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March 18, 2009 in City
Caller disputes 911 testimony
Couple who helped Pete say he never admitted stealing truck
Carol A. Blackburn and Michael R. Dale, who now live near Port Townsend, Wash., took Shonto Pete into their Peaceful Valley home the night he was shot. They called 911. BurkeDigitalPix.com
(Full-size photo)
Two people who helped a bleeding Shonto Pete after shots rang out in Peaceful Valley and called 911 at Pete’s request are challenging a police dispatcher’s testimony last week in the trial of suspended police Officer Jay Olsen.
Spokane Police Department dispatch supervisor Marvin D. Tucker testified for the defense that Pete admitted to him during the 911 call on Feb. 26, 2007, that he’d stolen Olsen’s truck and then was shot.
“Pete never said that. I was three feet away from him,” said Michael R. Dale in a telephone interview Tuesday from his new home on the Olympic Peninsula.
His companion Carol A. Blackburn, who was in the house at 1421 West Clarke Ave. when she heard shots and woke up Dale, agreed that Pete made no such statement.
“I’m certain that there were no remarks made about stealing a truck. I think he’s lying – someone is,” said Blackburn, referring to Tucker’s testimony.
Others also questioned Tucker’s testimony, which triggered criticism during the trial because no such conversation exists in tapes of the 911 call.
Spokane police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, responding Tuesday to e-mailed questions about the Olsen trial, said she has opened a “formal inquiry” into Tucker’s testimony.
Dale, 52, testified for the state in Olsen’s trial, but he wasn’t recalled by Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz to rebut Tucker’s testimony in the trial’s final days.
Steinmetz said Tuesday he decided against recalling Dale because he lives on an island and is in poor health. Dale said he’s disabled, with arthritis in his spine.
“It would have been very, very difficult for him to get back over here. I didn’t want to put his health in jeopardy,” Steinmetz added.
Dale said he would have been glad to return to Spokane. In his opinion, he said, “justice has failed to be done simply because Tucker lied.”
During his testimony, Tucker said the tape of the 911 call had been erased, despite requests by police detectives on March 5, 2007, for all 911 and police dispatch recordings related to the incident.
Steinmetz, in an effort to impeach Tucker’s testimony, had him read to the jury the entire dispatch transcript from the event.
“Nowhere – and this is your recording of the event – does it say that the victim you identified took the vehicle,” Steinmetz said.
“No, it does not,” Tucker replied. But he said it was “common knowledge” in the Police Department that he’d spoken to Pete and he assumed the 911 tape would be produced in legal proceedings.
The tape didn’t surface surface in Pete’s October 2007 trial on theft charges, either. A Spokane jury acquitted Pete of the charge he’d stolen Olsen’s truck.
Dale said he hadn’t heard about Tucker’s testimony until Monday, when he was sent an e-mail link to a newspaper story on the trial.
“I think it’s the boys in blue standing up for the boys in blue,” he said.
Dale said he yanked a terrified Pete inside the house from the porch shortly before 4 a.m., fearing the “lunatic” shooter firing a volley of bullets into the neighborhood would harm all of them.
“Shonto’s first words were, ‘Can you call the police? I’ve been shot,’ ” Dale said. He and Blackburn sat Pete on their couch and helped him slow the heavy bleeding from his head wound. Dale said he called 911.
A male’s voice answered, asking to talk to Pete, Dale said.
“Shonto gave his name, his age, 27, and his address. Then he was asked for a short description of what happened,” Dale said.
“Shonto said he’d asked the guy for a lift, the guy pulled a gun, and he ran and got shot. He then said he ran into Peaceful Valley,” Dale said.
Kirkpatrick responded Tuesday for the first time to widespread public criticism of Friday’s verdict acquitting Olsen of first-degree assault and reckless endangerment charges.
“It is the citizens who decided this verdict not the police department. Jay Olsen was tried by a jury of his peers and that would be you, the citizens … If the community is unhappy then they need to direct their disappointment at their neighbor,” she wrote in an e-mailed response.
“In the Jay Olsen case, we did our part and brought him to you – the public – to determine justice. We can hold our head high, can you?” Kirkpatrick added.
Reach Karen Dorn Steele at (509) 459-5462 or at karend@spokesman.com.
Sex trafficking suspects released as probe continues 
ChefGus/ John Olsen on March 18 at 7:05 a.m.
Well…. the Chief did indeed bring us the shooter to put on trial… and i am inclined to agree with her that WE dropped the ball in the court case…. that “We” being the inept prosecution and poor court performance of our “representative” the person who let this great big ball of counter testimony fall on the jury and not counter it at least with a deposition, if not the presence of the witnesses here described…
I am impressed that there will be an internal investigation of the likely untrue testimony about the details of the 911 call.
Karen thank you again for moving this forward.. john
liarsinnews on March 18 at 8:15 a.m.
Its not the first time Spokane`s finest destroyed evidence. Not all that long ago, the SPD erased photos of a fire fighter who had intercourse in a fire station with a 16 year girl. The pics were of the fire fighter during the act inside the station.
howie59 on March 18 at 8:45 a.m.
I hope the next time I come home for a visit I don’t have to call on Spokane’s “finest.” And I don’t think the Chief should be talking about holding their heads high. Sounds like the prosecution goofed by not strongly challenging the “new” information about the 911 call — it sounded fishy to me as soon as I read about it. Quit protecting your own, SPD. I hope that at least Jay Olsen’s violations of policy (drinking while carrying a weapon, etc.) are enough to keep him from ever wearing a uniform again.
DocTom on March 18 at 8:56 a.m.
Anybody consider a new trial on the unlawful discharge of a weapon in a neighborhood? Can you picture the people who were securely sleeping in their homes when this drunken “officer’s” rounds were randomly passing through their community? It is a complete loss to me as to why the Prosecution failed to bring a key witness to court in the first place. Talk about lacking professional expertise. I’m sure that there are highly trained, very professional officers in the SPD, but I have yet to see them.
eagleproducer on March 18 at 12:19 p.m.
Kirkpatrick is such a tool it’s hilarious.
Talk about the thin blue line.
As a producer of documentary films focusing on social issues, I’m sure glad I recently moved back to Spokane! A treasure trove of potential topics is always available.
On another note, who wants to bet we haven’t heard the last of the latest SPD shooting, the one happening early this morning involving the canine “officer.”
My bet is we’d get more truthful testimony from the dog!
JFRENCH on March 18 at 8:41 p.m.
All I see are posts slamming the police department. All I can say is that one person does not represent the whole department. The police department charged Olsen, that’s as far as they go. Then it’s in the hands of the court. What is so hard to understand about that? His acquittal has nothing to do with the police department. And for those of you who do end up having to call on Spokane’s Finest, I’ll bet you’ll be damn glad when they show up to save your ass. But you’ll most likely cry about how long it took them to show up.
cantyoureadthesigns on March 18 at 8:55 p.m.
Wow, what a condescending tone from the Chief, very disappointing.
Under who’s supervision is the 9/11 department? SPD? County Sheriff?
Seems to me, at the very least, there was either a serious mistake make in erasing that supposed tape, or, more likely, the guy was just plain lying. Why wasn’t the chain of custody for evidence examined for this 9/11 tape? Just exactly WHO can erase 9/11 tapes?
There are way to many unanswered questions in the case.
jenny on March 18 at 11:52 p.m.
How can you hold your head high when you put Olsen on administrative leave after all the violations of police policy? He should have been fired. Olsen said on the witness stand he was scared of his chief Fitzpatrick because you fired another policeman for not wearing his seat belt. Olsen was drunk and had his loaded gun in the bar. He used that gun he wasn’t supposed to have to shoot a guy in the head. He had training on when to use lethal force and to shoot at the torso.This wasn’t the right time, and it appears he was shooting to kill. The prosecutor was protecting Olsen and didn’t care about prosecuting this case. The judge was on Olsen’s side too. The victim did not get justice. I was not fare for the victim at all. You should be ashamed. Ms Fitzpatrick, the judge and everyone who supports a person who is deceiving, and dishonest.