The point is our 1st Amendment rights would appear to be moot in this faux ‘private’ sector. Trump has already sounded the alarm on a similar. note due to Twitter censorship. The PruneYard decision desperately needs to be expanded. PruneYard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980), the Supreme Court ruled that California could interpret its state constitution to protect political protesters from being evicted from private property, held open to the public, without running afoul of the Fifth Amendment.
Rioters in downtown Portland detain man who had a car crash. They force him to sit on the ground while they search his belongings. One of them runs up and kicks him in the head, instantly knocking him out. There are no police. One man present was barely persuaded not to loot the man’s pickup truck. Earlier, the mob had surrounded and attacked his pickup truck after attacking his blonde GF before he barely escaped but then crashed. Because of the rampant extreme violence now routine on Portland’s streets, the mob was worried the victim might have possessed a firearm to defend himself. If so, he likely now regrets not having used it before he was hospitalized by the mob after being beaten unconscious.
It is no longer safe on the streets of Portland after dark without a gun and likely a bullet proof vest and ballistics helmet along with a face shield and laser filtering goggles. Even that will not protect an individual from the mob. Do not venture into Portland after dark unless you are fully prepared to defend yourself, potentially with lethal force, against the mob.
Portland police on Tuesday identified a suspect in Sunday night’s attack on a truck driver who was seen on video being pulled from the vehicle and violently beaten. The Portland Police Bureau is on the hunt for Marquise Love, who also goes by the name “Keese Love,” for his alleged involvement in the vicious assault that was caught on video and circulated on social media. Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Brent Christensen at 503-823-2087 or at Brent.Christensen@portlandoregon.gov.ANTIFA thug Marquise ‘Reese’ Love, 26 (fugitive from justice)Lady Liberty gives Rose City ANTIFA a Pep Talk
by Lee Brown w/NY Post (8-17-20)
A mob of Portland Black Lives Matter protesters forced a white man to crash his truck, then punched and kicked him unconscious, disturbing footage shows.
A series of clips on social media shows the victim being surrounded in his white Ford truck at 10.30 p.m. Sunday as others attacked a woman he was with, who was punched and even tackled to the ground during the violent melee.
“He didn’t do nothing!” someone could be heard calling as others punched the driver as he sat in his truck, which was also repeatedly kicked.
The unidentified driver eventually sped off, with the mob chasing him — with some heard loudly laughing when he crashed into a tree and then a building, according to the clips.
He was dragged from the truck and tackled to the ground as he begged for help — getting repeatedly punched as he tried to call his wife while pleading with his attackers as he sat on the ground, the videos show.
“I ain’t tryna hurt no one,” he told them, with the only unexplained accusation heard in the clips being that “COVID is real.”
“I was trying to get out the way,” he insisted of crashing his truck, as several of the group punched him in the face and repeatedly called the white driver the N-word.
As the mob dispersed to watch another fight, the main offender circled back around — kicking the defenseless driver in the face from behind, instantly knocking him out with his head cracking on the road.
“What the f–k is you talkin’ about n—er!” the attacker — wearing a shirt with “SECURITY” on the front and back — screamed after the thud of his victim’s head hitting the ground.
The victim was then shown bleeding from a large wound in the back of his head as he appeared unconscious throughout another almost 2½-minute clip. The woman was shown sobbing nearby as the mob held her back and appeared to rifle through his truck.
“Black live matter, n—er!” one man continually ranted as other people checked the victim was still alive. Even as he remained unconscious, a woman was heard taunting him, “Get your b-tch ass up!”
Police in riot gear had to assist ambulance crews helping him as they were confronted by “a hostile crowd,” Portland police said in a release.
The victim was taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, police said. “The incident is under investigation and no arrests have been made,” the force said.
It was unclear what sparked the confrontation, but some witnesses tweeted that he had tried to intervene in an altercation between the mob and another person.
Police said that “protesters were chasing the truck before it crashed, and they assaulted the driver after the crash.”
Kalen D’Almeida, the co-founder of Scriberr News, who shared one of the videos. tweeted: “A man accused of trying to run over protesters [NOT true!] crashed his vehicle. BLM & Antifa militants then pull him from the car and violently assault him.”
He claimed that it was “specifically a militant #BLM group that left the #BLM protest to intentionally incite violence tonight.”
And it came a day after Portland officials once again declared a riot as mobs once again brought violence while claiming to protest the death of George Floyd, as they have done nightly for almost two months.
Two cops were hospitalized overnight Saturday after protesters hurled a 10-pound rock at them during the 79th night of clashes in the City of Roses, according to reports.
from PPB (8-17-20):
On August 16, 2020 at 10:27 p.m., Portland Police officers responded to an accident call at the intersection of Southwest Taylor Street and Broadway. The call read that “protestors chased a white Ford 4×4, which has crashed” at that location and “protestors drug him out of car.” Another witness called prior to police arrival and reported that 9-10 people were “beating the guy.”
Officers responded and found an adult male who was unconscious with injuries. The victim was transported to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and is recovering.
Portland Police became aware of video’s circulating through social media, which show various events of what led up to an assault of the victim. The series of events was carried out in different locations involving many different people. This in an ongoing investigation and the Police Bureau will provide further information as it is available. Below are chronological links to the videos posted on Twitter by Drew Hernandez @livesmattershow and Kalen From Scriberr @FromKalen:
Investigators learned that the victim may have been trying to help a transgender female who had some of her thing stolen in the area of Southwest Taylor and 4th Ave, the location where this incident began. That person has not been contacted and their identity is unknown. Investigators would like to speak to this person.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Detective Brent Christensen at 503-823-2087 or at Brent.Christensen@portlandoregon.gov.
The Portland Police Bureau has been learning of criminal activity captured on social media, as it relates to the ongoing protests, which go unreported. Portland Police would like to remind witnesses and victims to call police immediately so that a timely investigation can begin and valuable evidence can be collected.
Media Relations: PPBPIO@portlandoregon.gov Phone: 503-823-0830 1111 SW 2nd Ave Portland, OR 97204
An Action at law (21CV0197) has been brought against you in the following venue. The presiding judge (Greer) granted Plaintiff permission to serve Heather L. Lund by alternative means or actual notice after the Thurston County Sheriff’s civil division was unable to do so.
WA State, Mason County District Court, John Smith vs. Heather L. Lund, case#: 21CV0192 Published Notice of: (CLICK on following links)
” I see you are planning on writing an article about me and you do not have my consent to use my name, or any other personal information on your blog. Remember, doxxing is a crime. I will respect your wishes of no contact as I would like us to part ways as well. Thank you” – Heather Lund Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
Heather L. Lund (35, fka: Conatser), her husband and 2 small children moved from Pierce to Thurston County a few short years ago. Neither liked the more rigorous rules of the DV game as practiced in Thurston by the authorities–especially when it came to DV involving loaded firearms, each threatening to kill the other, either by shooting or, as the Cupcake admitted, threatening to slit the husband’s throat in his sleep. Their indifference to the fact their children and even the Cupcake’s mother were present during these altercations was like water off a duck’s back. That the Cupcake placed on the autism spectrum was no surprise. Thus her husband’s argument she was a poster child of why wife beating should be made legal came across as insensitive at best. Neither the police, the husband’s defense counsel, nor Prosecutor Jennifer Lord were impressed–especially as the Cupcake attempted to recant her earlier sworn affidavit submitted to the Thurston County Superior (Family) Court seeking a DV protection order and the seizure of her husband’s firearms.
The judicial system, particularly in Thurston County, needs radical restructuring given its habit of relying on punishment and stigmatizing rather than reconciliation and treatment of the mentally ill and emotionally blind/unstable. Being the hammer, SJW’s like Jennifer Lord, esq. see every male as a nail. This is a grave error because even Lord realizes the complaining witness in many of these cases cannot be trusted to tell the truth. The Cupcake had admitted as much through her e-mail correspondence. She hoped to fine tune the prosecution and sentencing of her husband by recanting her earlier sworn statements submitted to the Court signed and written in her hand. Her initial declaration appeared extremely credible and was likely the truth, yet the Cupcake now alleges she was manipulated and under some form of mind control when the investigating officer (Kimball) questioned her. If such a convincing accuser challenges her own veracity, what are the odds of a search for the truth in a courtroom setting bearing fruit?
The Cupcake’s efforts to game the system were rejected, her spouse (Nicholas B. Lund) pled guilty to the armed assault in the presence of his attorney and a colloquy conducted by the judge to confirm he understood what he was doing and that it was voluntary. He was sentenced to only 1 month for the class C Felony along with a probationary period, but prohibited from having any contact with his wife for 5 years, something that clearly irritated the Cupcake. She found fault with prosecutor Jennifer Lord, the husband’s defense counsel, and the judge for it not turning out precisely the way she wanted it. Given her glib rationale and insistence on destroying any/all credibility she might have otherwise had, a quick read through the following documents should demonstrate why a radical shift in the courts’ approach to these cases is called for. This couple doesn’t need a jail cell so much as a mental ward. The prohibition of weapons was a no brainer but should have been applied to both of them. Chalk that lapse up to Jennifer Lord, esq. who now, unfortunately, is even assigned to murder cases in Thurston County. Nevertheless, Jennifer did the Cupcake a favor by not providing her a platform for perjury.
The Cupcake’s Sworn Petition for a DV protection order signed and written in her own hand:
Note: As a result of her continued months long campaign of criminal harassment and cyber stalking filed in a complaint (Rpt #20-22027) w/the Mason County Sheriff, Heather Lund has been blocked from leaving any comments in this forum whatsoever. Photos submitted for purposes of further identifying her would be appreciated, and will make the investigator’s work easier.
Is this Heather L. Lund (dob:3-23-85) of 17202 Heather Ln, SE, Yelm, WA? Thank you, anonymous.
University of Washington professor Cliff Mass poses next to weather equipment on top of the Atmospheric Sciences Building at the University of Washington in 2013.
by Craig Sailor
(8-6-20) — Tacoma public radio station KNKX dropped weather commentator Cliff Mass on Thursday after the University of Washington meteorology professor compared recent violent incidents during Seattle civil rights protests to Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” during the Nazi Germany era.
Mass made the comparison on his immensely popular weather blog Wednesday. Since then, outrage has bellowed across the social media landscape.
KNKX announced Thursday evening it was ending its relationship with Mass immediately.
“ … if a commentator, even on his own independent platform, delivers rhetoric that is offensive and inaccurate, we cannot support it,” the station wrote on its website.
The Nazi-organized Kristallnacht destroyed over 250 synagogues and 7,000 Jewish businesses, cemeteries and homes in 1938. Mass likened the graffiti, smashed windows and threats to public officials of recent Seattle Black Lives Matter protests to Kristallnacht.
“We abhor the comparison and find it sensationalized and misleading — it does not reflect who we are and what we stand for at KNKX,” the station said.
Most of the blog post dealt with Mass’s impressions on a recent walking tour of downtown Seattle where some businesses remain boarded up and where he witnessed an alleged drug transaction. He had harsh criticism for Seattle leadership and Gov. Jay Inslee.
“Seattle citizens had every right to express strong views in public about their concerns for our nation’s Black citizens,” Mass said. “But many of the marches and gatherings turned violent and destructive, breaking windows, burning cars, looting stores, and deliberately harming police who tried to restore safety and order.”
Mass later removed the Kristallnacht comparison from the blog and said he was referring only to the violent aspects of the protests. There was some support of Mass’s post but most comments were negative.
“I did not think that my UW colleague Cliff Mass could lower my opinion of my UW colleague Cliff Mass,” wrote UW bilology professor Carl Bergstrom on Twitter. “I was wrong.”
Mass called KNKX’s decision to remove him hasty and based on pressure from a social media “mob.”
“There’s two types of mobs that will undermine civil society,” Mass told The News Tribune Friday afternoon. “One of the mobs does physical violence. They destroy stores and hurt people. And that’s what my blog was about. And then there’s the other mob, a social media mob who cannot tolerate people with a different viewpoint.”
In 2016, Mass was a vocal supporter of KNKX’s successful campaign to buy its way out of Pacific Lutheran University, where it had broadcast for decades as KPLU. The station and its network of 12 broadcast signals across western Washington were coveted by the weaker signaled but better funded Seattle public radio station KUOW.
Before he started delivering his weekly weather segments, “The Weather With Cliff Mass,” with KNKX’s environmental reporter Bellamy Pailthorp, Mass served the same role at KUOW for 15 years.
KUOW and Mass parted ways acrimoniously in 2011 after he veered off topic while on the air. He was complaining about a Seattle Times story on UW student-acceptance practices.
“When I got canned by KUOW, KPLU called the next day,” Mass told The News Tribune in 2013.
“(Climate change is) real,” he told The News Tribune in 2013. “Some people exaggerated what’s happened so far. That’s been the big tension. Some people are so concerned about global warming they feel they have to hype what’s already happened. Most of global warming is ahead of us.”
“Activists didn’t like what I was saying on my blog, and they thought that that was a reason to kick me off of the radio station,” he said.
KNKX brought in an outside consultant to review Mass’s on-air and off-air work as well as address complaints about him that had been raised in a petition.
“I do not find that Mass’ KNKX weather segment consistently misrepresents climate science, as the petition claimed,” Elizabeth Jensen, a public editor for National Public Radio, concluded in an analysis she conducted for KNKX.
The environmental organization 350 Tacoma celebrated Mass’s dismissal on Thursday.
“We’ve been involved in coalition work over the past year — led by 350 Seattle with 350 Eastside, 350 Everett and 350 Tacoma — to petition KNKX to retire Cliff Mass because of his frequent statements minimizing the urgency of climate science,” the group posted on its website. “We hope that the work we did collectively helped to lay the foundation for today’s decision.”
Mass maintains it’s his right to speak on whatever subject he wants to on his personal blog.
“If you see something that’s profoundly wrong, you should act,” he said. “I mean, it obviously would be easier for me to be Mr. Happy Weatherman.”
Mass pointed to the work he’s done, including securing the installation of a crucial weather radar station on the Washington coast, as the good he’s done for the community.
“I’ve worked very hard to improve society and that’s what this is,” he said of his recent blog post.
Mass, who is Jewish, said his background informs his take on society.
“All these terrible things we’re done to my people … and German people stayed silent,” Mass said. “People were afraid to say anything. And no one would intervene.”
The streets of Rose City ANTIFA (Portland). Even during the day time, the area around the Portland federal courthouse is lawless as police are instructed to stay away. After ANTIFA protesters harassed and assaulted those standing with flags, they beat up this man.
Portland, OR (3-7-17) — A video journalist in Oregon is facing hard time for brandishing a gun to defend himself from an angry mob.
The journalist, Michael Strickland, was covering a Black Lives Matter protest march in Portland on July 7, 2016 – the same day that a BLM supporter in Dallas murdered 5 police officers and injured 9 others, along with 2 civilians during a BLM march in that city.
Strickland is a fixture at left-wing events, and is well-known among organizers and participants for his mocking YouTube channel called Laughing at Liberals. His activities are not popular with these groups, or with local politicians, and at some recent events, protesters have violently confronted him.
In the past he has been physically assaulted, sustaining a broken arm, and has had camera equipment stolen.
During the Portland July 7, 2016 protest, a mob of masked, black-clad “anarchists” spotted Strickland, pushed him around, and ordered him to leave.
An attempt was made to take his camera away, but Strickland extricated himself and moved down the street. A few minutes later, the “free speech” activists again confronted Strickland. This time a tall, obviously angry man was the central figure bearing down on and confronting him.
Several other reporters in the area tried to calm the advancing protesters, as Strickland again attempted to retreat, but as he moved away, the tall, muscular man shrugged off his backpack and moved aggressively toward Strickland.
At the same time, an obese man wearing a black skull mask who had been among the group that had initially assaulted Strickland, rushed forward on Strickland’s left flank.
At this point, Strickland took a few quick steps backwards, yelling “Back off!” and drawing a Glock 9mm, which he first pointed in the general direction of the obese man, then swung back toward the tall muscular fellow. As soon as the rush subsided, Strickland re-holstered the handgun while continuing to back away.
A reporter said something to him, and Strickland stopped retreating long enough to express to the reporter that he thought the protesters were about to attack him, mentioning that some were brandishing heavy poles with black flags on them.
Strickland cautiously retreated, while the protesters continued to follow him. Some reporters and protesters worked to keep everyone back so Strickland could safely get away without anyone getting hurt. Finally Strickland got around the corner to an area where a group of Portland Police officers in riot gear had gathered. They immediately took him to the ground and arrested him.
Police asked members of the crowd whether they had witnessed the events. Then they asked if anyone present had felt directly threatened by the man with the gun. The first person to step up to declare himself a victim was the same obese man who had been helping to instigate the confrontation. He was later a star witness for the prosecution.
Strickland was cited on two misdemeanor counts of Menacing and Disorderly Conduct, and released on his own recognizance that night. The next day the charges were upped to include two felony counts of Misuse of a Weapon. Bail was set at $250,000 based on false claims that Strickland was a “counter-protester” and some sort of white supremacist.
When prosecutors and city officials – many of whom had been “victims” of Strickland’s biting videos at Laughing at Liberals – realized who Strickland was, the charges began stacking up.
He was eventually indicted, tried, and convicted on 10 felony counts of Unlawful Use of a Weapon, 10 counts of Menacing, and one count of Disorderly Conduct. He will be sentenced in May, and faces in excess of 50 years in prison. None of the people who attacked him have been charged.
All of the altercation was captured on video from multiple angles (videos found here), but few of those videos have surfaced. Strickland’s own video of the events was seized by the police and has not been released. Part of it was shown in court, but it has not been made available to the public. What is available is cluttered and confusing – as, no doubt, was the actual event. The videos clearly show several people crowding and menacing over Strickland, then aggressively moving toward him until the gun appears and they back off.
Mike Strickland : The videos clearly show several people crowding and menacing over Strickland, then aggressively moving toward him until the gun appears and they back off.
Strickland’s lawyers, convinced that a fair trial could not be had in extremely “liberal” Multnoma County, asked for a change of venue, but that was denied. When the jury pool proved to be exactly as expected, the lawyers advised waiving the jury trial and taking the case directly to the judge. Hindsight suggests that was a mistake, as the judge declared that Strickland was not being threatened and was not justified in deploying his handgun.
One of the organizers of the BLM protest admitted during testimony at the trial that a group of enforcers had been tasked with keeping Strickland away from the protest – by force if necessary.
As someone knowledgeable about firearms and self-defense, I think Mr. Strickland made some questionable decisions that day, but I believe the videos clearly show a man in fear of imminent, grave bodily harm taking action to prevent that harm.
Much of this case is reminiscent of prosecutors blaming a rape victim for dressing provocatively and walking in a seedy neighborhood after dark. The conclusion seems to be that Mr. Strickland brought this all upon himself by posting controversial videos, carrying a gun, and going where he knew people hated him. His greatest offense appears to have been that of being an outspoken conservative in a liberal community.
Here, the Seattle police spokesperson shows great restraint and professionalism on May Day, 2013, a trait increasingly in demand from today’s LEO’s. The heightened training they receive today was sorely lacking not so long ago. Moreover, this officer’s professionalism discredits his antagonist better than any arrest could.
If weeks of rioting, arson, vandalism and assaults on journalists, police, or simply citizens who refuse to submit to their mob fueled street justice under the phony guise of BLM ideology hasn’t enlightened you to the comparison, read on:
Baboons armed with knives, chainsaw spotted in UK safari park
There’s some real monkey business at a British safari park, where a roving gang of baboons armed with knives and even a chainsaw has been wreaking havoc and sowing fear, according to a report.
The prowling primates are known to have vandalized vehicles, ripping off windscreen wipers and mirrors from them at the Knowsley Safari Park in Merseyside, The Sunday Times reported.
But the baboons have recently been seen carrying an assortment of weapons, including blades, screwdrivers and a chainsaw, leading some workers to suspect that visitors have supplied them with the dangerous items for a thrill, according to the news outlet.
“We’re not sure if they are being given weapons by some of the guests who want to see them attack cars, or if they’re fishing them out of pickup trucks and vans,” one employee told the paper.
“They will literally go into people’s toolboxes and carry them around. One of the baboons was seen lugging around a chainsaw.”
Park officials pushed back at the reports, suggesting that armed apes were an urban myth.
“We believe many of these stories have grown in exaggeration as they’ve been retold, with embellishment to make the objects that are sometimes found in the enclosure seem more exciting and unbelievable,” the park told the news outlet.
The monkey enclosure is well known to mechanics in the northwest area of England where the 550-acre park, which also houses lions, tigers, rhinos, wildebeest and camels, is located.
Monkey gangs are taking over Thailand amid coronavirus
June 29, 2020
These guys aren’t monkeying around. Gangs of hungry macaques have overrun Lopburi, Thailand, after a drop in tourism due to coronavirus. While the local attraction, Monkey Temple, is known for its mischief-making population, the roughly 6,000 crab-eating macaques have become violent as two rival groups are fighting over food.
”They’re so used to having tourists feed them and the city provides no space for them to fend for themselves,” said Supakarn Kaewchot, a government veterinarian. “With the tourists gone, they’ve been more aggressive, fighting humans for food to survive.”
Hector Diaz before he was removed from the K9 unit for dishonesty/misconductProvided by Mason County Prosecutor’s Office
A Giglio or Brady list is a list compiled usually by a prosecutor’s office or a police department containing the names and details of law enforcement officers who have had sustained incidents of untruthfulness, criminal convictions, candor issues, or some other type of issue placing their credibility into question.
Police officers who have been dishonest are sometimes referred to as “Brady cops.” Because of the Brady ruling, prosecutors are required to notify defendants and their attorneys whenever a law enforcement official involved in their case has a sustained record for knowingly lying in an official capacity.
Notably, Dracobly’s name is not on the list. Thus, it cannot be considered factually exhaustive and calls into question the process used to lodge names on the list. Officer Dracobly’s story was reported in this publication some time ago and can be found @ WOMEN’S LIVES MATTER
Most states, in a variety of ways, keep police disciplinary records from public view. Some states, including New York and, until recently, California, keep police disciplinary records completely private. This has led activists to pressure prosecutors to create these Brady lists, expand them, and make them public.
Maryland, 373 U.S. 83, 87 (1963); Giglio v. … Under Brady-Giglio, when a police officer is called as a witness for a law enforcement agency, the prosecutor must disclose impeachment evidence,meaning any evidence that “casts a substantial doubt upon the accuracy” of the witness testimony.
Four types of prosecutorial misconduct are offering inadmissible evidence in court, suppressing evidence from the defense, encouraging deceit from witnesses, and prosecutorial bluffing (threats or intimidation).
Nearly 200 cops with credibility issues still working in Washington state
A Crosscut investigation found at least 183 police officers flagged for issues such as dishonesty, bias and excessive force remain in law enforcement.by
Seattle police officers wear gas masks and carry weapons as smoke rises and they clash with protesters, Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Seattle during a protest in support of Black Lives Matter and against police brutality and racial injustice.
By the time police arrived, the street fight had dispersed. A man emerged from his house, clearly intoxicated, shouting for the cops to come fight him.
Without saying a word, Officer Casey Gillette entered the man’s yard and punched him in the head.
Gillette then wrestled the man to the ground and, with the help of another officer, placed him in handcuffs.
An internal police investigation found that Gillette, a Yakima police officer, used excessive force during the 2013 incident and lacked probable cause to detain the man. According to a superior, Gillette first tried to arrest the man for a crime that didn’t exist in city code, then arrested him for a different offense — also not supported by the facts — in an apparent attempt “to justify [the] prior use of force.”
The list is essentially a collection of cops who come with a warning label. When these officers are called upon to testify, letters are sent from the prosecutor’s office to alert defense attorneys of their past misbehavior — incidents that could be used to question the officers’ testimony, or impeach their credibility in court.
Officers with credibility issues
Brady List Map
Officers end up on the Brady list for a variety of reasons, but the most common is dishonesty. About half the officers Crosscut identified as still working in law enforcement were flagged by prosecutors because they appear to have lied or were somehow deceptive.
Others were placed on the Brady list because of incidents of bias, such as posting racist remarks on social media or making discriminatory comments toward suspects.
A few, like Gillette, are there because of their excessive or questionable use of force. The Yakima police chief agreed that Gillette’s use of force was improper, but disagreed with the investigator’s conclusion that Gillette fabricated a reason for the arrest. Next: How fired cops win their jobs back: arbitration
Crosscut began compiling a statewide database of officers placed on county Brady lists more than nine months ago, shortly after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police.
Prosecuting attorneys say being on the list doesn’t mean a cop is dirty (although, prosecutors have occasionally been known to call their Brady list their “bad cop” file, for short). Officers on the list are regularly called upon to testify in court, with their testimony serving as evidence against defendants in criminal cases.
“There are instances where the officer involved may have had something relatively minor as to what the misconduct was,” said Dan Clark, who leads the criminal division in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. “We still have an obligation to turn that [information] over.”
Defense attorneys, however, question why any cops who have been known to lie, abuse force or stretch ethical limits continue to work as police officers, when a police officer’s word can be enough to convict someone of a crime or put them in jail.
“I really think we should not need a Brady list, because there should be no such thing as a police agency that keeps cops with histories of lying, or false arrests, or brutality, or fabricating reports, or other misconduct,” said Anita Khandelwal, director of the King County Department of Public Defense.
“Black, Indigenous, and other people of color are disproportionally ensnared in the criminal punishment system. They should not be forced to confront claims or purported evidence found by officers who have been disciplined for being dishonest or racist,” the Department of Public Defense wrote in August 2020.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has yet to formally respond to that letter.
Eight months later, a deadly shooting
In addition to deciding whether a criminal defendant ends up in jail or facing charges, a police officer’s honesty can also be crucial in determining whether families of police shooting victims get justice.
Eight months after Gillette punched a man in the head in Yakima, he shot and killed an unarmed man in a parked car at a Yakima car wash.
The Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office ruled the 2014 shooting of Rocendo Arias was justified, based largely on Gillette’s statement that Arias lunged at him while pointing what turned out to be an Airsoft pellet gun.
But a retired police captain who reviewed the case on behalf of Arias’ family said the evidence contradicted Gillette’s story. The blood spatter pattern, along with the position of Arias’ body — slumped forward, with his hands in his lap — suggested he was actually sleeping at the time, not lunging, as Gillette had claimed, wrote former Yakima Police Capt. Rodney Light.
The Arias family brought a wrongful death lawsuit, and the city ended up paying $500,000 to settle the case without admitting any wrongdoing on the part of Gillette.
William Pickett, the family’s attorney, called the sequence of events “absolutely disgraceful.”
“He should have been discharged. Instead, he was promoted,” said Pickett, referring to how Gillette moved from patrol to the SWAT team after the shooting, and later became a detective.
Gillette didn’t respond to multiple requests to be interviewed for this story.
The current Yakima police chief, Matthew Murray, wasn’t around when the incidents involving Gillette took place, but said he saw no indication in his records that Gillette had lied. He called Gillette “a star” detective who investigates sex crimes against children.
“I don’t think there’s any indication he was acting in bad faith,” Murray said of Gillette.
Rocendo Arias is shown in this undated photo provided by his family’s attorney. Arias was 23 when he was shot and killed in Yakima by Police Officer Casey Gillette.
How officers end up on the Brady list
Most incidents that land cops on the Brady list are of much lower stakes than fatal shootings — things like submitting inaccurate reports about traffic stops or lying about why they missed a court date.
But Pickett, a former president of the Washington State Bar Association, said any deception in a cop’s record “is always relevant, because it addresses the character of the witness.”
“These folks, when they swear the oath to serve and protect, they are given an enormous amount of control over our lives, if they choose to exercise that,” Pickett said. “And they have to be of the utmost trustworthiness — they just have to be.”
The Brady lists from Washington’s 39 counties aren’t a complete accounting of every cop who has ever crossed a line. But they shed light on the kind of behavior that police officers can be credibly accused of while still being allowed to keep their jobs.
In most cases, police officers end up on these lists if their departments have conducted an investigation and determined that they have been less than truthful or have committed some other form of misconduct.
In other cases, prosecutors have added officers to the list if they have been observed giving conflicting statements, or a judge has determined they disregarded the truth in some way.
After filing more than 100 public records requests, Crosscut has identified at least 183 cops across Washington state who have been placed on prosecutors’ Brady lists, yet continue to work as police officers.
That number is likely an undercount, as it doesn’t include every officer who may have been added to these lists in recent months, or some officers on lists that may be held by city instead of county attorneys.
“These folks, when they swear the oath to serve and protect … they have to be of the utmost trustworthiness — they just have to be.”— William Pickett, lawyer for the family of Rocendo Arias
About half of the working cops that Crosscut identified as being on Brady lists ended up there because of some form of deception — such as lying to co-workers, submitting false reports or affidavits, or lying during internal investigations. That’s 89 officers.
A dozen others were placed on the lists because their official reports were deemed to be inaccurate, but it wasn’t clear that they were intentionally trying to deceive.
Other reasons officers were placed on their county’s Brady lists included past criminal convictions, failing to properly handle evidence, or other forms of sloppy police work.
Crosscut identified 20 working officers who are on Brady lists for excessive force or bias. That number doesn’t capture every officer who has exhibited those behaviors around the state. A few officers are on Brady lists for multiple reasons, according to prosecutors’ notes.
For 26 officers, Crosscut was unable to determine why they were placed on prosecutors’ Brady lists.
Fired for lying, but still on the force
Sometimes, officers are fired for lying. But the discipline doesn’t always stick.
That’s what happened with Shelton Police Officer Hector Diaz.
An internal investigation in 2019 found that Diaz made inappropriate sexual comments to dispatchers, members of the public and other police employees. During the investigation, Diaz “displayed a lack of integrity and truthfulness,” his police chief wrote at the time.
In another incident, Diaz lied to his then-girlfriend by telling her a restraining order was in effect against her — part of a ploy to keep her from talking to a barista she suspected Diaz was also dating.
In a statement to police, Diaz’s former girlfriend said she feared she “would go to jail” for violating the nonexistent restraining order, causing her to drive out of her way to avoid passing the coffee stand where the barista worked.
She also reported receiving threatening texts from Diaz, and told police she terminated a pregnancy because she didn’t think she could keep the baby safe from him.
“I know for a fact that my life, along with the baby’s, would be in danger,” she wrote of her decision to get an abortion.
“… This is not something I would have ever done if I felt safe.”
Darrin Moody, a former police chief of Shelton, decided to fire Diaz in September 2019, citing “a pattern of dishonesty” that included lying in court.
“… You admitted to ‘lying’ several times in order to get the desired results in your personal relationships, and you did this while using your position as a police officer to further the deception,” Moody wrote in his letter firing Diaz.
But Diaz filed a grievance under his union contract, leading the city to reinstate him as part of a settlement agreement.
As a result, Diaz still works as a Shelton police officer.His response to everything is, ‘I’m a cop, why would I lie?’”— An ex-girlfriend of a police officer accused of dishonesty
Diaz did not respond to requests to interview him for this story. His current police chief, Carole Beason, wrote in an email that she wasn’t around for those incidents, then didn’t respond to further inquiries.
In her statement to police, Diaz’s former girlfriend questioned why the Shelton Police Department would want to keep an officer like Diaz, who she said abused his power while using his badge as cover.
“His response to everything is, ‘I’m a cop, why would I lie?’ ” she wrote.
‘A deadly force situation’
The Brady lists are not specifically designed to track uses of force by police agencies. Still, at least eight currently working officers ended up in prosecutors’ Brady files after using force in a way that was thought to be questionable or excessive.
Gillette, the Yakima police officer who punched a man and later killed Rocendo Arias, is one of those officers.
So is Darrin Dotson, a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy who has a history of losing his cool.
Dotson once got suspended for yelling at a Little League umpire while armed, on duty and in uniform, according to local media reports. The umpire had apparently called a strike on Dotson’s 10-year-old son.
A few years later, Dotson was cited as having “clearly exhibited poor control of his emotions” when he detoured from an urgent call to pull over a truck driver, then swore at the man and possibly dented the door of the man’s truck when slamming it closed.
Director of Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability Andrew Myerberg.
Targeting a person’s face with a Taser goes against the guidance listed in the device’s operations manual, which says “to avoid targeting the face … to reduce the risk of serious injury or death,” said Andrew Myerberg, the director of Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability, which reviews misconduct complaints.
“For me, that would be a deadly force situation,” Myerberg said, after hearing a description of Dotson’s case.
Myerberg said there are alternative, less lethal tactics that can be used in a situation where someone is resisting arrest, but deliberately deciding to apply a stun gun to someone’s face is “hard to justify.”
Dotson didn’t respond to requests to be interviewed. Neither did Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole, who was not in office at the time of the Taser incident or the other two incidents involving Dotson.
An outside prosecutor from Kitsap County weighed whether to press criminal charges against Dotson for the Taser incident. Ultimately, no charges were filed, but the incident was added to Dotson’s Brady file at the county prosecutor’s office.
Showing bias
Racism is another reason prosecutors flag cops for the Brady list. At least a dozen working cops have landed on Brady lists because of incidents where they showed some form of bias.
Sometimes, those offenses have occurred on social media. In 2017, a Whatcom County sheriff’s deputy posted an image on Facebook of a female model in a Native American headdress, with the caption “Victoria’s Secret apologizes after use of Native American headdress in fashion show draws outrage.”
The deputy, Ryan Rathbun, posted along with that image, “Time to get the small pox blankets out and shut some people up.”
According to a 2017 memo from the Whatcom County prosecutor’s office, Rathbun said he wasn’t biased against Native Americans, and “this remark was a parody of something he had seen on South Park, a cartoon broadcast show.” The county prosecutor at the time, David McEachran, wrote that he considered Rathbun a “well qualified, hardworking and good deputy sheriff” who didn’t show bias or prejudice while on duty.
Other agencies may have reacted differently to the same set of facts.
“For me, that would be almost certainly a termination case in my mind,” said Myerberg, Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability director. “I don’t see any way that officer would be able to stay with the Seattle Police Department.”
Myerberg said discriminatory social media posts do, in fact, say something about a cop’s ability to police people fairly.
“If you are racist, you are not just racist on Monday,” Myerberg said. “You are racist on every day of the week.”The public absolutely has to trust that when an officer raises their hand and swears, ‘This happened,’ that what the officer said was the truth.”— State Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek
‘A second chance’
Cops often object to being on the Brady list, saying it damages their credibility and could end their careers.
Yet several police officers who have been placed on the Brady list in one jurisdiction later go on to find employment somewhere else.
One of them is Wade Murray, a former Seattle cop who admitted to insurance fraud while trying to cover for his nephew, who had crashed Murray’s car into a retaining wall. Murray filed a false insurance claim saying that he, not his nephew, was the one driving, while also arranging for his nephew to leave the scene and for the car to be privately towed. Murray was suspended in 2018 over the incident and now works for the Milton Police Department.
Police Chief James Schrimpsher of the city of Algona, Wash. outside of the police department on April 2, 2021
Another Brady list officer who switched departments is James Schrimpsher, the chief of police in Algona. He is on King County’s Brady list for being less than truthful in an internal investigation in 2007, when he was a King County sheriff’s deputy. He was fired over the incident.
Schrimpsher cautioned against writing off officers on the Brady list as bad cops who are somehow irredeemable.
“I made a mistake going on 15 years ago and, luckily, I had some good mentors who picked me up, dusted me off and put me on the right path,” Schrimpsher said.
He said he has used what he learned from the experience to try to improve the state’s criminal justice system. That work has included helping get members of the Washington Fraternal Order of Police on board with major reform measures, as well as serving on the Washington State Criminal Sentencing Task Force, which recommended ways to reduce long prison sentences and promote alternatives to incarceration.
“One of the reasons I wanted to be on that task force is that people make mistakes, and they shouldn’t have to pay for them the rest of their lives if they have learned from that mistake,” Schrimpsher said. “Because I got a second chance.”
‘The tip of the iceberg’
Lisa Daugaard, executive director of the Public Defender Association, said she doesn’t think the worst actors in police departments actually show up on prosecutors’ Brady lists.
Rather, she said, the cops who end up on the lists are simply the ones where there is a “smoking gun” showing how they lied, cut corners or abused their authority — things typically hard to prove.
“The few officers that are proven to have Brady material are the tip of the iceberg,” Daugaard said. “The iceberg is the other officers you are worried are hiding evidence, fabricating evidence, producing inaccurate pictures, or subverting justice.”
Clark, the lead criminal deputy in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said his office takes its obligation to turn over potential impeachment material very seriously, and is diligent about providing that information to defense attorneys.
But there are other places the system can break down, including with the police agencies themselves.
Khandelwal, the director of the King County Department of Public Defense, said decisions about who goes on the Brady list rely too much on police agencies investigating themselves and issuing disciplinary findings against officers, which doesn’t always happen.
State Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, hopes to address that in part by passing a new law, Senate Bill 5066, that would make it mandatory for officers to report any misconduct they see.
But even when there is an official investigation or misconduct finding, prosecutors don’t always learn about it in a timely manner, said Dhingra, who also works as a King County deputy prosecuting attorney.
Another proposal, House Bill 1088, would try to fix that by requiring police agencies to notify prosecutors within 10 days about any misconduct that could cast doubt on an officer’s testimony. The measure would also require police agencies to check whether potential new hires are on their local county’s Brady list.
State Rep. John Lovick, a former Snohomish County sheriff who is sponsoring the bill, said the goal is to help restore people’s faith in law enforcement, which he said has been eroded by high profile police killings and allegations of police misconduct.
“This is hopefully going to bring some trust back to the system we have in place,” said Lovick, D-Mill Creek. “The public absolutely has to trust that when an officer raises their hand and swears, ‘This happened,’ that what the officer said was the truth.”
