Decision near on prosecutor

A Spokane County judge will decide next week whether to appoint a special prosecutor to handle misdemeanor animal cruelty charges that the court previously allowed a Liberty Lake woman to file against two sheriff’s deputies who killed a runaway calf with repeated Taser shots.

District Court Judge Sara Derr heard arguments Friday from attorney Adam Karp, who said it would be an ethical obstacle to give the animal cruelty case to the office of Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker, which previously refused to file charges.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brian O’Brien, representing Tucker’s office, argued that the court doesn’t have the authority to appoint an outside prosecutor, nor does it have jurisdiction to file criminal charges requested in the citizen petition filed by Chris Anderlik.

O’Brien asked the judge to reconsider her Jan. 22 decision allowing Anderlik, Karp’s client, to file the citizen’s petition against the two deputies after the prosecutor’s office refused to take the case.

Derr’s comments from the bench on Friday suggested she is unlikely to reverse her decision.

The Supreme Court rule was created to allow citizens to petition the court to file misdemeanor charges if the prosecutor’s office refuses. “If we don’t have this rule … where can the public go?” Derr said.

O’Brien told the court that the two officers were attempting to protect the public as they’re sworn to do. “No one wants to collide with a large animal on the freeway or the roadway,” he said.

The deputy prosecutor then asked, “Do we want to charge people who are trying to protect the public?”

But Karp, a Bellingham attorney who exclusively practices “animal law,” said public safety isn’t the issue; it’s the method the two deputies used to kill the animal.

“If the animal was killed in a humane manner, there would be no crime,” Karp told the judge.

The deputies didn’t act with “reasonable prudence” under a law that normally would give them immunity from prosecution, Karp said. They did not contact a veterinarian or the animal’s owner, he said, before both deputies used their 50,000-volt Taser guns to stun and eventually kill the 500-pound bull calf.

Karp said a special prosecutor is needed because O’Brien and his colleagues in the Spokane County prosecutor’s office are now in conflict, having opposed Anderlik.

“It’s clear the prosecutor doesn’t want this case,” so an outsider should be appointed, Karp said.

Under questioning by the judge, Karp said there is no case law in Washington on such matters, but he said courts have the authority to disqualify attorneys if ethical conflicts arise.

O’Brien said the filing of the charges by the court and appointment of an outside prosecutor both violate the separation of powers doctrine, separating the authority of the judicial and executive branches of government.

Derr said she would render a written opinion by the end of next week on the request for appointment of a special prosecutor and the motion to consider her earlier ruling allowing the citizen’s petition to go forward under a 40-year-old rule authored by the Washington state Supreme Court.

The animal escaped from a Greenacres farm on April 12 before it was cornered and killed in a grassy area along the Centennial Trail, not too far from busy Interstate 90 in Spokane Valley.

One deputy’s Taser was discharged 42 consecutive times at 5-second intervals for a total of 210 seconds. The second deputy’s weapon was discharged for 253 continuous seconds, according to computer printouts.

Anderlik has said she believes the deputies weren’t being malicious but were operating for a law enforcement agency that doesn’t have well-defined policies for using Tasers. She said the animal was “tortured mercilessly.”