When The Protectors become the Aggressors.

Otto Zehm

On March 18, 2006, a mentally disabled janitor, Otto Zehm, died after being beaten, bound and tasered by veteran Spokane police officer, Karl F. Thompson while he held on to a candy bar and a plastic bottle of diet pop that he had just purchased at the Zip Trip in north Spokane. The beating began after Officer Thompson responded to a call by two young women that had wrongly reported him as a thief.

Otto Zehm, 36, died two days later. He had committed no crime and the evidence suggests he had only gone into the store to buy a bottle of pop and a candy bar. His only crime was being in the wrong place and being confronted by the wrong police officer. Seriously folks, this young man knew no violence and meant no one any harm. Otto was as dangerous as a butterfly and as kind as a lamb. I can only imagine the fear and confusion that Otto must have experienced as this veteran police officer was violently beating and tasering him for reasons unknown to him.

And The Cover-Up Began.

Immediately, Spokane Police and Mayor Mary Verner begin to paint Mr. Zehm as the aggressor and to justify the use of deadly force on a completely defenseless human being./

Three years later on March 13, 2009, the Center for Justice filed a federal civil rights suit against the city of Spokane and nine of its police officers on behalf of Otto Zehm’s family. The lawsuit alleged that Spokane police officers used excessive force and that the Spokane police department and its former acting chief, Jim Nicks, engaged in a conspiracy to portray Mr. Zehm as the aggressor. This has sparked an outcry by Spokane residents, newspapers, radio and TV stations and is spreading all across the United States in a wake of violent acts by police and cover-ups by city and government officials alike.

When Police are the Criminals, is their still Justice in America?

Spokane Police Officer Karl Thompson

Surveillance video shows officer Thompson beating Mr Zehm with his baton and repeatedly using his Taser on him while Otto lye defenseless armed with just a bottle of pop and a candy bar. In June of 2009, after years of outcry by Spokane residents a federal grand jury handed down two indictments against Thompson. Trial is scheduled for Oct. 11, 2011 but was moved to Yakima WA from Spokane and that too is raising suspicions of even more cover-ups and Spokane city legal department.

Otto Zehm Trial Moves To Spokane

U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle has made a very unpopular decision that will undoubtedly cloud all future dealings with the justice system here in Washington and especially in the communities in and surrounding Spokane. Moving the trial of officer Thompson from Spokane to the town of Yakima some 200 miles away smells like another attempt at not  getting to the truth. The evidence is here, in Spokane, and the parties involved are here too. One would think that after all the miss information and attempted cover ups by the police and those in the city legal department, the city and justice dept. would want to put the people here at ease by trying the case where the crimes were committed. I say crimes as there were multiple issues to be addressed. Not only is it the murder of Otto Zehm but also the lies by the officer and the police chief that needs to be cleared up. And then there is the perceived tampering with the truth by the legal departments here in Spokane, this action of moving the trial is beginning to smell like more of the same to everyone following this case.

Believe me, as a father of a special needs child myself, I will be following this case all the way to the finish. Stop back for more details on this case from Yakima.