Police Use Of Force Justified, Investigation Finds Officers Cleared In How They Handled Two Arrests In February

Spokane Police Department officers did not use excessive force when they made arrests in two February incidents, an internal investigation has concluded.

The department’s Office of Professional Standards determined that officers were justified in using force to subdue a man at a North Side nightclub and to arrest a man in east Spokane.

The Feb. 5 North Side incident involving Gregory Rogers, 38, was captured by a video camera at Swackhammer’s.

Investigators did determine that the officer who questioned Rogers had “exceeded his authority” in ordering him to remain in the club even though he hadn’t seen a fight involving his friend.

The incident still is being reviewed by Police Chief Terry Mangan, police spokesman Dick Cottam said.

The videotape shows the beefy Rogers stepping away from an officer who was questioning him. Rogers claimed he was trying to let his friends outside the club know he couldn’t leave the bar.

The officer reached for Rogers, who wheeled around and pushed the officer with his left hand. That officer told the review panel he thought Rogers was going to leave the bar.

Rogers was wrestled to the floor by other officers and was struck by one of them.

“Mr. Rogers refused repeated orders to remove his hands from beneath his body and continued to violently resist officers,” the panel concluded in its report released Monday.

One officer delivered several blows with his fist to Rogers’ rib cage area in order to free his hands for handcuffing, the report said. Rogers was charged with third-degree assault.

Rogers’ attorney, Pat Stiley, criticized the findings as inconsistent.

“There is a tacit, if not frank, admission that an officer acted improperly by keeping him (Rogers) there even though he wasn’t a witness,” Stiley said. “He wouldn’t have been beaten if he hadn’t been detained.”

But Cottam said questioning and subduing Rogers were separate events.

“Under no circumstances can you touch a police officer,” Cottam said. “People have to understand that. This is the good guys vs. the bad guys. And the good guys have got to win.”

Stiley said he will seek damages from the city to cover Rogers’ medical bills.

In the other case, the review panel said officers were justified in the force they used to arrest a black man, Stanley Tensley, 41, of Spokane.

Tensley claimed officers attacked him on Feb. 9 while arresting a suspected car prowler near Fourth and Greene in east Spokane.

A deacon at Mount Olive Baptist Church since 1991, Tensley was charged with obstructing an officer and resisting arrest as he approached the scene of a crime he thought may have involved his son. Tensley suffered a shoulder injury.

The police investigation also rejected Tensley’s claim that his arrest was illegal.

Mangan invited the head of the Spokane chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other members of the African American community to discuss the results.

The Rev. Percy “Happy” Watkins arrived at the meeting Monday with Tensley and his attorney, Carl Maxey.

But Watkins, the local NAACP leader, refused to attend after Mangan asked Maxey and Tensley to leave.

The chief said he barred Maxey and Tensley because they may take legal action against the department.

“It’s an outrage,” Watkins said Monday of the report clearing police. “The (African American) community is saddened but not surprised by the findings.”

The Police Department has refused to identify the officers investigated.

, DataTimes