaton Farris?

There is no question that Keaton Farris was slowly tortured to death over the course of many days in solitary confinement in Island County Jail. There is no question about who is responsible for killing him; every step of his long, slow murder is extremely well documented. Yet not one person who participated in the death of Keaton Farris has been arrested. Why?

Is it standard procedure to let known killers walk around free while the prosecutor prepares criminal charges? I don’t believe it is. The only possible reason I can see that Keaton’s killers are not in jail is the fact that they were law enforcement and corrections officers.

When I see that not one person is under arrest for the murder by torture of a young man I have known since he was five years old, whose parents are friends of mine, I cannot honestly say that we live under the rule of law. There is no case to crack here, no mystery to solve, no whodunit. We know who did it. Every step in the long, slow process of killing Keaton, every act and omission of every actor in that process is extremely well documented. Yet the sheriff, who himself is guilty of at least manslaughter by criminal negligence, has arrested no one, has recommended that no criminal charges be filed against any person, and the prosecutor still doesn’t know if he’s going to file any criminal charges three months after Keaton was tortured to death. If there is not sufficient evidence to make arrests and file criminal charges in this extremely well-documented murder, how is there ever enough evidence to charge any person in Island County with any crime?

I want to have respect for the law. I want to have respect for the profession of law enforcement. I want to have respect for lawyers whose job it is to prosecute criminals. But as I see more and more examples every day of police officers not being prosecuted when they commit crimes, including murders that are extremely well documented, sometimes even captured on video. I find it increasingly difficult to believe that we live in a lawful society, and I find it increasingly difficult to have any respect for police officers or prosecutors.

The Island County Sheriff’s department and the Island County prosecutor are not acting like law enforcement professionals; they are acting like a gang, first by torturing Keaton to death over the course of many days in one of the most cruel ways imaginable, and now by refusing to apply the law to members of their own gang in the same way that they apply those laws to everybody else.

How can any law enforcement officer in Island County justify arresting any person, when known murderers are not arrested? How can any person in Island County be prosecuted for some misdemeanor or non-homicidal felony, when a well documented first-degree murder is not prosecuted?

I want to believe that we do not live in an East German-style authoritarian society in which people are routinely tortured and executed without trial for misdemeanors, while government agents cannot and will not be prosecuted for even the most egregious crimes.

I beg you, Sheriff Brown and Prosecutor Banks, to either do your jobs or resign. Act like law enforcement professionals, not like gang members. Enforce the law. Equally. Start today.

Norman Messer is a resident of Lopez Island.

Public forum on police issues

A forum on law enforcement, “21st Century Policing: Big Job, Big Questions,” sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Whidbey Island, is scheduled for 7 p.m. July 30 at the Oak Harbor Library, 1000 SE Regatta Drive, Oak Harbor. Scheduled panelists include Greg Banks, Island County prosecutor; Mark Brown, Island County sheriff; Ray Heltsley, law enforcement instructor at Skagit Valley College and retired police officer; and Chris Carney, attorney representing the American Civil Liberties Union. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Marshall Goldberg.