City caught in cover-up

Since the article “City reconsiders Zehm strategy” appeared in the paper, a number of people have asked me why I thought Jim Nicks changed his mind and suddenly told the truth. My answer: Because there is abundant, strong evidence that Otto Zehm was brutally killed, and Nicks was part of a cover-up.

Consequently, Nicks would have been caught lying in court at the October trial. Lying to a federal grand jury constitutes the crime of perjury. To protect himself, Nicks simply decided to tell federal prosecutors what they undoubtedly could prove. It took five years for Nicks to tell the truth.

To compound this problem, a number of other public officials knew about this and are also implicated in this cover-up, namely Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, Mayor Mary Verner, City Attorney Howard Delaney and Rocky Treppiedi (all attorneys).

City officials have established a pattern of covering up wrongdoing. This time, they covered up the killing of a citizen by police and got caught in the act. This is a major crime, especially because of the trust placed in our public leaders.

There appears to be strong evidential cause to charge these folks with criminal activity.

Tony Bamonte

Former law enforcement officer

Spokane