A May 24 body-camera video shows an Everett police sergeant placing handcuffs on Joseph Michael Hill while kneeling on his back. (Everett Police Department)

A May 24 body-camera video shows an Everett police sergeant placing handcuffs on Joseph Michael Hill while kneeling on his back. (Everett Police Department)

Plea deal reached in case of Black man pinned by Everett cop

Joseph Hill’s arrest led Everett police to amend their policy. All charges except resisting arrest were dropped.

EVERETT — A man who served a month in jail for running from Everett police will serve no more time behind bars for the offense, in a case that prompted the police department to clarify its policy about a technique to pin suspects with a knee to the back.

The arrest of Joseph Michael Hill, 39, a Black man, came the day before police killed George Floyd while detaining him in Minneapolis.

Body-worn camera footage showed Hill repeating, “I can’t breathe,” as a police sergeant held him down by kneeling on his back in a yard in south Everett.

Everett Police Chief Dan Templeman said the pinning techniques vastly differed: The officer in Hill’s case applied pressure to the shoulders and not directly to the neck, and it lasted 14 seconds — much shorter than the 8-minute suffocation of Floyd.

Nonetheless, both incidents led Everett police to add a line to the policy manual explicitly telling officers to move a restrained person to a position where it’s easier to breathe “at the earliest safe opportunity.” The police chief said that was already an unwritten policy, but now it’s codified. Templeman determined the sergeant acted within the updated policy.

Hill pleaded guilty to resisting arrest Monday. Other charges of fourth-degree domestic violence assault and criminal trespassing were dropped in the plea deal. Everett Municipal Court Judge Amy Kaestner sentenced Hill to 30 days in jail. He had already served that time while waiting to post bond.

A neighbor reported a possible domestic violence assault with a knife around 6 a.m. May 24. Initially, Hill’s off-and-on girlfriend identified her boyfriend as the attacker. The neighbor told police Hill may have a knife, police reports say. Officers searched the neighborhood and found Hill on a roof, saying he didn’t want to go to jail. Officers surrounded him, then chased him when he ran. A sheriff’s deputy rushed at him with a barking police dog. Hill surrendered and dropped to his belly until the sergeant caught up to him.

The sergeant hopped a fence and pinned Hill, who then told police he could not breathe and that he was having a seizure. The sergeant wrote that he “clearly was not” having a seizure. Hill’s defense attorney questioned how the officer could have known that.

 

In custody, Hill told officers the woman actually attacked him, striking him with a glass object and throwing steak knives at him, and that he defended himself and ran. The girlfriend had an injury to her face, as if she had been punched. She told police Hill did not use a knife, nor did he threaten her with a weapon. She declined to cooperate with police — and, in the end, the assault charge was dropped.

The crime “sounds so bad,” defense lawyer Maxwell Mensinger said, “but when the facts emerge, the truth is … ultimately a lot sadder.”

Hill and his attorney seriously considered taking the case to trial, delaying the case over the past months. Instead, they took the plea deal as a practical decision to ensure he would serve no more jail time, though Hill maintained he had been wronged by the system even as he read over the paperwork in court Monday, Mensinger said.

“You never know if a jury’s going to do the right thing,” Hill’s attorney said. “This took a lot of the risk off the table and that’s why he chose it.”

Mensinger said he was disappointed police did not apologize for pinning Hill in a way that the defense saw as unnecessary and as potentially deadly force.

Police reports said Hill had a wad of cash in his pocket and nothing else. Yet the allegations that he had a weapon on him were used to argue for an amount of bail that effectively kept Hill jailed, Mensinger said. Hill managed to post $10,000 bond in late June.

“One of the lessons to be learned,” Mensinger said, “is that information police are receiving when they’re trying to track people down is not always reliable.”

Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

Customers enter and exit the Costco on Dec. 2, 2022, in Lake Stevens. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Costco stores could be impacted by looming truck driver strike threat

Truck drivers who deliver groceries and produce to Costco warehouses… Continue reading

Two Washington State ferries pass along the route between Mukilteo and Clinton as scuba divers swim near the shore Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023, in Mukilteo, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ferry system increases ridership by a half million in 2024

Edmonds-Kingston route remains second-busiest route in the system.

Pharmacist Nisha Mathew prepares a Pfizer COVID booster shot for a patient at Bartell Drugs on Broadway on Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Everett lawmakers back universal health care bill, introduced in Olympia

Proponents say providing health care for all is a “fundamental human right.” Opponents worry about the cost of implementing it.

Outside of the updated section of Lake Stevens High School on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020 in Lake Stevens, Wa. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lake Stevens, Arlington school measures on Feb. 11 ballot

A bond in Lake Stevens and a levy in Arlington would be used to build new schools.

Lake Stevens Sewer District wastewater treatment plant. (Lake Stevens Sewer District)
Lake Stevens sewer district trial delayed until April

The dispute began in 2021 and centers around when the city can take over the district.

Robin Cain with 50 of her marathon medals hanging on a display board she made with her father on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Running a marathon is hard. She ran one in every state.

Robin Cain, of Lake Stevens, is one of only a few thousand people to ever achieve the feat.

People line up to grab food at the Everett Recovery Cafe on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Coffee, meals and compassion are free at the Everett Recovery Cafe

The free, membership-based day center offers free coffee and meals and more importantly, camaraderie and recovery support.

Devani Padron, left, Daisy Ramos perform during dance class at Mari's Place Monday afternoon in Everett on July 13, 2016. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)
Mari’s Place helps children build confidence and design a better future

The Everett-based nonprofit offers free and low-cost classes in art, music, theater and dance for children ages 5 to 14.

The Everett Wastewater Treatment Plant along the Snohomish River on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett water, sewer rates could jump 43% by 2028

The rate hikes would pay for improvements to the city’s sewer infrastructure.

The bond funded new track and field at Northshore Middle School on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in Bothell, Washington. (Courtesy of Northshore School District)
Northshore School District bond improvements underway

The $425 million bond is funding new track and field complexes, playgrounds and phase one of two school replacements.

A salmon carcass lays across willow branches in Edgecomb Creek on Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025 in Arlington, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Tribes: State fish passage projects knock down barriers for local efforts

Court-ordered projects have sparked collaboration for salmon habitat restoration

The Everett Municipal Building on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
Everett council approves $111 million construction of sewer project

The Port Gardner Storage Facility, in the works for more than a decade, will help prevent overflows of the city sewer system.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.