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Spokane police, prosecutors gain ability to charge low-level sex crimes in municipal court

A man was taken to the hospital from an apparent shooting Friday night in northeast Spokane and police are seeking the community’s help in identifying a suspect. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)
By Kip Hill kiph@spokesman.com(509) 459-5429

A new city law gives Spokane police and prosecutors more options to track and punish lower-level sex crimes.

The Spokane City Council voted unanimously Monday to create a city misdemeanor fourth-degree assault charge. It allows municipal judges to determine whether certain crimes were sexually motivated. The Police Department and city’s legal team believe the changes will bring the city’s criminal code in line with state laws and give investigators more evidence to monitor repeat offenders by enabling DNA collection.

The full panel approved both legal changes without discussion at the end of a meeting held Monday night at the West Central Community Center.

City Prosecutor Justin Bingham said Tuesday that his office has spent years attempting to get a fourth-degree city assault charge on the books that matches state law, without success.

“That nuance has been there for many years,” said Bingham, referring to the difference between state statute and city law. “It makes it just a little more tricky to prove (that a crime was sexually motivated) at trial.”

Kathy Knox, who leads the city’s public defender office, said the big change is allowing city prosecutors to argue crimes were committed with a sexual motivation, a finding that enables investigators to collect DNA samples after conviction. Those found guilty of sex-related felonies already must submit DNA swabs, but state law only allows collection for misdemeanors in limited cases – one of which is fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.

“I don’t think it’s going to be charged very much,” Knox said. “It’d have to be a very unusual fact pattern where we would have that.”

The changes would have allowed prosecutors to charge Jonathan Smith, a 28-year-old who in April admitted to slapping women on their backsides, in municipal court, which commonly handles misdemeanors. Instead, his case was moved to district court, where he was charged under the state statute for fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.

Both Bingham and Knox said they believed the request to update the city’s laws were tied to Smith’s case, and prompted by the Police Department. Capt. Brad Arleth, the department’s head of investigations who briefed the City Council on the requested changes in May, could not be reached for comment.

Arleth told City Council members last month that adding the classification, along with the ability to charge certain crimes with a sexual motivation at the municipal court level, would allow investigators to pursue appropriate charges in those rare instances and create a more detailed court record for repeat offenders.

“People who commit sex offenses, especially violent sex offenses, there’s always a lead-up time,” Arleth said at a meeting of the city’s Public Safety Committee in May. “They generally never start just at level 8, or 10. There’s a lot of small things beforehand.”

The new fourth-degree assault charge is a gross misdemeanor, carrying a potential maximum jail sentence of 364 days or a $5,000 fine. A finding of sexual motivation requires a unanimous jury verdict.