Spokane considers coroner’s inquests
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, August 10, 2006
SPOKANE – Confronted with the highly publicized deaths of people in custody, Spokane County prosecutor Steven Tucker has proposed a revival of coroner’s inquests after a 25-year hiatus.
Tucker said Wednesday he had discussed the idea with Dr. Sally Aiken, the county coroner, who was on vacation and could not be reached for comment.
He said he would rely on the model of King County, where inquests have been held in every inmate death since 2002 and may be called for fatal law enforcement shootings and deaths that occur during arrests.
In such an inquest, the coroner presides, prosecutors direct the proceedings, and a six-member jury is given autopsy and investigation reports and hears witnesses, who may be cross-examined by lawyers for relatives of the deceased.
The jury then is asked to decide whether law enforcement personnel acted correctly.
Tucker said he would not seek inquests into two deaths called into question this year: those of jail inmate Benites S. Sichiro in January and mentally disabled janitor Otto Zehm in March. Zehm stopped breathing after a struggle with police who arrested him on a theft report that turned out to be false.
“I see the perception of me being so tight with law enforcement that I shouldn’t be making the decisions,” said Tucker, a former Washington State Patrol trooper. “The main purpose of the coroner’s inquest is not only to determine if something wrongful happened, but to get it out in the public view.”
Former prosecutor Donald Brockett said Tucker, whom he hired, should seek an inquest in Zehm’s case.
“If the community is concerned about (Tucker’s) closeness to law enforcement, then a coroner’s inquest would be an objective way to show the public what the evidence is and let six people decide if there is any criminal responsibility,” Brockett said. “If it’s valid in the future, why isn’t it valid now?”
Tucker said the release of files in the Zehm case already had provided the public with information that normally would go through the inquest process, and he questioned whether, after so much publicity, an unbiased jury could be assembled.
