It’s a good day, Spokane. There’s no snow in the potholes, the river’s still running and Karl Thompson Jr. is already ensconced in a federal lockup on the other side of the state. Sorry, but you won’t find me joining the gripers and grousers who are sore about the ex-cop getting just 51 months for his unwarranted and vicious attack on Otto Zehm six-plus years ago. I’ve been beating this drum too long for that. I remember too well the lonely days when our do-nothing county prosecutor, Steve Tucker, refused to touch this case as if it were radioactive. I remember, too, that the city’s official and shameful position was that Thompson did nothing wrong and that Zehm was to blame. I was just some kook columnist ranting in the paper about a lost cause and giving away 5,000 Otto buttons to keep people from forgetting. Oh, boy, do I remember/Doug Clark, SR. More here.

Thoughts?

Originally posted 5:08 p.m. Thursday

Updated: After being handed a sentence Thursday of more than four years in federal prison – the culmination of six years of investigations, legal action and community soul-searching – former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. walked away passively in handcuffs. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle admonished the courtroom in advance that demonstrations of any kind would be inappropriate, and the sentence was greeted with silence by both Thompson and Zehm supporters. Defense attorney Carl Oreskovich lost a last-minute plea to keep the decorated officer out of jail pending appeal of his convictions for using excessive force and lying to investigators to cover up his actions/Thomas Clouse, SR. More here.

Question: Was justice served?

A federal judge has denied the motion for a new trial for convicted former Spokane Police officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. (pictured). Thompson’s lawyer Carl Oreskovich argued on Aug. 31 that Thompson should receive a new trial because federal prosecutors hid information from the defense that could have won his acquittal. Thompson was convicted by a federal jury in Yakima in November of using excessive force and lying to investigators in the violent 2006 confrontation with Otto Zehm, a mentally ill janitor mistakenly identified as a possible thief. Zehm died two days after being beaten, tasered and hog-tied by police in a Spokane convenience store/SR. Developing. (SR file photo)

Question: Anyone remember when Thompson was a captain under former sheriff Pierce Clegg?

Four or five other customers were ahead of me when I sauntered into the convenience store on Sunday’s sunny afternoon. No worries. Despite the Zip Trip name on the signage, I hadn’t come here on a speed run. After scanning the aisles a moment, I grabbed what I had come for. Then I took my place at the end of the checkout line with goods in tow: One 2-liter plastic bottle of Diet Pepsi. Check. One Snickers candy bar. Check. Hardly the breakfast of champions. But it seemed like the right way to mark the sixth anniversary of Otto Zehm’s final and ultimately fatal visit to this small Spokane trading post at 1712 N. Division. March 18, 2006. Never forget/Doug Clark, SR. More here. (SR photo: Snickers candy bars, flowers and 2-liter bottles of Pepsi Cola were left curbside in November in front of the Zip Trip on Division Street at Augusta Avenue)

Question: How closely have you followed the Otto Zehm story?

And now for the latest in legalized leg pulling. Ex-Spokane police Officer Karl Thompson Jr. has “accepted responsibility” for pounding Otto Zehm to pulp in 2006 and lying to investigators afterward to cover his slimy hide. Or so the Thompson shysters claim. Gee, Karl. Too bad you didn’t have this “come to Jesus” moment a few years back. Could’ve saved the public all the expense and bother of holding a federal trial. You know, the one in Yakima last fall that found you GUILTY as hell. This is just another Hail Mary ploy by the defense, of course. The goal this time is to get Thompson a discount on the already woefully thin amount of prison time he has coming/Doug Clark, SR. More here.

Question: You be the judge. What would you do with this latest attempt by Karl Thompson's defense team to win a new trial in the fatal beating of Otto Zehm?

The forewoman of the jury that convicted Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. said none of the jurors brought information to deliberations from media reports, as alleged by defense attorneys seeking a new trial. Diane Riley, 57, of Ellensburg, granted an interview with The Spokesman-Review after first contacting the newspaper in an e-mail Monday to voice her concerns about allegations made by defense attorney Carl Oreskovich that jurors may have been exposed to television reports that indicated Otto Zehm was mentally ill – something U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle barred from the trial. Riley said no juror mentioned anything about gleaning information from media accounts and that the jury decided the case based only on the information presented at trial/Thomas Clouse, SR. More here. (SR file photo)

Question: How would you feel about your department if you were a Spokane police officer trying to do your best to serve the community?

Casino Reverend: “Why does Eddie Steele get 50 years in the slammer, for his arranging of a murder-for-hire? Given his age of 66 this might as well be a life sentence! Karl the Klubber is walking free currently and looking at 6-8 years in the slammer for the death of schizophrenic Otto Zehm? It seems like the sentences are backwards.”

DFO: One guess I'd make re: discrepancy in sentences. Edgar Steele was sentenced in hard-on-crime Idaho. Karl Thompson isn't.

Question: Anyone care to take a crack at Casino Reverend's puzzler?

Karl Thompson looked like a whole new man. When he walked into the federal courtroom Monday, he wore yellow jailhouse garb – the blousy top a shade darker than the loose pants. Big black letters on the back read: BONNER COUNTY. On his bare feet were cheap plastic sandals. Gray scruff stood out on his chin, and his usually neat white hair was very slightly disheveled. His hands – the hands that had placed countless criminal suspects into cuffs over his career as a cop – were locked behind his back. He looked smaller, sadder, diminished. “I wasn’t prepared for that,” said one of his supporters. Neither was I. Nor was I prepared to look at Thompson and feel what I felt: sympathy. It’s a sympathy tempered by anger at what he did to Otto Zehm and the city’s long string of mistakes in the case/Shawn Vestal, SR. More here. (SR file photo by Colin Mulvany)

Question: Do you have sympathy for 64YO Karl Thompson and what he's facing — 6-10 years in prison for his actions in the death of Otto Zehm?

• Monday Poll: Hucks Nation doesn't think either challenger Dan Gookin or Steve Adams will win Coeur d'Alene City Council seats today. 97 of 157 respondents (61.78%) said neither opponent of Mayor Sandi Bloem's administration will win council seats. Meanwhile, 29 of 157 (18.47%) said both would win; 24 of 157 (15.29%) said Gookin would win; and 7 of 157 (4.46%) said Adams would win. Moi? I don't think the majority is right this time.
• Today's Poll: Should Spokane cop Karl Thompson be free while waiting sentencing Jan. 27 in the Otto Zehm case?

A judge ruled late Monday to release convicted Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. and could rule as early as this morning whether to bring in jurors for questioning after a defense attorney raised allegations of juror misconduct. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle reversed a Friday decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge James Hutton, who ordered Thompson detained until sentencing, which has been set for Jan. 27 at 9 a.m. In ruling for Thompson, Van Sickle went against a prior ruling made against officers convicted in the 1992 beating of Rodney King that they were not above the law that requires they remain in jail prior to sentencing except in “exceptional” cases/Thomas Clouse, SR. More here.

Question: Do you agree with the judge's decision to release Thompson until his sentencing Jan. 27?

Snickers candy bars, flowers and 2 liter bottles of Pepsi Cola are left curb-side Friday in front of the Zip Trip, on Division at Augusta, where Otto Zehm was beaten unconscious by Spokane police officers, in March 2006, who thought Zehm was a robbery suspect.  Zehm died 2 days later.  (SR photo: Dan Pelle)

This afternoon, Karl Thompson's lawyer, Carl Oreskovich, filed an emergency motion to get Thompson out of jail. He also filed a motion asking that he be allowed to contact jurors because of what he said was “an unsolicited email received by defense counsel from one of the alternate jurors.” “The alternate juror’s email expressed “shock” at the verdict and stated that (the alternate juror) did not have the same opinion regarding the verdict,” Oreskovich wrote. Oreskovich is asking that he be able to ask jurors about potential infuences on their verdict. He included a declaration by his paralegal, Jodi Dineen, stating she'd seen at least two jurors exposed to a ticker on Northwest Cable News TV that mentioned of the “beating death of a mentally ill janitor” on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 during breakfast at the hotel in Yakima. (Why she didn't tell the court at the time is unclear)/Meghann Cuniff, SR. More here.

• Also: Thompson supporters express outrage/Meghann Cuniff, SR

Question: Do you think Thompson's lawyer will get a new trial for him?

Some four dozen Spokane Police officers and other supporters stood when someone yelled “Present Arms” and saluted Thompson as he was led away by U.S. Marshals without being handcuffed. As the crowd saluted in unison, attorney Jeffry Finer turned and apologized to the family of Otto Zehm, who died after a violent confrontation with Thompson and other officers in a North Spokane convenience store in 2006. Finer is representing Zehm’s family in a companion civil suit. Thomas Clouse story here.

Question: What do you make of this show of support from Spokane officers as Karl Thompson was being led away?

A federal judge in Yakima ordered Spokane Police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. taken into custody this morning following his conviction on charges of using excessive force and lying to investigators. Some three dozen Spokane Police officers and other supporters stood when someone yeled “Present Arms” and saluted Thompson as he was led away, without being handcuffed, after being convicted of using excessive force on Otto Zehm and later lying to cover up his actions. As the crowd saluted in unison, Jeffry Finer turned and apologized to Zehm’s family, whom Finer is representing in a companion civil suit. “The salute was meant to be respectful,” Finer said. “But it seemed to be given with no thought of the victim’s family seated inches away”/Thomas Clouse, SR. More here. (Dan Pelle SR file photo — of Karl Thompson)

• Editorial: Zehm case shows need for reform, credibility/Spokesman-Review

Question: Should Karl Thompson have been taken into custody so soon after the verdict?

As the excessive force trial of Officer Karl Thompson enters its second week, many Spokane police officers have made his badge number their personal Facebook profile pictures as a show of support. Thompson is a mentor to many in the department and was drafted to run for police chief before Anne Kirkpatrick was appointed in 2006. His indictment on federal charges of lying to investigators and violating Otto Zehm's civil rights during the 2006 confrontation that led to Zehm's death has drawn the ire of many in the department, who have joined a Facebook group that says Thompson is “a media scapegoat, wrongly accused, and wrongly charged”/Meghann Cuniff, Sirens & Gavels. More here.

• You can follow Meghann's live Twitter of the Thompson trial today here.

Question: Should Spokane police be taking sides in this case?

A medical expert hired by the Spokane police officer facing criminal charges over the fatal Otto Zehm confrontation is blaming other officers at the scene for causing the unarmed janitor’s death.

Court documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court indicate Dr. Daniel Davis is prepared to testify in Officer Karl Thompson’s excessive force trial that the asphyxiation that killed Zehm was caused by officers pressing down on him while he was hogtied on the floor of a Zip Trip convenience store. Thomas Clouse, SR  More here.

Will there ever be justice for Otto Zehm?

The federal trial of Spokane Police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. (a former Kootenai County sheriff’s captain) in the Otto Zehm case will be postponed at least two months as as prosecutors appeal a judge’s ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle this morning ordered that the government could not offer evidence that Zehm had not committed a crime the night of his March 2006 confrontation with police at the North Division Zip Trip/Thomas Clouse, SR. More here.

Spokane Police officer Karl Thompson (with silver hair) talks friends and supporters outside the Federal Courthouse in Spokane where he appeared today to answer charges in the Otto Zehm case. (Jesse Tinsley/SR)

But during the short arraignment, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Durkin objected to the defense request to appoint Oreskovich as Thompson’s attorney, noting that Thompson makes about $80,000 a year – counting overtime – and owns a $675,000 home, which is listed in his wife’s name, in Hayden. But Imbrogno said she carefully studied the private documents submitted by Thompson’s attorneys and ruled that he is indigent, freeing the way for public funds to pay for his defense. “I am very satisfied that Mr. Thompson qualifies for court-appointed counsel,” Imbrogno said/Thomas Clouse, SR. More here.

Question: Do you think the public should pay for Spokane officer Karl Thompson’s defense when he earns around $80,000 per year and has a $675K home?