Appeals court rulings back 2 officers

A state appeals court has upheld the actions of two Spokane police officers in separate incidents.

In the first ruling released Thursday, the Washington Court of Appeals Division III upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against Spokane Police Department Officer Erin Blessing.

Blessing erroneously stopped James R. Keyes’ truck on East Sprague Avenue in 2005 after entering the wrong license plate number into her computer and getting a message back that the plate had expired.

In 2006, Keyes sued Blessing, the city of Spokane and the police department over the error, saying his Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure had been violated.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor dismissed the lawsuit based on Blessing’s qualified immunity as a law enforcement officer, saying the officer had not acted unreasonably.

In an opinion written by Kevin M. Korsmo, a three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled that “a mistake of fact does not render an otherwise reasonable search or seizure unreasonable.” Korsmo is a former Spokane County deputy prosecutor who was appointed to the appeals court in Spokane in January.

In the second ruling, another three-judge panel upheld the conviction of Tatiana M. Uphoff for third-degree assault of a police officer.

Uphoff approached Spokane Police Sgt. Charles Reynolds on Dec. 29, 2006, while he was arresting another woman for speeding. She yelled at the officer to leave the driver alone, the ruling says.

Reynolds forced Uphoff face-first to the ground, where she kicked him before she was handcuffed. Uphoff claimed she was unlawfully arrested and had the right to resist, but she was convicted in a bench trial before Spokane Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza.

“The act of kicking Sgt. Reynolds was not a proportional response to being handcuffed,” the court said in the opinion written by Appeals Court Judge John A. Schultheis.