Chertok Now Under Suspension Prosecutor Clears Chief In Remark About Mangan

Embattled Police Chief Alan Chertok was suspended from his job Friday, the same day prosecutors cleared him of criminal wrongdoing for remarks he made about his predecessor.

Chertok was scheduled to be on vacation for a few days to consider his future in Spokane after being attacked on several fronts this week.

City Manager Bill Pupo said Friday he changed the vacation to a suspension after Chertok violated the terms of an agreement they had hashed out about the chief’s time off.

“Some personnel issues came into play yesterday that caused me to change my directive,” said Pupo, who declined to say what Chertok had done. “He did some things that caused me to change my mind.”

The chief surrendered his city car, gun and badge as a routine part of the paid administrative leave, Pupo said. Chertok will be out indefinitely, Pupo added.

Chertok, who’s been on the job for nine months, had little to say about his suspension Friday.

“I will obey his wishes,” he said, adding for the second straight day that he has no plans to resign.

The suspension capped a humbling week for the chief. He was called an ineffective leader by police union officials, investigated by sheriff’s detectives and harshly critiqued by Pupo in a job-performance evaluation.

In a rare bit of good news for Chertok, Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said Friday he found no basis to charge him for telling a group of high school students that a tipster suggested that former Chief Terry Mangan be investigated as a suspect in Spokane’s serial killings.

“It’s clear there was no malice in what was said by the chief to the students at Ferris High School,” Tucker said. “Nearly all the students in the class said they believed that the chief had been joking.”

Sheriff Mark Sterk said Wednesday he had ordered an investigation after a parent of one of the students expressed concerns about what Chertok said.

The chief has insisted the remark about Mangan was made in jest, but he apologized for using bad judgment. He also apologized to Mangan, who was never a serious suspect in the murders and who now works with the FBI in Virginia.

Tucker was asked by the Sheriff’s Department whether Chertok’s statement to the students might fit a charge of obstructing a public official or official misconduct.

The prosecutor concluded Chertok had done nothing wrong.

“The closest I could come up with was libel - which you hardly ever see in a criminal case.”

Chertok said he mentioned Mangan as one extreme example of the volume of tips and leads received by law enforcement conducting the serial killer investigation.

Despite the chief’s public apology, detectives on the serial killer task force issued a statement Friday criticizing Chertok’s verbal slip.

Investigators believe at least eight women in Spokane and two in Tacoma have been murdered by the same person since 1997.

“The killing of Spokane-area women is a serious matter, taken seriously by the investigators charged with its solution,” the task force stated. “It is not a joke.”

Sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan said he hopes the controversy doesn’t discourage people from continuing to supply tips to the task force.

He also reminded the public that a $10,000 reward is available for information that solves the case.

Anyone with information should call Secret Witness at 327-5111 or Crime Check at 456-2233.