Suspended cop’s lawyer accuses chief of misconduct

The attorney for a suspended Spokane police detective accused of felony harassment for allegedly threatening to harm his estranged wife is accusing Spokane’s police chief of “governmental misconduct” in the case.

In new court documents, attorney Chris Bugbee, a former Spokane County deputy prosecutor, says he’ll ask the court to dismiss the charges at an Aug. 1 hearing because Jay P. Mehring’s right to a fair trial has been compromised. The harassment charge is a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The motion says Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick has discouraged other police officers from testifying on Mehring’s behalf and may have violated city personnel rules by immediately placing the drug detective on unpaid layoff status without a hearing upon his arrest on March 30, 2007.

The arrest occurred while the Spokane Police Department was under a “firestorm of scrutiny” over police misconduct, the motion says. It was the third misconduct investigation into the actions of Kirkpatrick’s officers in less than three weeks.

It’s likely that Kirkpatrick had no malice against Mehring, 40, but her “zeal” to deal with officer misconduct compromised his constitutional right to be tried fairly, the motion says.

Kirkpatrick, in response to a request for comment on the new motion, e-mailed a reply: “I am prepared to publicly air all his allegations in an open Court.”

The state filed the charge against Mehring shortly after Lisa Ann Mehring sought a restraining order. Mehring had moved out of the couple’s home in November 2006 after filing for divorce, according to court records.

Mehring’s case also has been affected by a new federal law prompted by the April 2003 murder-suicide involving Tacoma police Chief David Brame, who shot his wife, Crystal, and then himself in a strip mall, according to the new defense motion.

“The incident resulted in national legislation passed by Congress that required law enforcement agencies … to establish protocols in dealing with allegations of officer-involved domestic violence,” the motion says.

After being sworn in as Spokane’s new police chief in September 2006, Kirkpatrick moved quickly to discipline several officers for misconduct under her new “You Lie, You Die” rule while the community pushed for a more effective citizen oversight system, the motion says.

Mehring’s nearly 13-year record as a Spokane police officer and drug detective had been “spotless,” and Kirkpatrick’s “unilateral decision” to immediately place him on unpaid layoff status “appears to have been in violation of Spokane City policy,” which calls for a personnel hearing before any action is taken, the motion says.

In the weeks following Mehring’s arrest, several police officers contacted Bugbee to say that Sgt. David Overhoff, the officer who reported in an internal memo Mehring’s alleged threats to kill his wife, “was well known within the department for exaggeration, pot-stirring and deception,” the motion says. Overhoff did not reply to a request for comment.

The officers initially agreed to talk about Overhoff’s alleged reputation but backed off, the motion says.

One officer, who is not named, said she changed her mind about providing information on Overhoff after meeting with Kirkpatrick because she was told the chief “would have no choice but to launch an internal affairs investigation against any SPD officer who testified against the credibility of another SPD officer during Detective Mehring’s trial,” the motion says.

That has had a chilling effect on Mehring’s trial preparations, Bugbee says.

“Chief Kirkpatrick’s conduct has irreversibly compromised counsel’s ability to investigate this case,” the motion says.

In a declaration, Bugbee says Overhoff has consistently refused to be interviewed. He notes it’s the first time in his career where a law enforcement officer who is a material witness in a criminal case has refused an interview.

Kirkpatrick also violated Mehring’s so-called Garrity rights – the right not to have a coerced statement used against him in trial – when she invited him to give a voluntary statement for the department’s Internal Affairs investigation but said the statement could be used against him, according to the motion.

Chris Vick, a Seattle attorney who represents the Spokane Police Guild, also objected to the process of obtaining the voluntary statement from Mehring, according to the court documents.

In a May 29, 2007, letter to Kirkpatrick, Bugbee said he’d advised Mehring not to provide the voluntary statement. He said Mehring had had a “heated argument” with his wife during their divorce proceedings but had not threatened to kill her or cause her physical harm. Instead of threatening to burn down their house, as Overhoff reported, Mehring had said he’d “burn” her in bankruptcy because they both would lose their house, Bugbee wrote.

Bugbee also told Kirkpatrick that Overhoff was “very close with Lisa Mehring” and Overhoff and his wife had taken her side during the divorce.

In a memorandum accompanying his motion, Bugbee attached a stack of newspaper articles about Kirkpatrick’s efforts to make her department more accountable to citizens while retaining her own powers to discipline individual officers.

Other documents include the March 26, 2007, memo from Overhoff to Spokane police Maj. Bruce Roberts reporting Mehring’s alleged threats. Overhoff ‘s memo says he ran into Jay Mehring at the gym, where Mehring allegedly told Overhoff the divorce was going badly and threatened to “burn that bitch and her house down to the ground.”

Overhoff’s memo says he and his wife have been “close personal friends” of the Mehrings for 16 years.

Some of the memos might illustrate Lisa Mehring’s attitude toward the conflicts as she and her husband were breaking up.

In an April 25, 2007, statement to the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Unit, Lisa Mehring said she felt “extremely safe” with Jay Mehring despite her request a month earlier for a temporary restraining order.

“I believe that his comments to ‘burn the house, etc.’ made to me and Sgt. Dave Overhoff were alarming, but it did not constitute domestic violence,” she said, adding that the threats were triggered by frustration over money disputes.

“I believe that Jay and I both are the victims of overzealous law enforcement domestic violence laws and the legal system, and I will not be a part of it,” Lisa Mehring said.

If the court denies his motion to dismiss the case, Bugbee will ask for a court review of Police Department internal investigative reports and other documents. He also wants the court to order depositions of Overhoff and other Spokane police officers.

Mehring’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 8. Bugbee has subpoenaed Kirkpatrick for the trial, along with other high-ranking law enforcement officials.