Courthouse watch: 9.23.09

The ailing mother of a man who died after being struck, Tasered and hogtied by Spokane police officers should have a chance to have her statement preserved for a civil lawsuit even though a criminal trial is pending, a federal judge ruled today.

U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko refused to grant a request by federal prosecutors to halt all discovery in a separate civil suit involving the 2006 death of Otto Zehm.

Read the rest of Jim Camden’s story in tomorrow’s Spokesman-Review