Thomas Clouse

With a jury pool waiting in another room, a federal judge Monday postponed the criminal trial against Karl F. Thompson Jr. after prosecutors announced their intention to appeal his ruling that barred evidence showing Otto Zehm had not committed a crime before Thompson confronted him. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle ruled that attorneys for both sides could not introduce evidence about Zehm’s mental illness, items found in Zehm’s pockets, or essentially anything that Thompson didn’t know before the confrontation on March 18, 2006.

With a jury pool waiting in another room, a federal judge Monday postponed the criminal trial against Karl F. Thompson Jr. after prosecutors announced their intention to appeal his ruling that barred evidence showing Otto Zehm had not committed a crime before Thompson confronted him.

A trial that starts Monday in federal court is as much about the credibility of the Spokane Police Department as it is the officer charged with using excessive force and lying to investigators, some in Spokane’s legal community say. City detectives found no wrongdoing by fellow Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. and told Spokane County prosecutors that they could find no evidence that he used excessive force when he beat Otto Zehm with a police baton and shocked him with a Taser on March 18, 2006. Other officers joined the struggle and Zehm eventually was hogtied for about 17 minutes, a plastic mask with a dime-size breathing hole on his face, before he stopped breathing.

After years of Spokane police officials claiming that Otto Zehm suffered from “excited delirium,” a defense attorney said Thursday that he will avoid offering any evidence or expert testimony about the disputed medical condition often cited by police agencies to explain controversial in-custody deaths. Defense attorney Carl Oreskovich said he could no longer include testimony about excited delirium following rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle barring any mention that Zehm suffered from paranoid schizophrenia or that he’d had a physical confrontation with a Spokane County deputy sheriff in 1990.

After years of Spokane Police officials claiming that Otto Zehm suffered from “excited delirium,” a defense attorney said today that he will avoid offering any evidence or expert testimony about the disputed medical condition often cited by police agencies to explain controversial in-custody deaths.

Convicted killer and career burglar David K. Brewczynski received today the only sentence available to him -- life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On the night of the fatal confrontation with Otto Zehm, Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. told a fellow officer that he’d hit Zehm in the head with his police baton – an act that he and the city have acknowledged would be an unjustified use of lethal force. An ambulance emergency medical technician wrote a pre-hospital patient-care report saying Thompson told Officer Tim Moses that Thompson had hit Zehm in the head and neck. But that report apparently was never turned over to prosecutors by the Spokane Police Department’s lead investigator on the case.

A recent ruling by the Washington Supreme Court is not expected to help South Hill rapist Kevin Coe win another trial, a state prosecutor said this week. The state’s high court in March overturned the 2006 verdict for Curtis Pouncy, of Vashon Island, Wash., who like Coe was civilly committed as a sexually violent predator. In Pouncy’s trial, jurors were not given the definition for personality disorder.

U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle today postponed a few days the criminal trial of Karl F. Thompson Jr. It is now scheduled to start with jury selection on June 7.

A federal judge decided Tuesday there’s no conflict of interest in how private attorney Carl Oreskovich has defended Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. in civil and criminal cases stemming from the fatal confrontation with Otto Zehm. U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pro, of Las Vegas, had been appointed to decide the conflict issue. The presiding judge, U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle, is expected to hold a hearing this week to discuss how to move forward with the criminal trial in which Thompson is charged with using excessive force in subduing Zehm, who was unarmed, and with lying to investigators about the March 2006 encounter in a north Spokane convenience store.

Spokane man walks free from robbery case

A federal judge has ruled that he did not find a conflict of interest in how private attorney Carl Oreskovich has defended Spokane Police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr., and the case can now proceed.

The attorney defending Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. spent a good portion of a hearing Monday defending the city of Spokane’s legal strategy. The attorney, Carl Oreskovich, told a federal judge that no conflict exists between his roles defending Thompson on criminal charges stemming from a fatal confrontation with mentally ill janitor Otto Zehm and his work representing Thompson in a $2.9 million civil suit. Oreskovich discussed how he interviewed potential witnesses for both proceedings.

The attorney trying to defend Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. spent a good portion of a hearing today defending the City of Spokane’s legal strategy for how it gathered information for the upcoming federal criminal trail based upon the fatal confrontation with Otto Zehm.

An effort to expand the powers of the city of Spokane’s police ombudsman may go before the City Council on Monday night. The proposed ordinance would allow Ombudsman Tim Burns to go beyond simply observing internal police probes and allow him to publish reports on those investigations – with a few exceptions – and contact the people who make complaints against police officers. He would also be allowed to interview witnesses of the incidents that led to complaints.

Even the judge shed tears Thursday as family members expressed the grief left behind after a Canadian woman was hit and killed by a drunken driver in downtown Spokane last November. The driver, 25-year-old Cameron B. Olsness, cried as he faced the family of 63-year-old Elaine Price-Cornell and accepted blame for consuming several drinks, running a red light and crashing into Price-Cornell in an intersection before fleeing from police on Nov. 20.

Even the judge shed tears today as family members expressed the grief left behind after a Canadian woman was hit and killed by a drunken driver in downtown Spokane last November.

Spokane Co. Superior Court judge to retire

Hang up and drive. Or it will cost you. That’s essentially the choice Washington drivers will have starting June 10 after the state Legislature made talking or texting on a cell phone while driving a primary offense.

A second Spokane police officer has received a letter indicating that federal prosecutors intend to seek further charges in connection with the Otto Zehm investigation. Spokane attorney Rob Cossey said he represents three or four officers as a federal grand jury continues to gather information in the case. He confirmed that one of his clients has received what’s known as a target letter, which essentially informs the person that federal officials intend to charge him or her with a crime.