Suit Claims Excessive Force In Arrest Led To Man’s Death

Tue., May 2, 1995

Gita Sitaramiah Staff writer

The daughter of a man who died in a struggle with Spokane police officers in 1992 is suing the city, claiming officers used excessive force.

Jane O. Roberts Harvell of Osburn, Idaho, asks for unspecified damages in the lawsuit filed in Spokane County Superior Court.

George Aldon Roberts died on May 2, 1992, after a struggle that ensued when he refused to speak with Spokane police.

The lawsuit alleges that police didn’t have reasonable grounds to arrest Roberts and used unnecessary force in handcuffing him. Roberts died of “positional asphyxia,” according to the suit.

Spokane Police Chief Terry Mangan said reviews by the offices of the county prosecutor, the state attorney general and the FBI concluded that police acted properly and didn’t cause Roberts’ death.

“I am absolutely confident the city and police department will prevail in any lawsuit,” Mangan said. “It’s a tragic situation. We feel badly she lost her father.”

The lawsuit contends that the police department conducted the only investigation into the death.

According to police, Roberts died after wrestling with two police officers who tried to stop him after he got into an argument with an employee at the Towne Center Motel, 901 W. First.

Roberts, who police described as 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds, knocked Officer Richard Jennings to the ground, then wrestled with Jennings and Officer Larry Lyle. Roberts knocked Lyle into the street, Mangan said.

Mangan said autopsy results showed Roberts had a pre-existing medical condition that caused his death.

According to the lawsuit, Lyle and Jennings confronted Roberts, grabbed him and pushed him to the pavement.

Then, officers Bill Gentry, Kim Thomas and Mark Sterk arrived and all five acted together to handcuff Roberts by pressing him to the pavement and applying a choke hold on him, the complaint said.

Finally, they were able to handcuff Roberts using two sets of handcuffs linked together, the complaint said.

Roberts’ body went limp and he turned white, the suit said. He was pronounced dead at Deaconess Medical Center.

The suit names the five officers, Mangan and the police department, as well as the city.

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