Trial in Zehm death rescheduled to March

The federal trial of Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. has a new date: March 7. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle on Monday reset the trial to next year after federal prosecutors objected to his ruling barring any evidence showing Otto Zehm had not committed a crime on March 18, 2006, the night Thompson struck him with a baton and shocked him with a Taser before officers hogtied Zehm, who stopped breathing and died two days later. Thompson faces felony charges of using excessive force and lying to investigators about the confrontation with Zehm, who was 36. The trial had been set to begin June 7, but Victor Boutros, a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, said prosecutors wanted to appeal Van Sickle’s ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Van Sickle postponed the trial.