Spokane7
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March 22, 2011 in City
WSP sergeant who shot pregnant woman won’t be charged
A Washington State Patrol sergeant who shot an unarmed pregnant woman during a drug raid in Spokane last fall will not face criminal charges, officials confirmed Tuesday.
Sgt. Lee Slemp has been on paid administrative leave since the Sept. 24 incident. He will return to work today in an administrative position while WSP conducts an internal investigation into the shooting, said Bob Calkins, spokesman for the State Patrol.
Slemp told investigators he shot Keamia D. Powell, 24, by accident as he was trying to stop her from escaping out a window at 1405 N. Lincoln St. Slemp and other members of the Quad Cities Drug Task Force were searching the apartment as part of a crack cocaine investigation.
For law enforcement to face criminal charges in Washington, prosecutors must believe the officers acted with malice, not just negligence. Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker and Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll, who reviews officer-involved shootings, did not return phone calls seeking comment on Tuesday.
Slemp has said he had his gun drawn while corralling suspects and accidentally fired it when Powell tried to climb out the window, investigators say.
Powell, who was nine months pregnant, delivered her baby at a hospital after the shooting and has since recovered.
She’s been charged with four felony drug charges and was in rehab when she pleaded not guilty in November.
Calkins said WSP had heard previously that no charges would be filed and arranged for Slemp to work at a desk job while the State Patrol decides if he violated department policies. Slemp will not be armed, Calkins said.
But, Calkins said, “This is not a demotion. This is simply a job where he’s not out on the street interacting with the public until we complete the internal investigation.”
Slemp, a 25-year veteran, earns $80,112 annually.
He and other task force members, who are based in the Pullman area, joined members of the Spokane police gang unit in the search.
The task force began investigating Powell and her mother, Aletha Robinson, 41, last June after a confidential informant bought cocaine from them on several occasions, according to court documents used to support felony drug charges against them.
Powell is scheduled for trial on April 18. Her mother also is charged.
Powell’s son was taken by state welfare workers just after he was born because hospital staff were concerned about his health, according to court testimony. Investigators said Powell had tried to swallow drugs during the raid.
Powell could not be reached for comment.
Human trafficking suspects released 
bagahoe420 on March 22 at 7:33 p.m.
wow another punk ass cop gets away with it maybe he should be shot
bszottlinger on March 22 at 7:44 p.m.
Speaking of PAes. I think one just posted!
Kivaari on March 22 at 7:46 p.m.
bagahoe, He hasn’t gotten away with anything. There was no criminal intent. He still faces department sanctions and the inevitable law suit. The wounded party carries much of the blame for getting shot. She should not have been selling drugs, nor using drugs, nor attempting to escape, nor swallowing more drugs, nor being addicted to drugs while she was pregnant. She lost her child, she went into rehab. She is pathetic person, and her wound was minor. So a 25 year veteran, is a punk ass cop? No, he just screwed up royally.
Ed Byrnes on March 22 at 7:52 p.m.
None of this is a surprise, though it is very telling. So does this mean that civilians will not be charged if they’re negligent, or is that a privilege reserved for law enforcement?
I am waiting to be called a liberal cop hating so-and-so and I really don’t care.
The evidence of differential treatment of law enforcement officers and deputies in comparison to civilians is so abundant that it will speak for itself.
Ed
bszottlinger on March 22 at 7:57 p.m.
Bagahoe:
Based on the vernacular you use I would assume you have first hand knowledge of what a punk is in the joint. I never could understand why those that have been through the process use the term punk when they hit outside in a demeaning way when all the time they were inside they loved it.
maria on March 22 at 7:57 p.m.
And guess what else, Kivaari: she is also human.
bagahoe420 on March 22 at 7:58 p.m.
first off you cant get your permit if you have any record of violence and out on the streets its a different story
rpmarp on March 22 at 8:49 p.m.
Somebody please interpret what the idiot just said.
Kivaari on March 22 at 8:49 p.m.
Maria, So, she is human! Wow, aren’t we all? The trooper had a negligent discharge while reacting fast to an escaping druggie. His fault for having his finger on the trigger when he grabbed for her. All of the events that led to the shooting resulted from her involvement in the drug trade, addiction and her attempt to escape justice. Had she not involved herself in this lifestyle she would not find herself with a healed gun shot wound, a child removed by CPS, months in treatment and facing criminal charges.
Kivaari on March 22 at 8:58 p.m.
ebyrnes, Actually I am surprised that the trooper has been hanging around in a staff job, without his gun. I would have expected this case to have been resolved by now. I would have expected him to have been retrained and sent around the state on a training mission, teaching others why they shouldn’t do what he did. I expected him to be restored to full duty. It is a waste to lose a good officer, over a serious, but understandable event.
Pat O'Leary on March 22 at 9:13 p.m.
kivarri you are full of b… s…..
johnclarke on March 22 at 9:24 p.m.
lol you are addressing someone who has the handle bagahoe420 ha ha.
Scoutster on March 22 at 9:27 p.m.
This always seemed like an accident and a decision against prosecution, I thought, was decided months ago. He’s been on paid leave for 6 mos? C’mon you public employee militants…couldn’t he have been put to work cleaning toilets at the parks or something for that time? Why should we pay him to not work?
Anyway, I hope they just fix whatever training screw-up it was and move along.
And, Kivarri, thank you for showing us once again the ugly face under the mask of LE in this community.
Dazzeetrader11 on March 22 at 9:48 p.m.
Shooting a large, slow 9 month pregnant woman ….wouldn’t it be easier to just grab her? Trigger happy? Ozzie told a different story by the way.
Kinda funny how wide open the law is: you get off if you didn’t have “malice”. “Hey Mr Policeman..did you have malice? ” Before you answer, let the union rep inform you…. Answer “Ummm……not exactly.” SO there ya go! Base pay of 80K restored plus OT and the pension and benefits. You don’t shoot people who aren’t threatening you. A 9 month PG gal on the 2nd floor of the apt house going out the window somehow doesn’t sound threatening….moreso when she’s unarmed. Does anyone on this site seriously think this shooting was justified? Of course not. Had to ask though. Next thing you know, someone will get shot for being too “lippy”…but the cop can say he didn’t have “malice”. Oh please.! When a cop’s judgement is this bad, he should be filing papers somewhere else.
These escape hatches must be cleaned up . Basically they’re written by the unions and get tacit approval without any oversight whatsoever. Give the unions and the officers a big edge. What the public doesn’t know can hurt them.
D Statler on March 22 at 9:58 p.m.
Having these guys clean public restrooms for the Parks department or in this case DOT is a great idea. Paid administrtive leave for six months is ALOT excessive. LEO’s do enjoy different rights than we as civillians do. They are hopfully trained to use these extra rights with due dilligence. This whole drug and gang taskforce mentality is very scary. This group of shadowy law enforcement has a poor track record. When they are not using informants,they are passing meth/crack out to addicts for help setting up the next deals. “Give’em three,got off free”. Millions of dollars have been lost and or misappropriated. This shooting mishap is just the tip of the iceberg of what really happens with these rogue and often corrupt task forces.The facts are always hidden away.
I am glad this LEO is finally back to some sort of meaningful work. Keeping him away from the weapons is probably a good thing.Next time,he might shoot one of his own in the buttocks.
Ed Byrnes on March 22 at 10:09 p.m.
Kivaari: When you use terms like “druggie” to describe the victim of the officers negligence, in response to someone suggesting that she is human, it harms your credibility because it makes you seem quite biased. Totally excusing the officer who had the dangerously poor judgment to keep his finger on the trigger while grabbing someone, and your displaying a complete disregard for the shooting victim, well it just doesn’t seem balanced at all.
Even my 8 year old knows not to touch the trigger unless you are meaning to pull it.
If this 25 year LE veteran is having these kind of significant judgment errors maybe it’s time to gracefully retire.
I don’t think that labeling the officer or the victim as good or bad people speaks to the core issue, which is that many people in Spokane simply mistrust law enforcement and the other agencies who are supposed to oversee law enforcement on our behalf.
nslopeofw on March 22 at 10:14 p.m.
I guess if even one cop in this area was proven to be negligent, one could feel the system was fair, but because all of them get off, no matter how bad it looks, there is no way it is anything but corrupt. The Otto Zehm shooting is a prime example. There is a video showing the cop in the wrong, yet he gets off.
All you cops posting on here can save your breath. I dont care what you say. (You are biased, anyway) this region is never going to give civilians (wage payers) a fair shake. Regardless of the incident, the PoPo will always be right.
Ed Byrnes on March 22 at 10:16 p.m.
This is anecdotal evidence about one conversation so take it as just that. I have a friend of nearly three decades who, a decade ago when he was a captain in a NYPD precinct in The Bronx, said to me during a break at a USDOJ meeting: “If I didn’t have a vice or narcotics squad in my precinct I would have no corruption problems to deal with.”
nslopeofw on March 22 at 10:25 p.m.
correction, not shooting Otto, but killing him none the less.
Elkay on March 23 at 12:50 a.m.
Otto has NOTHING to do with this case.
Can we first see the evidence before convicting either one of them? Geeze.
Ramping stuff up here is totally emotional and ……. well, ignorant.
Dazzeetrader11 on March 23 at 1:52 a.m.
I thnk we need a new prosecutor and, most importantly, a new Sheriff. Sorry all you LE, it’s just too much! FBI much needed.
Everytime they show up they find a LE at fault or dishonest.
Ninch on March 23 at 6:50 a.m.
Context, context, context. The event was a DRUG RAID!!! Chaos erupts as the alleged criminals try to get the heck out of there to escape the law instead of following orders to stay put. In this case, no evidence exists that the WSP sergeant purposefully shot the pregnant woman. Look at it this way, her injury probably saved her baby’s life. No drug raid, no hospitalization, no social services alert, and the newborn baby would live with her mother and grandmother in their drug den to be neglected and abused.
mikeln on March 23 at 7:50 a.m.
Simple fix, end the war on drugs, treatment instead of gunshot wounds. People need to know that this so called war has done nothing, same small % of americans using with a huge cost to control what was never that much of a problem in the first place. Education is the answer, not more private prisons. This war has not done what it was supposed to do, it has not made us safer, just poorer.
bszottlinger on March 23 at 8:09 a.m.
Without getting into a long dissertation regarding immunity and it’s importance in the criminal justice system, I feel it is important to understand that police officers and prosecutors do have protections beyond that of the average citizen, and with good reason. Having said that, I feel it’s also important that we understand that because they have been granted those protections it is extremely important that the public is ever vigilant to see to it that those protections are not abused.
If you honestly look at this case from a balanced perspective I think you would realize that yes you have an officer that in essence HAS ADMITTED he was negligent. But unlike other recent cases he made no effort to come up with some story about the young lady being a threat, or that he felt he was in danger, or because it was a dangerous drug raid he was fearful she might gain access to a weapon. On the contrary he told it like it was. “I screwed up!”
Just think of how it would be perceived by the public if this officer had made up some story to justify and accidental shooting. Given the extreme amount of dangerous contacts law enforcement makes the percentage of accidental shootings is quite low, unfortunately this was one of the few, and the timing was terrible. But come on folks, no BS story, no reckless contagious shooting that endangered a bunch of people, no complete overreaction, just a cop during the heat of the moment made a big mistake, and for God sakes he manned up, unlike some of his counterparts.
Unless there is something we don’t know, the prosecutor was right in not charging this case, and unless there is evidence of negligent retention, negligent training, or some type of recklessness involved in the execution of the search warrant, this young lady isn’t going to get much in the way of a settlement.
In all of the recent officer involved shooting cases, in my view, this one is of the least concern. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be independently reviewed, and an inquest would have been nice but, I for one am beyond this one, with the exception of the fact we have a prosecutor who doesn’t have guts enough to have a press conference to explain the decision, the issues of immunity, and take and answer the hard questions. Tucker of course, because he is worried about his own image, could care less about the officer, the public, or the media. He is safe now until the next election, so why not continue to hide.
One last thought, for the Assistant DAs that post on here, and read these blogs the only way my comments regarding your boss reflect upon you is that he is making you all look bad and I know you aren’t.
Elkay on March 23 at 9:04 a.m.
BDZ,
Thanks for adding some sanity to this blog.
(I still wish Chris Bugbee had won the election. Tucker doesn’t seem to want to leave his mother’s basement.)
Ron_the_Cop on March 23 at 10:23 a.m.
BDZ,
I greatly concur with your opinion re this OIS. Each OIS must be carefully reviewed on a case by case basis. From what I’ve read this incident was an accidental discharge NOT criminal. Yes there will be civil repercussions as there should be. Having been on many of these raids I would guess the WSP Sgt was not wearing a duty belt and was using a clip on belt holster. It’s difficult to holster your weapon with one hand while holding onto to someone. The WSP Sgt probably made the mistake of having his trigger finger inside the trigger guard and reflexively and unintentionally pulled the trigger.
Now consider Scott Creach stowing his heavy large framed Colt 45 cal with one hand in his rear waistband and then drawing it again?
Read my report on this case. I still don’t think we have the full truth yet even though SCSO/SPD assures us that they did a complete and thorough investigation. It remains to be seen if SCSO will actually seek the truth in its IA review/investigation currently underway.
See my post:
UPDATE - Creach Police Shooting Investigation - Spokane, WA
http://tinyurl.com/4wz2fpc
nslopeofw on March 23 at 2:06 p.m.
The PoPo has the same rights? BS! No civilian would be allowed to wait weeks before giving a statement. No civilian would be allowed to go home without a visit to the cop shop, first. No civilian would be surrounded by a “citizen’s guild”, and protected until THEY decided it was time to talk. No civilian could shoot a guy with an arrowhead, and claim self defense. No gang of civilians could beat and suffocate a man for “looking suspicious”, and wielding a deadly plastic coke bottle.
No, if a normal person did any of this stuff, they’d be in the slammer instead of on administrative leave with pay, pending the inevitable clearing of all charges.
nslopeofw on March 23 at 3:33 p.m.
sorry, misread bszottlinger’s comment. Thought it said cops and prosecutors have the same rights as everyone else.
I would, however, be interested in learning why ” police officers and prosecutors do have protections beyond that of the average citizen, and with good reason.”
What could be the good reason? No one, not even cops should have more rights than the taxpaying citizens of our state. They should have to follow the same laws and rules as everyone else. No more, no less. Otherwise, corruption, cronyism, and bullyism become the norm.
Imagine knowing that you will not be given a speeding ticket if you speed. What do you think you’d do? The same goes for everything else that you are guaranteed to get away with. It’s human nature to get away with whatever you can.
bszottlinger on March 23 at 4:42 p.m.
nslopeofw:
In short, because of the tremendous discretionary power we the people vest with not only police officers and prosecutors, but also with judges, the common law, and a substantial body of case law provides various levels of immunity beyond that which the ordinary citizen is afforded. The theory is that unless discretionary actions made in good faith and without malice are in some way protected those granted the powers will not act in our interest out of fear of retaliation or false claim. It’s a good thing because we want the people we have given this power to use their discretion, and judgment, in our interest without having to be fearful that what they do may cost them as an individual.
Problems arise when the discretion is abused, that is why it is important that we maintain vigilance as to the way these protected powers are used and we must make sure they are being used in our best interest (one of the reasons we vote). I believe, as do most, that good judgment and discretion is used far more then it is not. In this case the officer was likely negligent and did not use good judgment, but I don’t believe there was any malice on his part. Whatever the issue was that caused this situation I want the immunity afforded the officer, no matter how repulsive some may think it is , to in a sense serve as an example for other officers not to fear doing their duty. By the same token, I would expect that this officer and others will remember that their decisions will be scrutinized and they will do their very best to make as few mistakes as they possibly can.
bszottlinger on March 23 at 4:48 p.m.
If it is human nature to get away with whatever you can, then we are in big trouble, and there is no law, government, or religion, that is going to protect anyone from anything.
Elkay on March 23 at 5:19 p.m.
@nslopeofw,
“It’s human nature to get away with whatever you can.”
Um, not in my household. (Discrete burping excluded.)
nslopeofw on March 23 at 10:40 p.m.
Well, as i drive around Spokane, and see all the people talking on cell phones, i dont think they are worried about getting stopped. In fact, i have seen cops talking on cell phones as they drive around. I see people running red lights, speeding, california stops, etc. If they are not “getting away with something”, what are they doing? If people are not trying to get away with stuff, how do we explain crime in general?