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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sirens & Gavels

‘He saved many children’

Jerry  Keller of the Spokane Police Dept., shown in downtown Spokane Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009, spent most of his 36-plus years in law enforcement investigating sex crimes. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)
Jerry Keller of the Spokane Police Dept., shown in downtown Spokane Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009, spent most of his 36-plus years in law enforcement investigating sex crimes. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

Jerry Keller retired last week after 36 years as a Spokane police officer. For 20 of those years, he was a detective in the sexual assault unit.

He interviewed hundreds of suspects and hundreds of their young victims. He has come to understand pedophilia as a form of evil. Yet Keller did not end his career a cynical man.

“He worked on the most horrifying cases, where you turned over a rock and thought you had one victim and you had generations of children,” said Spokane District Court Judge Patti Walker, who worked with Keller when she was a deputy prosecutor. “He saved many children.”

Read the rest of Becky Nappi's story here.



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