SPOKANE — A federal judge is expected to rule Friday on whether to detain until sentencing a Spokane police officer convicted of using excessive force in the 2006 death of a mentally ill man.
Federal prosecutors sought to immediately take Karl Thompson into custody Thursday. Defense attorneys fought the motion.
The Spokesman-Review newspaper reports that U.S. Magistrate Judge James Hutton delayed his ruling until Friday morning.
Hutton’s decision came after defense attorney Carl Oreskovich said he would seek a new trial because he witnessed jurors watching television reports of the first one.
A jury convicted Thompson of violating the civil rights of Otto Zehm, 36, by using excessive force and of lying about their encounter to investigators. Zehm died two days after the encounter in a convenience store.
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