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August 15, 2011 in News, City
Medical expert: Officers caused Zehm’s death
A medical expert hired by the Spokane police officer facing criminal charges over the fatal Otto Zehm confrontation is blaming other officers at the scene for causing the unarmed janitor’s death.
Court documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court indicate Dr. Daniel Davis is prepared to testify in Officer Karl Thompson’s excessive force trial that the asphyxiation that killed Zehm was caused by officers pressing down on him while he was hogtied on the floor of a Zip Trip convenience store.
In the documents Davis provides a second-by-second review of the store video that captured the confrontation in making his medical finding, which includes no mention of the “excited delirium” diagnosis offered by Spokane County Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken during her autopsy of Zehm following the March 18, 2006, confrontation.
Davis reviewed Aiken’s findings and said he’s prepared to testify on Thompson’s behalf that Zehm’s “proximate cause of death was compression asphyxia” caused by officers pressing down on his lower back, and head and neck area for nearly three minutes before Zehm stopped breathing.
Davis’ analysis shows that Officer Erin Raleigh applied pressure on Zehm’s abdomen for 1 minute, 34 seconds. Another officer, Jason Uberuaga, “remains on Zehm’s chest/neck area for a total of 2 minutes, 47 seconds,” Davis wrote in his report. “After pressure was removed, it was noticed almost immediately that (Zehm) was unresponsive.”
That testimony would directly contradict previous statements by city officials, including former Deputy Chief Al Odenthal who said, “No,” on July 13, 2006, when asked during a news conference whether officers were applying pressure on Zehm as he was hogtied on his stomach.
Attorney Breean Beggs, who along with Jeffry Finer is representing the estate and mother of Zehm, said the newest filing clearly supports something that city officials privately and publicly denied.
“It’s kind of the same general trend,” Beggs said. “Even though it’s five years later, all the evidence seems to be confirming what the family was concerned about from the beginning … that the death was caused by officer misconduct in the form of excessive compression and had nothing to do with excited delirium.”
That term has been used by some police agencies to describe otherwise unexplainable behavior, such as an elevated body temperature and bizarre actions, including resisting arrest. While Aiken included the reference in her autopsy, she noted research into the condition is “conflicting and somewhat controversial.”
City Administrator Ted Danek said he had not read the new filing by attorney Courtney Garcea and was not prepared to comment. He referred questions to city spokeswoman Marlene Feist, who also said she hadn’t read the document filed in preparation of the Oct. 11 federal criminal trial of Thompson.
“We will see a lot of filings as this trial prepares to commence,” Feist said. “I think this is one more piece of information we will have to review as a city to see how it fits in with the larger picture.”
Thompson faces the felony charges of using unreasonable force and lying to investigators following the deadly confrontation. Back in 2006, he had responded to a call by two young women who erroneously thought Zehm had stolen money from a nearby ATM.
Thompson followed Zehm into a nearby Zip Trip convenience store, confronted him in an aisle and immediately began beating him with a baton and shocked him with a Taser. Several other officers arrived to help control Zehm, who eventually lost consciousness and died two days later.
Following his death, Assistant City Attorney Rocky Treppiedi wrote about the cause of death after attorneys representing the Zehm family asked for a retraction by then-Acting Chief Jim Nicks about statements he made on May 30, 2006. On that day, Nicks announced Aiken’s cause of death and said officers had kept Zehm on his side for a “majority” of the time he was hogtied to ensure he could breathe.
The video, which was previously reviewed by Nicks and released a month later, clearly showed that officers kept Zehm on his stomach most of the several minutes he remained hogtied before he stopped breathing.
Nicks — who is now prepared to testify that Thompson violated policy and procedures during the confrontation — later said: “I made it clear that during the (May 30) press conference my impression was that he was on his side for a great portion of that time. So my impression obviously wasn’t quite accurate. But there was no intent to mislead or misdirect in any shape or form.”
Treppiedi wrote in his June 21, 2006, letter that the officers “acted pursuant to their training” to monitor Zehm once he was hogtied “regardless of whether he was on his back, stomach or side. They not only monitored him — they had paramedics on scene and had them take immediate steps to provide medical aid to him once he stopped breathing. They did all they could, given his extraordinary efforts to fight against the officers and then against the restraints.”
Treppiedi concluded, in that same letter, that the attorneys representing Zehm’s family, were engaging in “hyper-critical attempt to second-guess and over analyze” a rapidly evolving situation.
“Mr. Zehm did not die because he was restrained; he died because of a variety of facts — one of which is that he was restrained, one of which is that he was prone part of the time, and a major factor, that he was in a lengthy state of excited delirium,” he wrote.
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DHF on August 15 at 7:51 p.m.
Otto died because he was INNOCENT and the police were responsible for his death. It doesn’t make a difference which one did what. They are all guilty of his death and I pray a jury will find them responsible.
meyerlansky on August 15 at 8:07 p.m.
Looks like the rats are all going to turn on each other. If Thompson does not go to jail, then there IS NO justice in Spokane.
The only question needing answers to is how much money the Zehm family will be awarded.
D Statler on August 15 at 8:21 p.m.
Sounds like the Officers had excited delerium,not Otto! I wonder why Karl Thompson is the only one being charged. All the arresting officers are guilty of second and third degree murder. All his immediate superiors who staged the cover up should be directly reviewed also. This has been a terrible horror story for the Zehm family. No settlement offer will make this right. Making sure it can not happen again is the most important issue.Unfortunately, things have been buisness as usual since Otto’s death.
riggsmac on August 15 at 8:23 p.m.
My big question is, why has it taken so long? Tapes really don’t lie.
jddavis on August 15 at 8:47 p.m.
Undooly: “All his immediate superiors who staged the cover up should be directly reviewed also.”
I am pretty sure if someone is aware of a crime and helps the perp by concealing evidence is commiting a crime. Maybe holding Thompson’s superiors (and others) who had knowledge of the facts and elected to cover them up criminally accountable will change the good ‘ole boy mindset; then again, maybe not.
Can anyone here speak with certainty about how others could be charged under the law for attempting to cover up the facts?
misjustice on August 15 at 9:02 p.m.
Oh please, “excited delirium” is junk science cooked up by the Taser makers to blame the victims that die from the use of their electro shock devices…and by cops that kill innocent people.
misjustice on August 15 at 9:03 p.m.
Of course the “expert” hired by Thompson is gonna blame the other cops. Duh!
Slightlyworried on August 15 at 9:23 p.m.
Well, one thing is for sure, Steve “The Police Never Make Mistakes” Tucker will not charge officer Erin Raleigh or officer Jason Uberuaga with anything. That would require three things: (a) Tucker coming off the golf course, (b) Tucker reviewing the tape and the file, and (c) Tucker having the courage to do the right thing. I am not going to hold my breath like Otto was forced to do.
PlanB on August 15 at 9:47 p.m.
They are trying to obfuscate the events so that no one is responsible. “Society is to blame” will be the next thing coming from these despicable people.
Plain and simple, Otto would not be dead if he hadn’t been beaten in the first place. No rebreather mask would be needed, no one would have to apply “pressure” to subdue him. There are many people guilty of misconduct and lying, and they all need to be prosecuted, but Karl Thompson is the killer.
The_Seer on August 15 at 10:11 p.m.
The whole thing started with the two young women concocting a tale they knew wasn’t true. Why are they being given a free pass? Why does the Spokesman refuse to print their names? While not foreseeable, their actions were a proximate cause of Otto’s untimely death.
misjustice on August 15 at 10:33 p.m.
Seer, the 9-1-1 call, made by the two young women, has always puzzled me. Towards the end of their call they admit that they got their bank card back from the ATM. So, if they retrieved their card they had to have known that Otto could not have stolen their money or their bank card…I believe that they got frightened and embellished their story to the dispatcher.
And a few minutes later, a man was beaten and hogtied by police and died.
Ron_the_Cop on August 15 at 10:49 p.m.
For readers just coming to this story, you should read the discussions threads of the last week when the Zehm case blew up in the media again. Start here and work your way back:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/aug/14/editorial-city-leaders-mishandled-zehm-case/
@The Seer
The girls just called in about something they believed to be suspicious. They shouldn’t be faulted for the police response that went sour.
Traveler on August 15 at 10:53 p.m.
misj, as I remember the newspaper stories (granted, they’re kinda fuzzy years later), the women said they saw Zehm near the ATM just before they used it or as they were leaving (he was probably just doing what many of us do when we pass pay phones and check the change bin). I don’t think they ever said THEY were robbed, only that Zehm may have been doing something to the machine. I also sort of remember reading later that they were devastated that their call led to his death.
misjustice on August 15 at 11:07 p.m.
56, I’ve heard the 9-1-1 call. I am not relying on what has been printed in the media.
Traveler on August 15 at 11:25 p.m.
Ah. I sit corrected.
greenlibertarian on August 15 at 11:38 p.m.
Initial cause. Proximate cause. Cops. Those don’t break in favor of Blue.
Another multi-MILLION dollar settlement paid by the TAXPAYERS of City of Spokane.
Money that could be used FAR better elsewhere.
Jimmy Marks laughing from his grave.
Past time to end the abuse of citizenry and stupidity.
misjustice on August 16 at 12:11 a.m.
I’m not the best at transcription…I may have missed some of the ums, likes, and at points the gals are talking over each other…I did play it over and over to render as true a transcription as I could…this is the call that I find so puzzling. It seems rather vague to me. Certainly not enough to beat a man and hog tie him over…but maybe that’s just me.
“um, there was some guy and he came up to us when we were at the ATM and he ahh was, like trying to get in our car and stuff, and we drove off but we’d already put our card in and he was there messing with it forever, and then he walked off with like stuff like he got money and he took a lot of money out of her ATM and then he came over to us and was like trying to get in the car so we drove off because we didn’t know what to do”
“we were in the car at the drive up ATM, and we drove off when he wouldn’t go away and he’s right here, just like walking, like we started driving after he started walking off with like the money and we didn’t know where to go and now he’s walking, he ran.”
“when we saw him walk away he had a like a slip, like the slip they give back, and he had a big wad of something so I think it was money and then he put it in his jacket. And when we started driving to see where he went, he ran.”
continues…
The gals did confirm to dispatch that they’d gotten the bank card back from the ATM but by then Thompson was already on the way to the Zip Trip to confront Otto.
D Statler on August 16 at 5:51 a.m.
Very Sad :^(
The_Seer on August 16 at 8:37 a.m.
I have the complete 911 call in the opening sequence of a film I’m working to complete on this subject. You can see the clip here:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=171082772921263
Misjustice is correct that the call is vague and Thompson could have avoided the entire debacle using that oft ignored policing tactic called interrogation. Instead, Karl the Klubber came in swinging from his hips and decided to let god sort things out. God turned out to be a federal grand jury. What puzzles me is that the 911 operator confirms that Otto didn’t have their ATM card but when Thompson asks the dispatcher whether Otto got any of the girls’ money, the dispatcher states “affirmative.”
The rest of the cops involved will go down too. It’s just a matter of time.
Otto clearly wasn’t fleeing from the police. Why didn’t Thompson wait for back up before confronting him in the Zip Trip? Unless a crime is in progress, isn’t that police protocol?
misjustice on August 16 at 9:12 a.m.
Seer, I’ve wondered about Thompson’s reaction that night also. What happened to walking up to a “suspect” and detaining them while you attempt to clarify the crime that they are accused of? Ask the suspect where they just came from, ask them to empty their pockets, ask them anything needed verify the claim that they did something wrong.
I mean, people lie and embellish the truth all the time. At first the gals claimed that Otto took their money, then they said he had a wad of something that they THOUGHT was money.
And I find their claim that Otto tried to get into their car to be dubious, at best. If they were that fearful of a man that they thought just stole their money from an ATM, and a man that they accused of trying to get into their car, WHY did they follow him in their car?
I just don’t understand how a 9-1-1 call that vague could justify the police over reaction that took place that night.
I agree, Seer, that dispatch did not help to clarify the situation.
therailroader on August 16 at 11:00 a.m.
What else has the SPD covered up the last five years? Isn’t this case enough to demonstrate that the SPD will do whatever it wants for it faces no consequences. What should happen is that a number of current personnel need to be either demoted or let go due either to their agressiveness and/or incompetence (or both). That move will heve happen as elected officials are more concerned about their own careers versus helping their constituents. What a sick joke!
lynns on August 16 at 2:25 p.m.
Just a quick reminder to keep your posts brief, on-topic and civil. Thanks to everyone who expresses forceful opinions in a decent manner!
Lynn, S-R Web producer
misjustice on August 16 at 2:25 p.m.
Thanks, Ron, for the additional information on Sgt. Peterson. I did not know about his involvement; in either the firehouse scandal or the editing of the Otto video. Keep up the good work!
; )
Ron_the_Cop on August 16 at 2:34 p.m.
Ms. Justy,
I see I’ve offended the Blog Gods yet again - Ms. Lynn S. My post has been scrubbed. Was it because of my quip re the timing of the Brunt/Clouse stories and the current election and my chiding them that there were late out of the gate on this story?
Lynn, I know my post was long winded but to put “Spokane Nice” in proper perspective takes a lot of words:-)
If it was because of my signature line that included for my credibility I will be happy to strike it and repost my piece.
Ron Wright
Ron_the_Cop on August 16 at 3:11 p.m.
To all the Blog Gods have responded and if I can abide by “shorter = better” my post will be allowed. I will post this in the newer thread for this article shortly:
Expert: Officers caused death
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/aug/16/expert-officers-caused-death/