Spokane officer’s attorneys ask to question jurors
Published 2:59 pm Tuesday, November 8, 2011
SPOKANE — The post-conviction saga of Spokane police officer Karl F. Thompson continued Tuesday, with attorneys telling a judge they want to ask jurors in the case if they improperly watched news accounts of the trial.
Thompson was convicted last week of using excessive force in the 2006 death of an innocent man, in violation of the man’s civil rights, and of lying about it to investigators. He was ordered released from jail late Monday pending his Jan. 27 sentencing.
Thompson’s attorneys on Tuesday told a federal judge they want to question jurors in the case to learn if they watched televised news coverage of the trial. His attorneys are worried jurors might have been exposed to information about the mental health of victim Otto Zehm that was excluded from the trial.
U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle said he would defer his decision until he learns more about what jurors saw.
“That process is fundamentally secret because that’s how the system works,” Van Sickle said of jury deliberations. “But if extraneous information was brought in, that is always a concern.”
Thompson’s attorney, Carl Oreskovich, contended some jurors might have seen news of the trial, which concluded last week in Yakima, while watching TV during breakfast in a common room at their Yakima hotel.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aine Ahmed said jurors are presumed to follow the judge’s instructions not to read, listen or watch news reports of the trial.
Ahmed said Oreskovich should have immediately brought up the matter before the jury rendered its verdict last week.
Van Sickle gave the parties until Thursday afternoon to gather all the information that was broadcast on Northwest Cable News during the time jurors were eating breakfast before he makes his final ruling.
Zehm, a schizophrenic, was the subject of a police search after two teenagers reported he might have stolen money at an ATM. It was later reported he had committed no crime.
Thompson was the first officer to respond and found Zehm entering a convenience store on March 18, 2006. Surveillance video showed Thompson rushing up to Zehm, knocking him to the ground and repeatedly striking him with a police baton.
According to investigators, officers later hogtied and sat on Zehm, who died without regaining consciousness. A medical examiner concluded Zehm died from lack of oxygen to the brain because of heart failure while being restrained on his stomach.
On Friday, a federal magistrate ordered Thompson jailed as he awaits sentencing, saying the 40-year police veteran was entitled to no special privileges after being convicted of a violent crime.
But Van Sickle late Monday reversed the magistrate’s decision.
In ruling for Thompson, Van Sickle went against a prior ruling made against officers convicted in the 1992 beating of Rodney King that found the officers were not above the law that requires they remain in jail prior to sentencing except in “exceptional” cases.
“The court is very much mindful that the (Rodney King) case clearly states that there is no law enforcement exemption for law enforcement detention,” Van Sickle said Monday
Oreskovich argued his 64-year-old client was vulnerable to violence in jail and was facing a sentence that “could be potentially the rest of his life.”
“I would argue that is another exceptional reason for his release pending sentencing,” Oreskovich said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Durkin said previous court rulings show that only those persons with “truly unusual circumstances” are allowed to remain out of jail while awaiting sentencing after a violent crime conviction.
“Unless this court is willing to say that all officers convicted of (using unreasonable force) are exceptional, then this court must rule that the defendant remain detained,” Durkin said.
Van Sickle cited Thompson’s lifelong service in law enforcement, his “exemplary” military service in the Vietnam War and complying with all conditions of his release prior to his four-week trial in Yakima.
