Spokane Police Chief Admits The Department Made Mistakes In Otto Zehm Case

(Spokesman-Review) April 13, 2012

SPOKANE, WASHINGTON– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] For the first time, a high-ranking Spokane police official has publicly acknowledged that the department made troubling mistakes while investigating the 2006 confrontation that killed Otto Zehm.

Interim Chief Scott Stephens, who in 2006 was in charge of the detectives assigned to the investigation, also acknowledged his “concern” that at the time Assistant City Attorney Rocky Treppiedi had greater access to the investigation than he did. Mayor David Condon, who took over City Hall in January, put an end to that kind of unfettered access to criminal investigations by city attorneys, Stephens said.

Stephens’ comments marked the most candid acknowledgment yet from police leadership that the department recognizes the problems exposed by the Zehm case and understands the community’s anger that it took an FBI investigation to uncover them.

Zehm, a 36-year-old mentally-ill janitor, died two days after the March 18, 2006, encounter in a north Spokane convenience store after being mistakenly suspected of having stolen money from an ATM. He was beaten, shocked with a Taser and hog-tied by police. The first officer on the scene, Karl F. Thompson Jr., was convicted in November in federal court of using excessive force and lying to investigators.

Entire article: Otto Zehm case: Police chief says ‘mistakes made’ http://tinyurl.com/ide0413121a Related: Are we finally accountable? (Spokesman-Review) http://tinyurl.com/ide0413121b Video clip: Interim Police Chief admits mistakes in Otto Zehm case (KREM) http://tinyurl.com/ide0413121c Otto Zehm: Spokane Man Died After Scuffle With Police (Inclusion Daily Express Archives) http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/crime/wa/zehm.htm