Community Comment

Shonto Pete’s revenge…

Posted by Dave

March 11, 2009 6:43 a.m. • 25 comments

Good morning, Netizens…

The Jay Olsen trial, currently nearing its logical end, has opened Pandora’s box and revealed how discredited the Spokane Police Guild truly is. There are lapses, and then there are huge gaps of fact which never have been allowed to happen, were justice truly blind.

To set the stage a bit, the phone calls made shortly after the shooting took place were to his Guild representative and his lawyer. You or I would have called 911, but Olsen, it seems, obeys a different law. The Guild comes first.

Shonto Pete, by comparison, was interviewed by detectives at Sacred Heart Hospital while he was still drunk, under sedation and in no condition to be talking with detectives. Paraphrasing Pete’s own words, the detectives were more interested in putting words in his mouth than they were in search of justice. Of course, they waited two days until Jay Olsen sobered up, got “his story straight” and obtained legal counsel before they interviewed him. After all, he is one of their own.

Then we have the fanciful tale of Shonto Pete purportedly trying to steal Jay Olsen’s pickup truck. In testimony when Shonto Pete was charged with stealing Olsen’s truck, expert testimony has stated that there were no fingerprints belonging to Shonto Pete inside Jay Olsen’s pickup truck. There was one set of latent prints on the outside of the door, but not one fingerprint or any DNA evidence inside the truck: thus we can safely assume Pete was never inside the truck.

Yesterday, we have a witness to the crime whom it seems interviewed or at least ostensibly spoke with Shonto Pete shortly after the shooting in Peaceful Valley. Marvin D. Tucker, a 14-year Police Department employee, enters stage right and makes a series of rather preposterous statements, including that he had spoken with Shonto Pete by phone, that Pete admitted to him he stole Olsen’s truck and that all record of this incriminating conversation has been erased from the 911 tapes. WHAT? Why didn’t the Police give Tucker a lie detector test? Probably because the Police Guild would raise objections. They are not interested in justice. They are interested only in protecting their own it might seem.

Today ostensibly Jay Olsen will take the stand. Ostensibly this might be his last-ditch effort to save his career as a police officer.With pending litigation, Shonto Pete is still looking for justice, and/or revenge.

Dave

25 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

vikkiesawyer on March 11 at 12:03 p.m.
When is it okay to shoot someone in the head? I am sorry I really dont think it is okay to shoot someone in the head, and not call for help because your homosexual, and you will be ridiculed. WRONG! I for one until it was brought up had no idea, and to me that doesnt matter at all, the guy shot him in the head, he shot his gun OFF DUTY five times! Give me a break. I expect all civil servents to follow the law that they are suppose to enforce! Civil servents are suppose to set an example for the public and especially our young people.
cantyoureadthesigns on March 11 at 1:21 p.m.
As the departed David Brookbank might say, Olsen is a bad apple in a barrel of rotting apples.

Well, except Brookbank would say it much more stridently.

BTW, Pete doesn’t strike me as a person much bent on revenge. Justice yes, but not revenge.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 11 at 1:43 p.m.
I am sure you can still find
David B on his own web site… I’m not remembering what it is… Dave any help here?? gus
Dave Laird on March 11 at 2:27 p.m.
Good afternnon Gus…

Look at http://spokanepoliceabuses.wordpress.com/ for David Brookbank’s web site.

Dave
cantyoureadthesigns on March 11 at 2:33 p.m.
He hasn’t updated his site in quite a while.
Dave Laird on March 11 at 2:37 p.m.
Good afternoon, Cantyoureadthesigns…

You wrote in part:

“BTW, Pete doesn’t strike me as a person much bent on revenge. Justice yes, but not revenge.”

You are quite right. Shonto Pete strikes me as a person more interested in Justice than revenge. However, handily having won his trial when he was charged with stealing Olsen’s truck, it does seem plausible to me that he will also win Olsen’s trial, which is still underway, and possibly settle out of court for the civil trial which has not yet begun.

The only revenge that Shonto Pete seems to desire is Justice, but I failed to make that point. After all, he is out the costs of his hospitalization, his legal fees, not to mention the allegations laid at his feet courtesy of the Spokane Police Department.

With Olsen’s afternoon’s testimony we may find even more interesting “nuggets” to discuss, including Jay Olsen’s version of coming out of the closet if rumors are to be given any credence.

Dave
Cis on March 11 at 2:37 p.m.
Also didn’t the report in the paper say, that one of the officers said, that Olsen was justified in shooting up to 5 shots? How can that be? The officer said, after all he had 11 bullets, and that makes it better?
When Pete was shot, he was running away? was he not? how can that be considered threatening? 5 shots at a man running away? This whole case stinks to high heaven.
Diana on March 11 at 3:16 p.m.
Exactly, Cis. But you gotta love the defense attorney’s spin on events. Poor, gay, drunk officer Olsen ran through the neighborhood shooting his gun and he just couldn’t call 911 to report the violence in the streets. But he wasn’t drunk or gay enough to call the woman he was drinking with, the police guild and his attorney. Reasonable doubt! Snort!
wheels on March 11 at 3:27 p.m.
Olsen probably was/is drunk and gay enough but that’s hardly the issue.Cover up cops.This thing already starts to smell like the Otto Zehm case only NOT ONE Spokane Police officer to date has ever been charged in OTTOS death.But their day will come.As for Olsen this loser is going down the tube.And you wonder why Attorneys are at the bottom of the accountability list.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 11 at 8:24 p.m.
Wear your OTTO buttons to Officer Olsen’s trial. Doug Clark is giving them away… email dougc@spokesman.com with your address etc . Gus
Diana on March 11 at 8:58 p.m.
Gus, have you been attending the trial? What are your thoughts? DD
garfnagn on March 11 at 8:58 p.m.
In the end, a clear message needs to be sent to Spokane coppers that they don’t getta get tanked in bars while packing their off duty guns and blaze away at citizens and make crap up afterwards. It’s too bad the good cops gather around dirtbags like Olsen under the sad blue pirate flag of the SPD and make lies up and cover up. The good cops oughta be stepping up and wishing Olsen a nice deep connection to his recently uncloseted homsexuality once he’s in the prison shower stalls at Clallam Bay.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 11 at 10:09 p.m.
DD no i’ve not been going to the trial…. just getting the outtakes on the web etc…. Knowing as many glbt youth as i do… i am quite sure that the officer would have not have had an easy coming out, even if he has lots of friends on the force…. glbt folks especially the ones that are street kids turning tricks are a pretty put upon target here in our city. gus
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 11 at 10:11 p.m.
Oh, he is not as closeted as it might seem…. i heard over a year ago from an “insider” about his time at Dempsey’s… and the woman who is his best friend could have been his “Beard” ie the cover for his family’s consumption…. g
cantyoureadthesigns on March 11 at 11:10 p.m.
Diana nails it.

I don’t think I’ve seen a more egregious, shamefull, and ridiculous argumentation that Olsen’s lawyers have presented.

I have some sympathy for Olsen, and believe the claim that it would be very hard to be an out gay man on the SPD. But that just points out the very real institutionalized bigotry towards members of the LGBT community, and the personal harm that it causes millions of people.
lewis8457 on March 11 at 11:55 p.m.
Dave the police never asked officer Tucker to take a lie detector test because they know he is lying but that is OK as long as it stays in the department. This case opens many windows looking in on the workings of our fine police department. The officers responding to Pete delayed the ambulance 30 minutes while they all got their stories straight. As already mentioned they did not question Olsen until 2 days later after I would guess a few closed-door sessions with the police guild.

I would bet money the guild told Olsen that night not to contact the police so the guild president could make a few calls first. Get every one in line, so to speak.

Olsen admits to drinking before leaving his house and taking it with him. Which means he drove with an open container of alcohol in is car. Which shows the total disregard for the law and the attitude that they can do what ever they want whenever they want. He later drove his truck with a blood alcohol level of .13, and even before the Pete incident he planed on driving home. Which he could have done since all the cops have each other’s license plate numbers and routinely break motor vehicle laws on a regular basis.

The fact that he is using the coming out ploy is just smoke screen, trying to play on the emotions of the closeted race. As if taking a gun into a bar against department policy, driving drunk with the intention of driving home drunk which he must have done since he did get home that night, and firing a weapon into a neighborhood late at night, never calling 911 instead called his lawyer is not bad enough maybe we will all forget and let him have his badge back because he is gay and some of his fellow officers don’t understand. Boo- hoo-hoo.

Its also states that the police are trained to react when they perceive being attacked. Isn’t this what got Otto killed? An officer thought Otto was going to attack him with a coke bottle and beat him down to the point of killing him? What ever happened to negotiations? Why attack at a perceived thought? Aren’t the police supposed to avert violence instead of instigating it?

I hope the jury sends him away for a long time but in Spokane just about anything can happen. I would not be the surprised of he is found innocent reinstated into the police and given a pink police car to drive around in.
Dave Laird on March 12 at 5:03 a.m.
Good morning, Lewis…

You wrote rather eloquently in part:

“I hope the jury sends him away for a long time but in Spokane just about anything can happen. I would not be the surprised of he is found innocent reinstated into the police and given a pink police car to drive around in.”

I nearly spilled coffee on my keyboard over that one! What is perhaps more hilarious is I cannot help but think you might have predicted the future correctly. I can hear the gossip at Dempsey’s muttering between their brews, “At last! At last! We can say we have one of our own on the force.”

Perhaps he might march in the Gay Pride Parade next year? In Uniform?

Sure. You may be right. Stranger things have happened in Spokane.

Dave
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 12 at 5:54 a.m.
Dave, statistics would argue that in the general population glbt questioning folks account for ten percent of those we mingle with each day…. There is ample anecdotal information around the fact that a fair percentage of men who want to ” seem straight” will take jobs in our armed forces and the heavy duty sports like football/baseball etc…. They really do overcompensate often to keep their friends and neighbors off the track… There are large numbers of men that “go out for cigarettes” and are gone long enough to cruise some of the known spots for quick/anonymous sex… and there is a code to not “out” anyone.. but believe me there are likely a large number of men and women who are homosexual in our midst that are closeted just like Officer Olsen.. ie the “uncle” who never got married, or the “aunt” who has a “room mate”… etc… sad, so sad, to live a closeted life…. that is why i volunteer for Odyssey Youth Center every week… amazing transformations occur… many of the CrossWalk kids are those that were “pitched to the ditch” by angry religious parents… take a look www.odysseyyouth.org John
Diana on March 12 at 6:49 a.m.
Gus, with all respect to your open mind and heart, I don’t for one minute believe that Officer Olsen’s closeted gayness is the reason for any of his actions that night. KREM is reporting that the courtroom was “shocked” when he outed himself. Come on. Was such news really such a shocking assault on the jury’s puritanical sensibilities?

We’re talking about two different things here. The tragedy of those whom society forces to remain closeted and the tragedy of a police officer who seemngly felt he was so above the law he could be judge, jury and executioner (and did so with a bunch of booze coursing through his veins).

Maybe if Mr. Pete collects a big, fat settlement, as Otto will never have the opportunity to do, Spokane cops will think twice before they bring on the brutality.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 12 at 7:10 a.m.
dd, i would not for a minute suggest that nights events have to do with the officer being in the closet….. ?Unless? perhaps Shonto made an untoward comment about the officer coming out of the Gay Bar.. ie a taunt… and then he felt the need to “defend” himself against the aspersion…. ( that is what i thought happened since way back when, and talked to my friends about the officer’s presence at Dempsey’s that night)…

In our culture if you “accuse” a man of being Gay.. then he is obligated to beat the s—t out of you to prove he is not… that is what I think actually went down that early morning… anybody spoken to the bar tender’s at Dempsey’s and wondering if they will be part of the prosecutions eventual process… ? how m any drinks etc etc..

He could be just “coming out” now to soften the impact with the juror’s You do the Crime, You do the Time…. and cough up a great big bunch of money… gus
lewis8457 on March 12 at 10:15 a.m.
Maybe if a rumor is started that Otto was gay and the cops beat him to death because of it we could see some justice for Otto. Because murder is legal if you are a Spokane cop, but murder against a gay person well that just ain’t right?

Because after all coming out of the closet is more serious then being murdered by the police?

The year Otto was murdered 13 other people were killed at police hands, as far as I know none of them saw justice either. Other then that last flash in their brains as they saw their protectors deliver the deathblow. But if they blurted out I’m gay, I’m gay they would have had to let the perp live because the police don’t want to kill a gay person, that just wouldn’t look right.

Who knows maybe the SPD can make this one of their new defenses any time one of theirs kills someone they can say the perp called the police officer gay and he deserved to be terminated.

Olsen was a cop, a 16-year cop that should have had better control of the circumstance. But now that he is gay we are all suppose to understand he had a reason to kill Pete that night to prove to his fellow officers that he is too tough to be gay.

I have not seen a lawsuit brought by the Center of Justice for Otto Zehm I guess the SPD will get away with it, next Wednesday will be 3 years.

I wish to thank the FBI for being as worthless as the SPD in bringing justice for Otto Zehm.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 12 at 10:33 a.m.
Lewis… actually i have several stories about our “police force” Over Policing some of my glbta youth, as well as the homeless… seems as if you ain’t got no power… the powers will exert more force… god forbid one should/would claim their constitutional rights.;… Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness …. gus
Jeffrey_Grey on March 12 at 12:06 p.m.
Well, at this point and even seeking as I usually do to see both sides of an issue…

I’m still trying to see more to Mr. Olsen’s defense than, “I made a bunch of really bad decisions and someone got shot in the head as a result, and then I made several more bad decisions.”
cantyoureadthesigns on March 12 at 12:56 p.m.
John, am wondering what would be your take on this:

“In the video there are jokes made against homosexuality: basically, they had made fun of gay people indirectly in their film parody of eHarmony. The film teacher thought that it would offend students that were gay or possibly still “in-the-closet” students and that it should not be aired.

Needless to say, my friends were outraged.

Here’s the question: was the gay joke that big of a deal?

Was the homosexuality piece the only thing not “school appropriate?” Do you find any other qualities of the video that was offensive? What about the video do you think gives it reason to be aired or to be spared from students and staff, or in this case, Ferris High School?”

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/vox/2009/mar/11/what-would-you-have-done/
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 12 at 1:30 p.m.
Hi Can’t you Read? well i’ve spent years with glbta youth… as an advocate and ally… I found the parody to be very good, although i’ve not looked at the e harmony site…. i’ll get to that later… i know they are a “christian” group, so i’d be surprised at the “gay only” matching service… I have heard some of the most funny stories from my women friends who have tried Match.com etc.. brings tears to me to even think about them…. ie a 5’ 10 red head who weighs about 165 was floored when the first comment out of the “coffee date” was”’ OH>> you don’t look like my wife…. (not yet ex, and 5‘1” 110 lbs and blond)…

Any man that needs to be on a web site to get a date is likely not worth your time…. or interest… they have plenty of interest in them selves…..
The video was not offensive to me… but was also typical behaviour for straight couples as well… hot and cold and lottsa drammmaa….

gus