Protester pleads innocent to assault

An 18-year-old protester pleaded innocent Monday to assaulting a police officer in Riverfront Park during a July Fourth demonstration.

As about 50 of his fellow protesters and supporters looked on in a packed courtroom, Zachary St. John, a musician and restaurant worker, entered his plea to Spokane County Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen. She said St. John could remain free on bond and scheduled a trial for Oct. 15.

St. John’s attorneys said a coalition of lawyers was forming to represent other protesters arrested the afternoon of July 4, when a group calling itself Alternative Solutions and Possibilities held a rally in Peaceful Valley against police brutality and then marched to downtown, ending at Riverfront Park.

“We’re forming a First Amendment defense team,” attorney Patrick Stiley said outside the courtroom.

Attorneys for other protesters, who face misdemeanor charges of trespassing and refusing an order to disperse, may be filing a motion that asks for those charges to be dismissed because “even if everything the police allege is admitted as true, no crime was committed … there’s no basis for dispersing” the protesters, Stiley said.

Stiley and others from his firm asked some of the other protesters, who sat through Monday’s brief arraignment, to have their lawyers come to a meeting Thursday evening, and requested that those who did not have lawyers get free representation.

Police said the protesters were disruptive in the park and occupying a space controlled by Clear Channel Communications under a lease from the city. Protesters said they had finished their demonstration and were picnicking on a large American flag when police began videotaping them at close range.

Officer Jay Kernkamp said St. John grabbed his throat twice, the second time choking him until he began to lose consciousness. St. John said he was shoved off his seat and got up to ask the officer why and demand his name and badge number. He said he was then taken to the ground by officers.

Video shot by Spokane police does not show the initial contact between St. John and Kernkamp. A report by City Attorney Jim Craven said the video does not show any obviously criminal activity prior to the arrests, at which point some protesters appear to be resisting arrest.

Frank Cikutovich, another of St. John’s attorneys, said lawyers haven’t seen photos or video that clearly shows the encounter between St. John and police. But they have seen “how fast it took officers to take a 120-pound 18-year-old to the ground,” he said.

After the hearing, Cikutovich said St. John said he wanted to disavow downtown vandalism by people who spray painted messages that he “did no wrong.” The supervisor of a Geiger Corrections “clean team” that removes graffiti called it one of the worst sprees he’d seen. “He does not condone any destruction of public or private property,” Cikutovich said. St. John said he went to some of the businesses vandalized to apologize and tell them he had nothing to do with it.