Lawyers spar over Pete interview
Shonto K. Pete was shot in the head by an off-duty Spokane police officer in the early hours of Feb. 26 after a confrontation that started outside a downtown bar and ended in Peaceful Valley with the bleeding Pete seeking help from neighbors. Monday, Pete’s trial for allegedly stealing the police officer’s truck started in Spokane Superior Court with pretrial arguments over the admissibility of statements Pete made to investigators while in the hospital.
Spokane police Officer James “Jay” Olsen, a member of the police force for 16 years, is also charged as a result of the incident with one count of first-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment for shooting Pete and firing his gun four times in Peaceful Valley as neighbors slept. Olsen is on unpaid administrative leave. As Pete’s mother and his wife looked on, defense attorney David R. Partovi and Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Douglas R. Hughes argued over an interview of Pete at Sacred Heart Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit about three hours after he was shot. Spokane County sheriff’s Detective Douglas C. Marske interviewed Pete, then talked with his wife and returned to confront the injured man about inconsistencies in his story.
The defense is trying to get Pete’s statements excluded from the trial.
Marske testified before Spokane Superior Court Judge Jerome J. Leveque that he told Pete it was important that they get to the truth of what had happened that night and said that he wasn’t concerned about the stolen vehicle – and then told Pete the person who shot him was an off-duty officer.
“Now I know why you’re trying to get me to say something. … You’re looking after him,” Marske said, quoting Pete. “I advised him I wanted to get to the truth, and Shonto stated he was lucky to be alive.”
Marske said Pete added, “I took off out the door and he was still shooting at me.”
“I took it to mean he was in the vehicle. He said, ‘I didn’t say that.’ … He said he didn’t steal trucks and he didn’t steal vehicles. He said he was never in that truck but was chased by the truck,” Marske said. Pete told the detective he was simply walking down the sidewalk near the Davenport Hotel and the person accosting him “was yelling and shooting at the same time.”
“Shonto said, ‘he was going to kill me,’ ” Marske said.
Marske said he believed Olsen when the police officer accused Pete of stealing his truck, and the additional interviews “strengthened that belief.”
Partovi asked the detective why Pete wasn’t read his Miranda rights.
“Why didn’t you say those words to Shonto in the hospital?” Partovi asked.
“He wasn’t under arrest then,” Marske replied.
Partovi pressed on, asking Marske why the interview had to take place while Pete was in a hospital bed hooked up to an intravenous tube, hung over and recovering from his head wound.
“I was assigned to interview him. He seemed coherent enough,” Marske replied.
In contrast, Olsen wasn’t interviewed by investigators until days after the incident at the request of his attorney, who told detectives his client needed time before being interviewed.
Both Pete and Olsen were determined to have been legally drunk at the time of the incident – Pete with a blood alcohol reading of .255, over three times the legal .08 limit, and Olsen between .08 and .13, court documents show.
According to the prosecutor’s statement of facts, Olsen and a friend, Renee Main, left Dempsey’s Brass Rail at 909 W. First Ave. at the bar’s 2:30 a.m. closing and sat in her car until about 3:15 a.m. until Olsen fell asleep. Main left her car to warm up Olsen’s truck in the chilly winter night and then got back in her car.
Main and Olsen say they saw Pete steal Olsen’s pickup, and gave chase. Olsen later admitted firing several shots after Pete ran down an embankment toward Peaceful Valley. Pete said he merely looked inside Olsen’s pickup before an unknown man began chasing and shooting at him. A search of the inside of the truck found no fingerprints or DNA from Pete, but one of his fingerprints was found on the exterior door jamb of the truck. The Chevrolet door is entered into evidence in the trial.
In August, Spokane Superior Court Judge Robert Austin refused to dismiss the charges and ordered the case to proceed to trial. Austin also ordered Main to submit to a deposition after she had refused to answer questions from Pete’s lawyer.
Jury selection continues today. Jury questionnaires were distributed Monday, polling prospective jurors on whether they’d been exposed to media accounts of the incident.