Quite the interesting story, especially when you consider warning, after warning, after warning the Mayor, City Council, and Public were given about the hiring of Frank Straub, and subsequently the hire Jim McDevitt’s friend Selby Smith. It wasn’t until the very predictable Cotton/Straub Affair was finally made public because of sources and Public Records Requests that Condon fired Straub, an issue that will be dealt with on April 18th during an Ethics Commission Hearing on an ethics complaint against Condon. Needless to say, shortly after much of the Gately, and Ennis case became public Smith quickly left the Spokane Police Department, I would throw in a “I told you so!” here but I’m getting tired of that line.
This Shawn Vestal story will give you some idea of where the downhill slide began.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/sep/29/shawn-vestal-wisdom-on-straub-very-unwise/
“Let’s give the guy a chance.”
The other guy, has had more than enough chances Shawn, and times up!
“I’d rather go out on strikes at this point and try to hit the home run versus sitting and trying to get, in the bottom of the ninth, a walk,” Stuckart said. “We need somebody to lead this police department and this is the guy to do it.”
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/spincontrol/2012/sep/10/condon-pays-fly-four-spokane-back-straub/
JUST LIKE TYLER…TOLD YOU SO BEN!
The only reasons he did not fire Gately, Meidl writes, were because of the sergeant’s minimal policy violations throughout a long career and because “SPD administration bears some culpability.”
As the saying goes…” No shit Sherlock!”
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/aug/19/drug-case-hinges-on-dubious-informer/
https://examplepro.me/2015/11/02/we-are-headed-in-the-same-directionwake-up/
https://examplepro.me/2016/05/19/the-gately-case-what-did-the-community-learn/
There are three things I feel are important to understand as far as the Gately case is concerned:
First, the ARP made it very clear in their IA Review that they are held to the burden of proof standard “Clear and Convincing” evidence, which is a higher standard than most agencies in the Nation…they even underlined it to make a point.
Secondly, I think it is very import to read Joe Walker’s addendum to the ARP finding at the end of the Gately IA case linked below.
https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/ee21a8e5-6007-4145-b3ec-6f650645e808
Thirdly, Don’t forget Detective Jeff Harvey’s testimony in the Karl Thompson case that as Union Vice President he kept Karl Thompson informed about the investigation.
***Just how priceless this comment by Knezovich actually is will come to light later! 😊
“If Gately really wanted to honor his oath, he would have gone on the stand and told the truth,” Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich says. “It’s his constitutional right to do so, but not taking the stand diminishes, in the eyes of the public, every badge out there because you didn’t stand up and tell the truth. You took the Fifth.”
Buffalo Brian Breen 