Mistrial in molestation case

A child molestation case that included a face-to-face interview with Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick ended in a mistrial Friday after a Spokane jury declared itself hopelessly deadlocked in the trial of 21-year-old Ransom R. Haskins, accused of fondling a 6-year-old in her South Hill home during a drinking party hosted by her half-sister and brother-in-law.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor dismissed the molestation charge against Haskins and also dismissed a charge of second-degree rape for another incident during the same Sept. 22, 2006, party involving a woman who was a friend of the couple holding the party. Haskins was scheduled to stand trial Monday on the rape charge.

Presiding juror Stacy Lavin of Spokane said the six-man, six-woman jury was leaning 9 to 3 in favor of acquitting Haskins but couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. “The state just didn’t have the evidence. That’s where we ended up,” Lavin said.

Attorney David Hearrean, who represented Haskins with Timothy Note, said the case had badly damaged Haskins’ reputation although he has no criminal record. He had a job but lost it after the charges were filed, Hearrean said.

Note said the case “was built solely on innuendo” by overzealous police investigators.

“The jury had doubts. A verdict has to be beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s our justice system,” said Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor John Love.

In closing arguments Thursday, Love and Note clashed on the quality of the state’s case against Haskins.

Although the child initially identified another man as the person she thought had crawled into her bed, Love said it couldn’t have been the other man because he was in juvenile detention at the time for helping torch the library at Sacajawea Middle School on Sept. 8, 2006.

The second-grader, now 8, testified she couldn’t see the man because it was dark.

Love reminded the jury that the girl’s half-sister and brother-in-law testified they found Haskins in bed with her when the party broke up and told him to leave. After the child told her father she’d been touched inappropriately, the older sister testified Haskins told her that he was drunk and had mistaken the child for the older woman he’d approached at the party.

The touching that occurred in the child’s bed “wasn’t brief and it wasn’t an accident,” Love said.

Note told the jury the state hadn’t proved its case and suggested the child might have been confusing the Sept. 22 party with an earlier one. He said a series of drinking parties had been held at the South Hill home, the girl’s mother had been in jail during some of them and the testimony of the older sister lacked credibility.

Note said a police interview conducted at Jefferson Elementary School in December 2006 with the school principal and Chief Kirkpatrick in attendance could have pressured the child to tell the police investigator “what he wanted to hear.”

Note accused Spokane Police Department Detective Bill Marshall of not doing a thorough investigation because he never interviewed the other man who was in detention.

“If you’re not sure, your verdict must be not guilty. This case is rife with reasonable doubt,” Note added.

Love, in rebuttal, said it would have been useless to interview the other man because he had a solid alibi.

“The tragedy would be if (the other man) were here. There’s direct evidence he was in custody that night,” Love said.

The case went to the jury at 4 p.m. Thursday. Lavin sent a note to O’Connor on Friday afternoon to tell her they were deadlocked.