November 3, 2011 in News, City

Thompson lawyer alleges jury misconduct

Thomas Clouse The Spokesman-Review

Tags:Carl OreskovichKarl F. Thompson Jr.Otto Zehm

58 comments on this story so far. Add yours!

another_perspective on November 03 at 1:17 p.m.
What’s a defense attorney doing SPYING on the jurors? Were the jurors in a common use area of the hotel? Were they sitting and eating the breakfast in the hotel and Oresckovich did not get up and turn the TV off: and why wait until AFTER the conviction, when the supposed jurors could have been dismissed and the three alternates inserted into the jury?
Another question is why is the defense attorneys and crowd even in the SAME hotel?
“I’m not going to deal with that.”
If you watch the walk away from the trial videos, there is a short dark haired man with sunglasses and a blue/black shirt (not tucked in) and tan trousers thats always very close to Thompson and as they walk you can see the outline and bulge of a fire arm and a backup gun in the holster in the rear.
Is this federal protection or Thompsons own guard?
cdaterry1 on November 03 at 1:39 p.m.
A typical slimeball lawyer….enough lawyering already = 5.5yrs!….this is just the legal species taking care of their own….what a waste of time and money for a new trial….the of the agony and expense - it’s on tape folks….a professional cop on ca,era who within 10 seconds beats a person to death and this lawyer wants a retrial???
Remeber folks….there is not a country in the world that has copied our legal or healthcare system
SpokyDaBear on November 03 at 1:46 p.m.
Let’s just say they saw this awhile ago and were sitting on the information pending a guilty or not guilty verdict.
If the defense saw this, why did they take so long to report it?
Typical Spokane Cop BS.
Dude, you beat the guy to death. You are lucky you are not facing the death penalty…
PlanB on November 03 at 1:47 p.m.
The city needs to tell CO that his services are no longer required. Stop paying him and he will go away.
Karl got his fair trial.
Ed Byrnes on November 03 at 1:53 p.m.
This is for the federal magistrate to review and I am certain that many of the questions raised here, which I share with the posters raising them, will be asked as part of the decision making process.
Ed
Al_Loysius on November 03 at 2:18 p.m.
It would be nice if people would wait until we get some basic information here. There is supposed to be a bailiff or bailiffs keeping watch over the jurors if they were sequestered. However, they may not have been sequestered. They may simply be out of town jurors put up at a hotel at public expense. As for spying, it may or may not be a case of everybody using the same hotel and people coming and going. It is important if the Yakima stations were even covering the case. Were they watching the sports or weather?
As for defense counsel not saying something earlier, good lawyering means you don’t do some other person’s job for them. People may not like it, but if he had a hidden “ace in the hole,” then he would be acting against his client’s interest if he had revealed it earlier. Worst case sceanrio would be a do-over in 12 to 18months. Or, everybody may be worn out and a plea deal happens.
No doubt the prosecution will holler, since they spent a lot of money on this and brought in an out of town DOJ trial attorney. Prosecutors have a favorite term for what defense counsel (arguably) did: “Laying in the weeds like a dog.”
One final thing: None of the reports quote what the Federal Sentencing Guidelines call for in this case. They quote the statutory max (which won’t happen) and what the prosecution will ask for, but it would actually be informative for Tom & Meghann to look at the actual FSG and report that.
terrymr on November 03 at 2:32 p.m.
I’m pretty sure this is one of those things you are supposed to bring to the court’s attention immediately.
Truthhurts on November 03 at 2:38 p.m.
Oreskovich is making it up, or he waived it by waiting.
The City “winking and nodding” at Thompson’s fraudulent divorce so that the City could “gift” your public funds to Thompson is probably something that should also be looked into.
brianrbreen on November 03 at 2:46 p.m.
@Al_Loysius
You actually expect Tom and Meghann to go through the FSG and get it right? How many times have you seen lawyers go through it and still get it wrong. You do it, pro bono.
Byrdie714 on November 03 at 2:56 p.m.
Carl Oreskovich is saying this because he doesn’t like to lose.
misjustice on November 03 at 3:02 p.m.
“I’m pretty sure this is one of those things you are supposed to bring to the court’s attention immediately.”
Umm? YEAH! Especially if it “really” happened…so any other folks see this, or just CO?
monkeyman on November 03 at 3:04 p.m.
Just wondering who is paying for the defense lawyer? Sorry for my ignorance.
Loudin on November 03 at 3:05 p.m.
If you don’t like Oreskovich, don’t serve him when he comes into your restaurant.
Don’t sell him goods when he comes into your store.
Don’t help him when he needs your assistance.
And apply all those things to his family, to his co-workers, to his employees, to their families, to his clients, to the businesses he represents. Shaming someone, making them a community pariah, is the only recourse you have.
BTW: Isn’t it ironic that a guy like that makes much of his income at tax payer expense and then kicks us in the groin w/every opportunity he has? The only thing missing w/this character is the waxed, handle-bar mustache and the girl tied to the railroad tracks…
Truthhurts on November 03 at 3:08 p.m.
Verner, Verner, Verner.
Do your job.
Bluecollorman on November 03 at 3:32 p.m.
Once again we have proof that 99.99% of lawyers are dirtbags.
Byrdie714 on November 03 at 3:34 p.m.
Remember that the taxpayers are paying for this fool who wants to continue this charade so that he can line his pockets…
BlondeSquawker on November 03 at 3:45 p.m.
“I’m not going to deal with that” ???
Lol. Whut?
BlondeSquawker on November 03 at 3:50 p.m.
Perhaps the hotel front desk has a 24/hr tv on in the lobby check-in area where EVERYONE can see it. I doubt the jurors were sneaking around watching coverage behind the backs of the judge and lawyers.
richie on November 03 at 3:50 p.m.
Thompson and crew have now resorted to throwing hail mary’s….505 is now SOS. And hopefully SOL. That is what everyone should have on their facebook page, SOL.
greenlibertarian on November 03 at 4:06 p.m.
Well ain’t dis a revolting development?
Ed Byrnes on November 03 at 4:08 p.m.
It seems that the video media that influenced the jurors was the Zip Trip footage given that they asked to review it concurrently with the offenders testimony and investigation interview reports during their deliberations.
Ed
jddavis on November 03 at 4:15 p.m.
Monkeyman—
As I understand it, the taxpayers are paying the bill for the defense lawyer. After Thompson divorced his wife of 30-some years, he couldn’t afford one. But hey, at least she is nice enough to let him live with her in their expensive lake home…where else would he go?
Because this felon who lacks integrity and character lined himself up to protect his assets, you are footing the bill.
The_Seer on November 03 at 4:26 p.m.
Now it’s the media’s fault, Karl?
Why would the jury want to watch coverage of the trial anyway? Perchance to catch a glimpse of their caricatures by courtroom artists? Could it be they’d find Yakima local coverage of the trial more entertaining and insightful than the defense’s “expert” witnesses?
Orescovich can’t argue against the facts. The judge better ensure this is simply a vain attempt to keep clasped to the public teat.
richie on November 03 at 4:30 p.m.
5OL…lol
monarch on November 03 at 4:53 p.m.
Don’t blame the lawyer for zealousely defending his client, that’s his job. I do think he should have brought this forward when it happened instead of waiting until after the the verdict. The waiting raises the question of whether he would have mentioned it if his client wasn’t convicted? We’ll never know, but I think the waiting will eventually come back and bite him and prejudice his client.
The_Seer on November 03 at 5:05 p.m.
monarch: Or he just made it up out of desperation?
Argue facts of the case for an appeal, not undocumented nonsense. I doubt Orescovich thought his client was going to prevail after testimony was completed and if he had this information beforehand he would certainly have played the card if it could be proven.
Truthhurts on November 03 at 5:14 p.m.
Monarch: You do not get to lie to the court and call it “zealous representation” any more than you can beat down a defenseless man and call it “police work,” or lie about it and call it “zealous self-representation.”
I believe the magic phrase is “misleading the tribunal.”
Something about this brings out the cover-up liar in everyone on the cop side.
Oreskovich is going from zealous representation to bar license problems if he keeps this up.
There was a killing. There were lies. There was a cover-up.
wdodd on November 03 at 5:28 p.m.
www.youtube.com
THE NEW ALBUM IS NOW AVAILABLE ON iTUNES: http://www.smarturl.it/goingback Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight (Official Video) Official Website: http://www.ph/…..
I bet the mayor,police chief,city attorneys (rocco),Steve Tucker, and all the officers who obstructed justice are hearing this tune now!!!
metaline on November 03 at 5:31 p.m.
Being an out of towner, I have not followed this case very close. I honestly don’t know what the truth is. If he is guilty, he should do the time. Irregardless, if there was jury misconduct, it needs to be addressed. Both the guilty and innocent are promised a fair trial in our legal system. We can’t disregard any possible misconduct because he is guilty.
SpokyDaBear on November 03 at 5:32 p.m.
It’s a bunch of crap.
In Spokane, cops can do whatever they want.
misjustice on November 03 at 6:00 p.m.
“The waiting raises the question of whether he would have mentioned it if his client wasn’t convicted?”
I wonder the same thing, plus if there is anyone else that could affirm CO’s claim? Or are we just supposed to take his word for it?
The_Seer on November 03 at 6:25 p.m.
I’ve read it reported from other sources that Thompson’s most current work assignment was “web analysis.”
What the hell does that mean? Could the public gain access to what was being analyzed?
misjustice on November 03 at 6:39 p.m.
My guess is that he was hacking our ISP addresses to help SPD compile a “most dangerous” citizens list. Oh, and other assorted data mining activities, such as hacking cell phones and Face Book accounts looking for criminal activites.
Data mining is the newest investigative “tool”; used by cops as well as corporations.
misjustice on November 03 at 6:44 p.m.
Maybe he will bring up the issue of the appearance of the sleeping jurors. How can you make an ‘informed’ decision & NOT hear all the evidence because you were asleep?
Oh yes, they saw it on the TV news?
Hummmm
misjustice on November 03 at 6:52 p.m.
Oh, there you are GrammaAgain.
Still waiting for your cogent list outlining what points of law CO will use in the appeal for Karl the Klubber. And what constraints are on the appeal process.
Show the locals just how smart you are. Now is your chance to shine!
richie on November 03 at 7:12 p.m.
He can get a new trial, unless they can get the vid excluded, or get a blind jury, the results will be the same….Ole badge number 5OL will be found guilty.
Kivaari on November 03 at 7:15 p.m.
Did you ever wonder why lawyers have such low support? Are there good lawyers?
BlondeSquawker on November 03 at 7:23 p.m.
Does this defense attorney have it on tape that the jurors were watching tv? Does he have witnesses? Were they in a guest room alone together? Is he a Peeping Tom for Thompson? If they were at the breakfast buffet, it’s not their fault the hotel management had a television on in that room. That’s actually pretty standard. Boo Hoo on you, Thompson. Enjoy your pot pies in prison. You can’t beat someone to death without paying the price… not in this country you can’t.
BlondeSquawker on November 03 at 7:31 p.m.
Ha, ha. I just checked with the hotel they were most likely staying at (The Oxford) and they said hotel mgt. sets the television channel in the breakfast buffet room to the Northwest News Channel. It’s not like the jurors turned the tv on themselves. It’s a non-issue. There was no jury misconduct, period.
BlondeSquawker on November 03 at 7:43 p.m.
I hear the train a comin’
It’s rolling round the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine since I don’t know when,
I’m stuck in Walla Walla Prison, and time keeps draggin’ on
But that train keeps a rollin’ on down to Yakima Town..
When I was just a baby my mama told me. Son,
Always be a good boy, don’t ever play with batons.
But I beat a man in Spokane just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry..
Soooey!
I bet there’s rich folks eating from a fancy dining car
They’re probably drinkin’ Starbucks coffee and smoking pig cigars.
Well I know I had it coming, I know I can’t be free
But those people keep a movin’
And that’s what tortures me…
Well if they freed me from this prison,
If that railroad train was mine
I bet I’d move it on a little farther down the line
Far from Walla Walla Prison, that’s where I want to stay
And I’d let that lonesome whistle blow my blue badge away…..
PlanB on November 03 at 7:44 p.m.
Thompson doesn’t have the brain power to hack IP addresses. His training and experience would have him running up behind an unsuspecting router and bludgeoning it into submission.
I wonder if old Carl O is getting worried since he was so deeply involved in fabricating Karl’s lies and the coverup. Maybe he’s on the feds list.
avboden on November 03 at 8:33 p.m.
Oreskovich is the biggest criminal of them all
GDodd on November 03 at 9:00 p.m.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NTk5iZHjfQ
greenlibertarian on November 03 at 9:30 p.m.
BlondeSquawker on November 03 at 7:31 p.m.
Ha, ha. I just checked with the hotel they were most likely staying at (The Oxford) and they said hotel mgt. sets the television channel in the breakfast buffet room to the Northwest News Channel. It’s not like the jurors turned the tv on themselves. It’s a non-issue. There was no jury misconduct, period.
You are completely wrong.
It doesn’t matter if the member(s) of the jury did not initiate the banned communication. IF it happened, and can be documented, Carl O. has a shot at this.
I don’t like it one bit, and the jury should NEVER have been around any TV playing NW Cable News. The setboxes in their rooms should also have been restricted from ANY news channel, i.e. ANY channel that carries ANY news at all.
I can also see how easy it would be set this up.
skierdc1 on November 03 at 10:09 p.m.
They need to take Oreskovich out to the legal woodshed. He is a bum and a lout and should be publicly shunned for defending the lying murderer of Otto. It amazes me that fellow law enforcement officers and their families rise to defend a scum like Thompson who makes a mockery of upholding justice. Yeah, they believe in justice until one of their own crosses the line and then Verner and Ozzie and company circle the wagons and are guilty in their complicity. Spokane law enforcement needs a top-down cleaning and the current stench is certainly not going away until that happens.
skierdc1 on November 03 at 10:12 p.m.
Sorry, I meant Tucker, not Ozzie. There are so many bad apples in this town….
Al_Loysius on November 03 at 10:22 p.m.
1.) Blondie, Walla Walla is a WA state facility. This is a federal case, so he would go to a federal facility. My guess is probably one like the one Martha Stewart went to for about a year, followed by probation. If convictions stand up. he will likely post an appeal bond. Appeal process might take a couple of years. That is standard stuff, not just for Karl Thompson.
2.) Greenlib is right. Does not matter who screwed up on the TV issue. Likely next step is not to take anybody’s word for it. Probably the court will conduct an investigation of the jurors to determine exactly what they saw, if anything. There is a pretty defined process for this sort of thing.
Uninformed comments here show how even High Schools don’t teach basic civics or American Government classes unless you take honors or AP classes.
misjustice on November 03 at 10:38 p.m.
CO argued that jurors MAY have seen teevee news…and he based that argument on the questions that the jurors asked in a note to the judge.
Prosecutors argued that had the jurors seen the news they would not have asked the questions to the judge in the note that they asked. They would have “known” the answers to their questions.
CO is grasping at straws claiming that Karl the Klubber did not get a fair trial. He got everything that he asked for; except the verdict that he wanted.
No doubt he wants an entirely new trial, instead of just an appeal. Doesn’t every criminal defense lawyer, that just failed to get their client off, want the same thing?
greenlibertarian on November 03 at 11:17 p.m.
Crud, Misj, there must be new info I am unaware of.
I was basing my analysis on this:
Thompson declined comment, but his attorney Carl Oreskovich said he witnessed jurors watching TV reports of the trial, which will become a part of a motion to seek a new trial from U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle.
I then further assumed jurors (or some subset) were assembled somewhere and that Carl O. was claiming to have personally witnessed them watching a TV report(s) on the extent trial.
I assumed the jurors were either staying in a hotel together (as a sort of sequestration) or saw the inappropriate (for them) TV reports while together at lunch. Or something.
Has his story changed?
As I said, what a REVOLTING development.
misjustice on November 03 at 11:35 p.m.
No, green, your assumption was correct. My post was based on arguments made today…
KXLY had this:
“Oreskovich also said he plans to file a motion for a new trial soon based on alleged juror misconduct. He said five jurors stayed at the same hotel he did during the trial and one morning the jurors were eating breakfast in a room with a TV and a news report came on that said Zehm was a mentally disabled janitor. That information was barred from the trial.”
http://www.kxly.com/news/29679093/detail.html
CO is also arguing that Karl the Klubber didn’t get a “fair” trial because the prosection ended their closing argument with Otto’s last words “all I wanted was a Snickers bar”…which CO claims was in violation of the judge’s ruling that no comments relating to Otto’s innocence were to be allowed in the trial.
But as I recall, it was the defense’s witness - a cop - that first testified to Otto’s last words. I don’t recall CO objecting to the testimony of their own witness…although I do not recall if the witness made that statement on direct or cross examination…
misjustice on November 03 at 11:42 p.m.
I’d like to know when, what day during the trial, the jurors were alledged to have been exposed to this news report? And why CO, as an officer of the court, only decided to complain about it AFTER the verdict.
The jurors MAY have seen the news report, they also MAY not have. I wouldn’t trust anything coming from the defense…CO’s only job is to get his client off; no matter what that takes…
selkirk on November 04 at 12:12 a.m.
Hey Oreskovich, were you behind a shelf of goods so that you can claim what you claim, yet not be held accountable for what you claim because no one can prove different?
Look where that got your client!
You should be held in contempt and pay a fine and do some jail time. It may help you in thinking like your clients.
greenlibertarian on November 04 at 12:43 a.m.
Thanks for that additional info, MisJ.
Carl’s not a disinterested party/witness in the least, and has no corroborating info to back his claim.
But I would guess it’s enough for the Court to query the jury members about this supposed “incident”.
Poor folks thought they were done with this.
Shakespeare comes to mind.
greenlibertarian on November 04 at 12:53 a.m.
MisJ, where does the part come in about jurors asking questions about things that they would only have known based on seeing a (recent) news report?
Ron_the_Cop on November 04 at 6:42 a.m.
GL,
Report from NWCN on issues before the court after the jury was released concerning immediately taking Ofc. Thompson into custody -
…The judge told jurors every day and every break from court that they were not allowed to watch TV news or read the newspaper.

He didn’t want them seeing information about Otto Zehm not allowed in the trial.

Karl Thompson’s defense says that may have happened.
Jurors in the Karl Thompson criminal trial stayed in the same Yakima hotel as attorneys.

Thompson’s defense attorney Carl Oreskovich says TV monitors played in the hotel lobby during breakfast.

He says jurors may have seen trial coverage.
KREM 2’s sister station Northwest Cable News has covered the trial and airs in Yakima.
Oreskovich did not cite any specific times when jurors may have watched the news.

He argued jurors asked for more information about Zehm.

Prosecutors say if jurors had watched t-v news they wouldn’t have asked those questions.
brianrbreen on November 04 at 8:07 a.m.
@Al_Loysius
I agree with every thing you said earlier. But I’m wondering if the civics classes at Prep were just better and harder then they were in the public schools. My understanding was that Frazier had to go bribe the civics teacher just to get that recruited, twenty year old, Canadian import, Gerela eligible to play every Friday.
BTW: Where’s that FSG analysis.
GDodd on November 04 at 8:55 a.m.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLfYVFamso8
Kristopher on November 04 at 6:03 p.m.
ABSOLUTELY by any other standard that wasnt so public, Jurors are not allowed to watch news cast,,, and Karl was constantly biased on the news…by any other standard its a mistrial,, but this whole trial is biased and unfair because the media created a false view of what the spokane police stands for and who Karl is so let me clear things up for you just a little from someone that has followed this case everyday, someone that knows Karl and alot of those police officers, including Verner and Kirkpatrick …. and for one… Karl is innocent of what he is charged with..he is one of the most loyal, dedicated, and well respected men most people know and that is why he has so many supporters, so those of you that dont know him dont comment on him as a man because he is the best of them… The other 50 or so police that support him and most of which
stood up for them, I respect you. Verner and Kirkpatrick … I have mixed feeling for everything I read, very wishy washy.. Not supporting your officers., and then saying sorry to the public and changing stories.. or was that the other chief of police???? Like I said we all have our own opinions but what has caused your city to crumble is the animosity of your citizens and your leadership structure.. and now not backing your police.