Shawn Vestal: Spokane Police face their own #MeToo moment during trial

As the retrial of former Spokane cop Gordon Ennis proceeds, the exposure of cultural rot in the timbers of the department continues.

The case is rife with it: There was the tipoff from a senior officer and union president to Ennis that investigators were on the case – you know, just a friendly heads-up to a criminal suspect.

There was the accommodating, hand-in-glove relationship between investigators and the accused’s attorney – the lawyer who’s on speed-dial with the Police Guild.

There was the revelation of a party culture that sounds like an MTV reality show – binge-drinking, hot tub free-for-alls, barfing, passing out …

As the SPD has worked to repair its reputation, the Ennis case has continually painted vivid pictures of an ugly culture.

All of that has been pretty clear for quite a while, though. What has cast it in a new light is the way the case fits into the context of the #MeToo movement, which exploded between the first Ennis mistrial and the retrial that began this week.

The case now radiates with additional sordid relevance. Consider the manner in which senior members of the department bro’d up against a young woman new to the force and looking for leadership and support. Think of the defense mounted by top cop attorney Rob Cossey, in which he has deployed the time-tested arsenal of victim-blaming. Ponder the ostracizing the victim says she has received within the department from fellow officers – mentors and colleagues who closed ranks around the man accused of her assault.

It’s a textbook case of “male pattern badness” – the way dude-dominant cultures foment, minimize, excuse and enable sexual assault.

Ennis is accused of sticking his hands down the pants of a fellow cop while she was passed out at a blackout bacchanal hosted by officer Doug Strosahl in October 2015. Ennis was a sergeant who had been the woman’s firearms instructor; Strosahl has taught law enforcement classes at Spokane Community College, instructing future cops.

In one of the most disturbing elements of the case, Ennis was twice called at the outset of the investigation by union president John Gately, who was in close contact with top brass. By the time officers got a search warrant seeking DNA evidence from Ennis, he had Cosseyed up and trimmed his fingernails – conveniently too short for a sample to be obtained.

Gately was not convicted of a crime. But you’d be hard-pressed to call him innocent.

In court testimony, the party sounds like Bluto Blutarsky’s 21st birthday bash. Hard cider spiked with Fireball. Whiskey shots to follow. Dancing and decampment to a crowded hot tub, where people climbed onto each other’s laps and made out. Several people drank until they passed out, witnesses said.

The victim said she awoke at around 3 a.m. to find Ennis sexually assaulting her. When she told other members of the department, she said, they shrugged her off. Her union president was occupied keeping Ennis up to date on things. Her clothing was washed free of possible DNA evidence by Strosahl’s wife.

Ever since, the woman testified this week, she’s lost friends in the department and has been shunned by colleagues in a job she says she thought was going to be “the greatest thing ever.”

Ennis was put on unpaid layoff status pending the resolution of the case by department administrators. On the ground level, though, in the cultural DNA of the department, it sounds as if this young officer’s colleagues have failed her egregiously – along with any women standing in line behind her, dreaming of working as a Spokane cop.

What must they now think about their chances of being treated fairly by these men?

What must any victim think when reporting sexual assault to the agency?

And what should the rest of us conclude about the extent of the rot in the SPD’s timbers?