Powers siblings plead guilty in beating
Former Spokane Mayor John Powers’ grown children pleaded guilty Friday to beating up a family friend.
John T. Powers, 24, and his sister, Annie P. Powers, 21, were flanked by lawyers, but neither of their parents was present when they pleaded guilty in Spokane County Superior Court to fourth-degree assault and first-degree trespass.
In exchange for their pleas, Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz agreed to drop first-degree burglary charges that carried a standard penalty of 12 to 14 months in prison. Steinmetz called for a year in the county jail instead, but Judge Robert Austin imposed two months of electronically monitored confinement – to home, school or workplaces – with the rest of a one-year sentence suspended.
The Powers siblings pleaded guilty to gross misdemeanors, for which there are no sentencing guidelines. Austin noted, however, that the standard penalty for third-degree assault, a felony, would have been one to three months.
The deal didn’t sit well with the victim, Joe Green, who said he was sleeping in his home in the 100 block of West 28th Avenue when he was awakened by a kick in the ribs from the former mayor’s son, whom he had considered one of his best friends. The kick, which broke some ribs, was followed by one to the mouth and repeated punches in the face, Green said.
“What happened to me was the most horrible act I had ever experienced,” Green told Austin.
Still, he said, it was hard to call police because of a long-standing friendship between his family and the Powers family.
Green said he was hurt emotionally as well as physically. Annie Powers told him he was so ugly no one could ever love him, he said, and the incident put an end to family get-togethers that he treasured.
“Mr. Powers was my first football coach in fifth- and sixth-grade and was a good friend,” Green said of the former mayor. “I grew up with Johnny and Annie. … How do you put a price on losing friends?”
Green’s father, Harry Green, expressed similar regret: “This situation pains my wife and me to the very depth of our heart. These children have been in our home for years.”
In addition, Harry Green said, he and his wife have lost mutual friends who accused them of being vengeful in seeking prosecution.
“I am deeply cognizant of the fact that my son could have been killed or permanently damaged by the blows to his head,” the victim’s father said.
Austin expressed a similar thought, citing similarities between this case and that of 20-year-old Brandon Martin, whose fate was being deliberated by a jury in a room next door to the courtroom.
In both cases, Austin told John T. and Annie Powers, alcohol and anger fueled an attack on friends. If they had used a gun, as undisputed testimony indicated Martin did, they also could be facing the prospect of life in prison for murder, Austin said.
Court records, which Annie Powers and her brother agreed are accurate, say a drunken John T. Powers had just attacked another friend when he and his sister drove to Green’s apartment. According to police, witnesses said John T. Powers accused Green of saying something disrespectful about Annie Powers.
That wasn’t the first time Annie Powers had gone to someone’s home with male companions who planned to beat someone. Police concluded she was present but not involved in a July 2002 incident with possible gang connections in which a young man was beaten with a baseball bat.
She and her brother apologized to Joe Green and his family Friday, and blamed their behavior on drug and alcohol problems for which they are now in treatment. Annie Powers said her problem was compounded by brain damage from a stroke she suffered at age 16.
Their attorneys, Carl Hueber and Craig Smith, said the younger John Powers has gone back to college and hopes eventually to study business at Eastern Washington University while Annie Powers plans to study massage therapy.
She is living with her parents, who have moved to Seattle, while her brother – who has been working as a doorman – lives a couple of blocks away.