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March 14, 2009 in City
Olsen cleared in shooting
Jury decides officer fired at man in self-defense; his attorney doubts he’ll return to police force
Shonto Pete, the man shot by off-duty Spokane police Officer Jay Olsen, exchanges heated words Friday with Olsen’s attorney after following Olsen and his supporters to the attorney’s office on North Monroe Street. At left is a bailbondsman from a nearby office who had come outside to see what was going on.
(Full-size photo)(All photos)
Suspended Spokane police Officer Jay Olsen was acquitted of first-degree assault and reckless endangerment Friday for shooting Shonto Pete in the head and firing four other bullets in Peaceful Valley on Feb. 26, 2007.
An eight-man, four-woman jury delivered its verdict in the courtroom of Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque.
Because the jury determined the shooting was in self-defense, Olsen’s lawyer is entitled to seek payment of his legal fees from state taxpayers. Olsen will receive all his back pay according to civil service rules, city spokeswoman Marlene Feist said.
Olsen had been on unpaid layoff status since his April 2007 arrest, but following Friday’s verdict he was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.
Olsen’s friends and family, including his police sergeant brother, 40-year-old Eric Olsen, wept as the verdict was read. Pete and his family walked out.
Several law enforcement officers, including Spokane police Officer Ronald G. Tille, pumped their arms in victory after the verdict. “You’re coming home,” they said to Olsen, who was breathing hard and trembling as he hugged his friends.
Extra security was called to create a buffer between Olsen and Pete in an effort to avoid a confrontation.
“I’d hate it if Shonto Pete tried to hurt Jay. I’d like to prevent that,” said uniformed SWAT team member Terry Preuninger after he’d shaken Olsen’s hand.
Olsen refused to talk to journalists assembled in the courthouse hallway, staying in the courtroom and deferring to his attorney, Rob Cossey.
“This trial was very intense. If (Olsen) had been convicted, he’d be facing a lot of years in prison,” Cossey said.
Asked if Olsen would return to his job as a swing-shift patrol officer in the Spokane Police Department, Cossey said he doubted it.
“He committed significant violations of department policy. I don’t think he’s getting his job back,” Cossey said. Those violations included getting drunk while off-duty in a local bar with a concealed weapon strapped to his waist, and chasing Pete but not calling 911 or police dispatch during the confrontation.
Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz, who had accused Olsen during the trial of trying to kill Pete, said he was surprised by the verdict. Steinmetz declined to talk to jurors afterward, as did Cossey. Jurors also refused to talk to the press.
Pete assailed the verdict.
“Apparently you can shoot someone in the head and get away with it. You can act as reckless as you want if you’re a cop. It’s totally unfair that he was acquitted,” he said.
“It would have been different if he weren’t Native American. My brother didn’t get justice,” said Pete’s sister, Crystal Craft.
“This was a cover-up,” said Pete’s mother, Diana Cote, a poet and former photojournalist from Montana. “The judge wouldn’t let them hear my son was found not guilty of stealing Olsen’s truck, and they weren’t allowed to hear that he called a lawyer” instead of law enforcement after the shooting, Cote said.
“It’s really bad for the city. … I don’t feel safe here,” Cote added. She left town immediately after the verdict.
Uniformed sheriff’s deputies escorted Olsen and his supporters out a side emergency entrance to avoid Pete and his family in the main hallway. Pete chased them down the street to Cossey’s office on North Monroe Street, exchanging words with Olsen’s attorney.
The high-profile trial had overtones of racism and disparate treatment.
Pete, 29, was shot by a white police officer who Pete testified swore at him when he asked for a ride home after the bars closed and began to follow him in a truck while Pete fled on foot. Both men were drunk, according to court testimony.
Olsen and his friend Renee Main, who’d been drinking with Olsen at Dempsey’s, a downtown bar, said that Pete stole Olsen’s truck and that they gave chase in her car. Steinmetz told the jury in his closing statements that there was no proof of that.
A Spokane jury acquitted Pete of the theft charge in October 2007.
Pete was interviewed by detectives at the hospital shortly after the shooting, when he was drunk and under the influence of morphine as doctors removed a hollow-point bullet from his scalp.
Cossey rebuffed a request by police detectives to interview Olsen the night of the shooting because Olsen was drunk. Olsen wasn’t interviewed until two days later, with Cossey by his side, after he’d consulted his police guild representative.
Shortly after he’d shot Pete, Olsen made four calls to Main, two calls to attorney Mel Champagne and one call to the police guild officer who’d be representing his interests in an officer-involved shooting investigation.
Steinmetz stressed repeatedly that Olsen never called 911, police dispatch, or any responding police officers before or after he’d shot Pete.
Olsen testified that he avoided the first officer to respond to Peaceful Valley, Sgt. Joel Fertakis, because Fertakis had given him lukewarm performance reviews and had made anti-gay remarks.
Pete criticized Olsen’s “gay card” – his statement during the trial that he’s a closeted gay man who feared retaliation in a police department hostile to homosexuals.
Pete called the revelation “pathetic.”
“I could care less if he’s gay. He still shouldn’t be able to shoot people in the head,” Pete said.
Another wild card in the trial was the controversial testimony of Marvin D. Tucker, a police dispatch supervisor who appeared for the defense team.
Tucker said he’d answered a call from the Peaceful Valley resident who called 911 after a bleeding Pete appeared on his porch asking for help. Tucker testified that the “shooting victim” told him he’d gotten shot after stealing a truck, but that he didn’t ask the victim’s name.
The 911 tape Tucker referred to was erased and never produced in legal proceedings, although detectives investigating the case had asked for all recordings of the incident.
Jeff Holy, a retired police officer and a lawyer in Cossey’s office, said he heard about Tucker’s claim after Pete’s October 2007 trial and contacted Tucker late last year.
“I couldn’t believe the dispatcher comes up now … this guy needs to be investigated,” Pete said.
Contact Karen Dorn Steele at (509) 459-5462 or karend@spokesman.com.
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misjustice on March 14 at 1:04 a.m.
This was a very strange case, indeed; even for Spokanistan and its notorious SPD. What keeps nagging at me is the inability of the Prosecuting Attorney to put this drunken, crazed, wanton, citizen shooter away. He couldn’t bring it, couldn’t counter the “reasonable doubt” that the Defense was able to raise in the minds of the members of the jury.
Additionally, that the Prosecutor was, seemingly, caught flat footed over the testimony of the 911 dispatcher; it does not matter that many did not find the testimony credible, it was enough to raise doubt and enough to lose the case.
It all seems fishy to me. Even if what the Defendant claims was true, Pete ceased being a “threat” to MR. “I have a Secret” Olsen the minute that Pete turned away from him. Also, it has been my understanding of the law that, a citizen can not shoot to defend a property crime; and a citizen certainly can not discharge a firearm in the city limits, in a neighborhood where citizens are sleeping. But obviously, a cop can!
The Prosector did not prove his case, the people’s case; and now, we the people face the very real danger that MR. “I have a Secret” Olsen will get a big shiny medal, a big check for back wages, and even get his job back. Be afraid, Spokanistan, be very afraid!
liarsinnews on March 14 at 8:31 a.m.
I think I`m going to try and sell the Monroe street bridge to the jury that equated Olson. Why would they believe Olsen, who testified to the jury, he feared for his life as the reason for shooting the victim? Most people with common sense know that, when a person becomes inebriated drinking at “the courage bar”, the drunk thinks he is bullet proof. Olsen in testimony saying he “honestly” feared for his life, is a open invitation for another law suit against him for perjury.
citizen on March 14 at 8:39 a.m.
Another O.J. Simpson trial, ignorant judge and a bigot jury. Even though the judge dis-allowed Pete was exonerated from the theft charge and that olsen called an attorney instead of 911 everyone knew those facts. The cheering cops hailed they were still being protected like always. It would have been fairer if Pete would have had a gun and shoot that queer s.o.b.
The jury convicted we the taxpayer. We have to pay for Olsons fraudulant defence, two years of backpay for a should be fellon. Instead Olson should be in prison and the ignorant judge should be docked of pay and removed from the bench.
If the prosecutor had any balls he would have asked the judge be removed for his senseless ruling of evidence that would have for sure put Olsen behind bars and taught our power happy police a good lesson. Citizen
liarsinnews on March 14 at 8:52 a.m.
CORRECTION BY DICK ADAMS:
My first sentence, reads:
“jury that equated Olsen.
SHOULD READ:
“jury that ACQUITTED Olsen”
Sorry about that.
gq1 on March 14 at 9:07 a.m.
Where do I begin….you are all morons. Were you in the courtroom? Obviously not if you think a judge decided this case. IT WAS A JURY of 14 people who unanimously decided the case. I feel very bad for all the ignorant minds who believe everything they read in the paper, especially Ms. Steele’s fabrications. You don’t hear her mention that in ten years of the forensic expert’s swabbing of fingerprints she has never found a single fingerprint on the steering wheel, NOT EVEN THE OWNER OF THE VEHICLE’S PRINTS! So why would they find Shonto’s? There is no footage of a crazed Shonto with his resident thug chasing the defendent and his family down the street after the decision. There was no display of racism whatsoever in this case. But, yes, you all are the experts because you faithfully read the daily rag! Those of us who spent 3 weeks of our lives hearing the facts (that the media won’t present because that doesn’t sell papers) must be clueless. Well guess what fellow taxpayer? You can sit on here all day and complain, but the fact is the truth came out, the right decision was made, and I’m sure officer Olsen appreciates your contribution to his very delayed salary. In fact, I thank you all on his behalf. Now go find something constructive to do, maybe some OT?
michaelretten on March 14 at 9:08 a.m.
The jury’s verdict, in this case, does the Spokane police department more harm than good. Evidence was suppressed and officer Olsen gets off scott free. How sad. I had lost confidence in the Spokane police department long ago and this just adds to that. How can self defense be claimed when the man was shot in the back of the head? I am happy to see that he probably will not get his job back. Hopefully he will leave Spokane and work elsewhere. This is a black mark for the police department and they should be ashamed that they have officers that do these things and get away with it.
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 14 at 10:32 a.m.
Karen, thank you as always for your straight forward and accurate reporting. The fact that the Jury was not allowed to have all of the clearly damning evidence is a mistake by the prosecution. The prosecutor was clearly out of his league… gus
terrymr on March 14 at 5:41 p.m.
It seems odd that the dispatcher got to tell his story, where was this guy in the Pete trial ? How could the tape have possibly been erased when it was clearly material to two criminal investigations. There just seems to be too much of a credibility problem here.
And bringing SWAT into the court room, seriously ?
R_S_Richards on March 16 at 11:06 a.m.
I can not accept the out come of this trial. Justice, is just a word here in Spokane. Watching the evening news, and witnessing pictures of members of the Spokane Police Dept. with smiles, and high fives, for one of their own. Made me nauseous, and scared. The “Blue Curtain” lives on!!. I’m guessing the jury will receive great treatment from Spokane’s men in Blue!?