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

Otto Zehm

Otto Zehm, a Spokane man with schizophrenia who worked as a janitor, died after a confrontation with police at a North Side Zip Trip store in March 2006.

News >  Spokane

Thompson being held in federal center in Seattle

Former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. is in a federal detention center south of Seattle, at least temporarily. The Federal Bureau of Prisons doesn’t yet have Thompson in its online roster of inmates, but an official at the Federal Detention Center SeaTac confirmed that Thompson had arrived there following his sentencing in Spokane on Thursday.
News >  Spokane

Thompson gets 51 months in prison

After being handed a sentence Thursday of more than four years in federal prison – the culmination of six years of investigations, legal action and community soul-searching – former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. walked away passively in handcuffs. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle admonished the courtroom in advance that demonstrations of any kind would be inappropriate, and the sentence was greeted with silence by both Thompson and Zehm supporters.
Opinion >  Column

Doug Clark: Justice for Zehm may finally come today

The sentencing of Karl Thompson Jr. will supposedly take place in a Spokane federal courtroom this morning, proving I had it all wrong. Apparently, there is a limit on how much justice-avoiding hocus-pocus a gang of defense shysters can get away with when the public is stuck signing the checks.
News >  Spokane

Follow Karl Thompson’s sentencing on Twitter

Check here for Twitter updates on the sentencing of Karl F. Thompson Jr., the Spokane police officer who was convicted last year of lying to investigators and using excessive force in the death of Otto Zehm during a 2006 police confrontation at a Spokane convenience store. Sentencing was postponed nearly a year as defense lawyers unsuccessfully argued for a new trial.

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