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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Lawsuit filed over jump from bridge

From Staff Reports

Attorneys have filed a $4.7 million federal civil suit against the Spokane Police Department and Spokane County Sheriff’s Department for their failed attempt to keep a mentally ill man from jumping off the Monroe Street Bridge while his father watched.

Breean Beggs, formerly of the Center for Justice, filed the suit in federal court Monday, one day short of the three-year anniversary of Joshua Levy’s fatal jump. The 28-year-old college student with paranoid schizophrenia was engaged in a standoff with police on July 26, 2007, that lasted into the next day.

Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick promised Levy’s family that officers wouldn’t use force, but that plan changed when an officer fired a Taser at Levy. When the probes missed, two officers rushed at him and he jumped, Beggs wrote in court records.

The suit also alleges that police and sheriff’s officials, who were spelling the city officers, did not seek advice from mental health officials before attempting to end the standoff.

“They decide to rush him,” Beggs said. “It’s almost guaranteed that he is going to jump.”

Levy’s father was there but was not told of the decision to try to secure Levy by force, Beggs said.