Deputy accused of assault on inmate

Spokane County sheriff’s officials arrested one of their own employees Thursday and charged him with assaulting an inmate last month.

Corrections Deputy Steven P. Skinner, 36, was arrested and booked on the charge of third-degree assault in connection with a Jan. 22 incident inside a cell, Undersheriff Dave Wiyrick said. Skinner was released later Thursday on his own recognizance.

The 29-year-old inmate, whom the Sheriff’s Office did not name, was arrested Jan. 22 for disorderly conduct. Later that evening, the inmate became “loud, belligerent, and had tried to flood his cell by placing his T-shirt in the toilet and repeatedly flushing it,” Wiyrick said.

Some 15 minutes after the inmate calmed down, he was lying on his bunk when “Skinner delivered a burst of OC (oleoresin capsicum) pepper spray into his cell,” Wiyrick said.

The inmate did not report the incident to authorities, and complete details were not relayed to jail officials until last week – a day before the FBI announced that it was joining the investigation into a different inmate who died Jan. 29 after fighting with corrections officers.

In that separate and unrelated case, Benites Saimon Sichiro, 39, was booked into jail Jan. 27 with facial bruising indicating that he had been in a fight. County officials said Sichiro later fought with corrections officers, and they struck him with their knees and jolted him with Taser shocks.

An autopsy showed that Sichiro died of a lacerated liver, which most likely occurred in the jail. The eight corrections deputies involved in the Sichiro incidents – Steve Long, Ted Tofsrud, Todd Belitz, Wayne Mauer, David Hatton, John Elam, Tim Christopherson and Michael Vanatta – have all resumed their duties.

“There’s no evidence to show they did anything wrong,” Sheriff Mark Sterk told The Spokesman-Review last week. “If further investigation reveals differently, they will be placed on leave until the investigation is complete.”

After jail officials learned of the assault case involving the 29-year-old inmate, Skinner was immediately placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, Wiyrick said.

Sheriff’s investigators were unable to interview the inmate until Tuesday. Sterk is expected to determine Skinner’s employment status today, Wiyrick said. “When we become aware of a situation, we do an investigation,” he said. “We want the public to have trust for the folks who work for the Sheriff’s Office.”