Spokane7
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August 26, 2011 in City
Chism’s wrongful arrest lawsuit headed to trial
Chism
(Full-size photo)
A suspended Spokane firefighter’s wrongful arrest lawsuit against the Washington State Patrol over a botched child pornography investigation is headed to trial after an appellate court ruling Wednesday.
A three-person panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says false statements made by WSP investigators amounted to intentional and reckless conduct that infringed on Spokane fire Lt. Todd Chism’s civil rights. The two WSP employees named in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, Detective Rachel Gardner and Sgt. John Sager, shouldn’t be granted immunity because of their actions, the court ruled.
The ruling reverses a previous decision by U.S. District Court Judge Lonny Suko.
Chism’s Spokane lawyer, Bob Dunn, said he expects the lawsuit to be scheduled for trial within the next year to 18 months. “We only have to talk about damages,” Dunn said.
WSP spokesman Bob Calkins said Thursday afternoon that the agency has not decided whether to seek a review of the ruling by the full court.
“We continue to believe that our troopers acted in good faith with the available information that they had at the time,” Calkins said of the 2008 incident.
The 9th Circuit ruling was issued the same day Dunn filed a $10 million claim against the state of Washington alleging WSP Troopers Greg Birkeland and Greg Riddell used excessive force when they arrested Chism in a separate incident in April 2010. A Stevens County jury acquitted Chism of assault and resisting arrest charges last week and awarded him attorney fees.
Chism returned to paid administrative leave at his $93,535 per-year job after the verdict, said Brian Schaeffer, assistant Spokane fire chief. He’d been on unpaid layoff status pending the resolution of the felony charges.
The claim filed Thursday alleges harassment, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, intentional infliction of emotional distress and retaliation, among other things. It stems from an early morning melee outside Chism’s Nine Mile Falls home after troopers responded to reports of a fight, but found Chism trying to move his truck after it had gotten stuck.
Dunn said Chism was assaulted by the troopers after being shocked seven times with a Taser.
“I would have never guessed that he would have been stopped by the State Patrol and have the State Patrol announce ‘We know who you are; we’re going to arrest you,’ “ Dunn said. “You’ve got to believe there’s some element of retaliation here.”
Dunn said Chism suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder because of his wrongful arrest for child pornography and feared the troopers were there in April as a continuance of the earlier case.
The child pornography case began in January 2008 when Gardner obtained a search warrant for Chism’s home and for his real estate office in Spokane. Chism was arrested on child pornography charges and jailed overnight, but no child pornography was found and he was never charged. He and his wife said they were victims of credit card thefts that led to child pornography-related purchases on their account.
The 9th Circuit ruling details several false statements and omissions by investigators when they sought the warrant, including that Chism’s credit card paid for child pornography images. In fact, the card paid hosting fees for websites to which pornography images were uploaded. Gardner also omitted from her affidavit that IP addresses associated with the Internet accounts “were traced to people other than the Chisms.”
The ruling said the false statements and omissions were crucial to a magistrate approving the search warrant.
Human trafficking suspects released 
DickAdams on August 26 at 6:52 a.m.
I wonder how long Chism has been in the real estate biz?
JayNW on August 26 at 8:26 a.m.
why is that relevant? People in all career fields have other investments, or a 2nd job.
brianrbreen on August 26 at 8:29 a.m.
@DickAdams
Perhaps he needed a job to pay the bills. He was disciplined by being suspended without pay prior to the resolution of the criminal complaint so the city has to pay him all of his back wages plus a calculation for overtime he might have received if he were working during that time. I’ve kinda lost track of exactly how much we have had to pony up just for police officers who were acquitted, and given their back pay plus over time but I’m pretty sure it is well over $300 thousand As repugnant as it might appear to the public at times it is better to keep a civil service employee on paid leave until the criminal issue is resolved. In the case of Karl Thompson, he remains working at full pay despite the federal criminal charges, that hasn’t been true for other officers. The city could have put him on paid administrative leave( in my opinion the right thing to do because the SPD doesn’t have a CCU) but for some reason the Chief decided she could use him on the job.
Since you are far better then I am at keeping track of city finances would you happen to know how much we are on the hook for with civil litigations against the city where employees have sued alleging the city initiated improper discipline or bias? My last count was around 14 million.
DickAdams on August 26 at 9:36 a.m.
Thanks brian, for the answer. I guess some posters try to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I didn`t say it was relevant only curious. I guess if I`m curious about something I should keep it to myself from now on.
horse_feathers on August 26 at 9:56 a.m.
” We continue to believe that our troopers acted in good faith
with the available infomation they had at the time”
Come on Bob!!!? after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says they lied in their affidavits you still have the nerve to compound thier lies with more lies. You may be dumb enough to think you can fool the public or at least infuse some doubt but I don’t believe you really believe the above quotation.
You cannot be that dumb or can you?
brianrbreen on August 26 at 10:06 a.m.
@horse_feathers
Funny isn’t it how affidavits and reports can come back to haunt you when someone on the dark side really looks at them. You would think someone on the bright side would scrutinize them before they got to the dark side.
The_Seer on August 26 at 10:10 a.m.
Wasn’t there another thread for this story?
The Spokesman needs another webmaster if the current one can’t figure out how to carry over story comments. Please, I’ve heard the same lame excuse over and over and over…
The_Seer on August 26 at 10:17 a.m.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/aug/24/ex-firefighter-pleads-not-guilty-to-dui/
Whatever happened with this case?
Whatever became of the drugs found during the child porn search of Chism’s residence?
D Statler on August 26 at 12:03 p.m.
I wouldn’t take anybodys statements at face value here. I can assure you that all envolved have ample reasons to lie.Most to save their backsides.Others to save the governments backside. Sounds like both sides have misrepresented the facts here. Just wondering how long this mess will take in court and how much it will cost us. :^( I still would have problems letting my children play at the Chism’s home.
johnclarke on August 26 at 12:38 p.m.
@ Dick Adams
“Buffett who, collected taxpayer stimulus money,”
Still waiting for evidence on that statement from another thread. Whattsa matta? Don’t like being called on your posts?
Squid on August 26 at 12:45 p.m.
Undooly, your statement of “I still would have problems letting my children play at the Chism’s home.” is exactly why the Chisms are bringing their lawsuit. They were branded to be trafficking in child porn and building and operating a child porn web site, which was a complete lie. This was big news, and made the headlines all over the Nation. The State Patrol never retracted it, or made any effort to fix the damage that was done, which would pretty much be impossible to do. The officers even knew that the web sites originated out of Bolivia and Chile, which should have given them a pretty good clue. It was purely lazy investigating, and it was far from time sensitive to get a warrant. They should have investigated further before ruining the Chisms name, Nationally.
You kind of have to think that the Bank of America has a lot of responsibility in this for giving false or incorrect information leading to the warrant. Sort of like the girls who reported Otto. These days, many people are getting their lives turned upside down by citizens falsely tattling.
TheRoyLarsen on August 26 at 1:06 p.m.
Maybe the WSP supervisor will change his story to reflect that the troopers acted improperly after all and say that others lied to him, kept things from him, and misrepresented information. In that event, everyone can call him a hero because he’s finally coming forward.
brianrbreen on August 26 at 1:36 p.m.
@The_Seer and @undooly_prosecuted
If you can for a moment try and set aside any feelings you might have regarding Todd Chism and the issues of DUI or drugs found during the execution of the search warrant. The story here is that two of the three panel judges have said primarily the following; In the courts view Chism made a showing that WSP Officer Rachel Gardner’s affidavit for the search warrant contained omissions and false statements and that the officers’ deception was intentional or reckless. That’s one thing that should bother you.. The court goes on to say that the arrest warrant for Chism was not supported by affidavit rather a Certification of Probable Cause submitted by Spokane County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Christian Peters the basis for which was Gardner’s investigation. That’s another thing that should bother you.
I don’t think either one of you would want to be in a position where a law enforcement officer obtained a search warrant for your residence and business omitting facts and making false statements. Nor do I believe either one of you would want a prosecutor to obtain an arrest warrant for you without really studying the case to see if there were problems with it.
DickAdams on August 26 at 1:40 p.m.
Clarke I posted an answer to the question you asked me the same day. Can`t you read? I guess you were too lazy to check it out.
D Statler on August 26 at 2:31 p.m.
@ Brianrbreen, The drugs and DUI charges are what I was talking about here.
BTW:My family continues to pay for Spokane’s prosecutors relying solely on false testimony of an informant. Even after a written confession letter and sworn testimony from the detective that he had no real evidence.It has been three of fortytwo years now Brian.I will be 90 years old when my son and nephew get released. I definately have reason to dislike Steve and his uncontrolled thugs. Spokane’s prosecutors have a track record of overcharging, hoping for something to stick.Heck,they even showed up the day of the trial and changed the date the crime was committed.Funny they picked the day after timesheets from work were submitted by defense.Why do alibi defenses have to be filed ahead of the trial anyway? Fishy?
Apallate judges let mistakes ride on technicalities. I am glad that Chism got a fair ruling to begin with.Our kids were railroaded by thirteen deputy prosecutors coercing judge Eitzen. She knew our kids were innocent by her statements in her courtroom.Yet failed to dismiss the charges,instead fining the prosecutor with sanctions. The Prosecutors office is the most powerful in the country and has no checks and balances to keep them from this kind of corruption.Our legal justice system has many flaws. There is no clear answer. I would not be surprised if Spokane Prosecutors or the Drug/Gang task force somehow ruin my life the rest of the way :^(
TheRoyLarsen on August 26 at 4:18 p.m.
We need Jim Nicks to testify against these troopers. He’ll tell the truth.
BitofBacon on August 26 at 5:01 p.m.
TheRoy, would that be the truth circa 2006 or the truth circa 2011?
brianrbreen on August 27 at 7:32 a.m.
@Squid
I just want to point this out, Steve Tucker’s office might not have had much to do with this. I think the “Christian Peters” documented in the 9ths decision and described as a Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor who obtained the arrest warrant with a CPC might in fact be “Christen Peters” a Thurston County Prosecutor on the board of the WSP’s Missing and Exploited Children’s Task Force. The story doesn’t say, nor does the decision, who the magistrate was that signed the search warrant but it could have been a Superior Court Judge outside of Spokane County.
My point is this, if my assumptions are correct Tucker’s office shouldn’t be chastised if they had nothing to do with the case review of the WSP Troopers investigation and search warrant affidavit, in my opinion any responsibility for that lies with whoever the prosecutor was that oversaw the investigation and didn’t take notice of the discrepancies.
With respect to the WSP knowing that the websites originated in Bolivia and Chile. I don’t think they knew where the websites were actually located because whoever was hosting the sites was using a “Bounce” (hack into a computer left on and use that IP). The Bolivia and Chile deal is the phony addresses used for Yahoo log in names, there is no way of telling where the actual log in took place if the IP is a bounce. I’m not sure what the dissent (Ikuto) was trying to say by referencing this info. I understand Judge Ikuto’s dissenting opinion but I think this info tends to support the majority in that the Troopers should have questioned why when the bad guys were using the Chism’s names and address to pay for the hosting why would they have used a phony log in address. I always use TheRoyLarsen’s or BitofBacon’s address whenever I don’t want mine known.
brianrbreen on August 27 at 9:04 a.m.
Okay, I know I have it right now. Steve Tucker’s office had nothing at all to do with the Chism case, everything including the search warrant, and arrest warrant came from Thurston County Superior Court.
The name of the prosecutor was misspelled in the 9th s published decision, and the prosecutor was incorrectly described as a deputy prosecutor in the office of the Spokane County Prosecutor.
Ron_the_Cop on August 27 at 12:04 p.m.
@Brean,
YOU JUST NAILED IT!
It’s LE leadership where our problems lie. First and foremost they don’t review the work product or if they do they don’t demand excellence. Secondly when there are mistakes made they will deny any wrongdoing and cover them up e.g., Zehm.
Look LE is a very difficult and demanding job and mistakes will be made. It’s better to acknowledge mistakes, pay up and make changes where necessary to minimize repeat occurrences. IT”S CHEAPER in the long rung.
It’s apparent to me LE leadership in our region especially with the SPD can’t seem to keep people fired that should be fired because they can’t get their discipline cases right without screwing them up. This is where I fault our elected leaders for not taking corrective action to fix this incompetence.
As I taxpayer I’m getting quite irate because I will eventually have to pay for these mistakes - Zehm, most likely Creach coming down the pike and now these cases with the WSP. What the HELL is going on?
I generally thought better of WSP. I’ve done probably a 1000 or more search warrants in my day and many more arrest warrants. I also am no stranger to computer forensics and computer related crimes. WSP made rookie level mistakes. You don’t arrest someone until you have evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that these common occurrences didn’t happen - ID theft, hijacking or spoofing IP addresses and many more common MOs. Also you need to use a little common sense when you search a computer, house and other online storage locations and don’t find much to link to the guy in the house, this should be a big RED FLAG that there may be someone else involved.
And finally I’ve read my share of police reports in my day and when I’ve read reports here and checked into their investigative product esp again SPS I’m not at all impressed with their work product. Things have been overlooked or not considered in OIS/OID cases. Look in lesser cases there are many constraints on resources and time but in OIS/OIDs there should be no holds barred. And yet when I bring this to the attention of LE leadership and elected leaders of this community, I’m summarily dismissed, chastised, viewed as some little green man from Mars, I also had one of my employers contacted who reacted defensively and terminated their relationship with me because of my speaking openly about mistakes I’ve seen.
Looks like Attorney Bob Dunn will be getting a two for one with Mr. Chism. Look a greatly admire Mr. Dunn for the job he is doing but I’m getting very tired of PAYING his clients damage awards and his fees.