After listening to the
Captain Dave Singley interview which was recorded during the City Human
Resources investigation of Detective Lonnie Tofsrud’s complaint against Lt.
Dave Staben for the fourth time it became obvious yet another PRR was in order.
For those interested you can
listen to the recorded statement at this link:
The effort to coverup the “Horrific” Scott and Dan Lesser BWC Video just got completely out of control when the Spokane Police Guild sent a letter to Mayor Condon et al not only objecting to the OPO being present to oversee IA Interviews and the entire IA Case but also in an obvious effort to intimidate the OPO by making allegations that OPO Logue violated the OPO Ordinance without providing any evidence or facts supporting the basis for their allegations.
The SPD Guild Letter from Guild President Kris Honaker and the response to the letter by OPO Logue are imaged below:
As you can see from this previous story the SPD Command Staff
is complicit with the Guild in attempting to eliminate oversight of the Lesser
IA Case and the only reason Chief Meidl and Director MacConnell attempted to
remove my name as the Complainant and replace it with Logue’s name was to help
the Guild in preventing the OPO from overseeing the Lesser IA Case.
Keep in mind that this is one of those stories even though
it is really interesting from a Public Records, and Handling Sources
standpoint, the local Spokane Mainstream Media won’t be covering, because it
involves one of theirs, I did however once again reach out to the Inlander
folks to get some questions answered but I anticipate the Nadine Policy will
kill any chances of getting some questions answered by the Inlander.
It would appear that Adriano Eva won the first round of his
battle with the City and Daniel Walters as a Pre-Trial Status Conference is set
for 08/09/2019, and there is a “MOTION FOR LIVE TESTIMONY” filed which in all
likelihood means Mr. Eva will be calling witnesses in the trial.
I would venture a guess that Mr. Eva’s lawyers will be
subpoenaing, at a minimum Christine Cavanaugh and Daniel Walters, but there are
lots of other folks who could be subpoenaed including Laurie Farnsworth, Terri
Pfister, Dan Daling, Meghann Steinolfson… etcetera.
Remember that this case all got started when the City gave
Mr. Adriano “Third Party Notification “and that this case demonstrates just how
long it can take to receive a Public Records Response, if at all, when an individual
utilizes his/her right under the Public Records Act to object to the release in
Superior Court under RCW 42.56.540.
It is like I told Daniel Walters back in November of 2018;
“It entirely depends upon how much embarrassment
the document or documents might cause someone. Those that don’t I get quickly,
those that do come at a snail’s pace.”
From a reporters perspective the case could also get really
interesting from the standpoint of the position it would put Daniel Walters in
if he is subpoenaed and takes the stand. As I mentioned in previous stories it
looks like Walters received the 2014 documents prior to the City releasing them
due to Eva taking advantage of his right to object to the release. I doubt that
the City released the documents to Walters prior to the case being decided as
my experience has been that Ms. Pfister and Ms. Farnsworth are very diligent
about this kind of stuff, but if they did and the Judge finds that the records
should not have been released the City would have a problem. The City could
also have a problem if it was a City Employee who released the records or
details of the contents of the 2014 case.
Even a non-lawyer could probably anticipate what questions
reporter Walters might have to answer on the witness stand, especially since
there are quotation marks around statements that appear to be from the 2014 HR
Case.
“But those, it turned out, weren’t mutually exclusive,
according to the account she gave the city in 2014 and relayed to the Inlander.”
“In the report, authored by former HR analyst Dan Daling,
Eva admits to kissing Shelby — though Eva portrays the kiss as gentler, briefer
and without any inappropriate touching. But Daling ultimately finds Shelby to
be more credible and less culpable than Eva.”
To “ensure that these negative and disrespectful
behaviors stop immediately,” Daling urges for Eva to cease contact with
Shelby, to never be placed in a supervisory role with her again, to be moved
from Riverfront Park, and to be retrained on “respect in the
workplace.” Finally, he calls for Eva to be sent to a “predisciplinary
hearing to determine what discipline, if any, is appropriate.”
Timing is everything when a lawyer is questioning a witness
on the stand, but I have to believe at some point Walters would be asked the
ultimate question… “Did you receive a copy of the 2014 case and from whom did
you receive it?”… “Aside from Shelby who
were your sources for the information you for the story?”…. Now that is where
the going could get rough. Do you refuse to name your sources and face the possibility
for a Contempt of Court Charge, or do you ruin your career by naming your
sources?
I would suspect that Christine Cavanaugh would be asked if
she provided documents or specific detail of the 2014 case to Walters. That
could be a rough one too because if she did or if any other City Employee did
that just makes Eva’s Civil Case against the City better since it would support
Eva’s lawyers claim that Cavanaugh is/was after Eva.
“Ms. Cavanaugh was driving the
investigation that failed to ask key witnesses and failed to bring out key
evidence,” he tells the Inlander.
This is a case that the order in which witnesses are called
could be critical for some, for example if Cavanaugh is called prior to Walters
and it is determined that she was Walters source for details of the 2014 case
it would to an extent take Walters off the hook, but if she denies it and other
witnesses called prior to Walters also deny they are the source things could
get sticky for young Walters. If I were Walters I would be hoping I wasn’t
first up.
Walters might be right…his “big story on HR and a recreation
supervisor”…might just end up being big…but not in the way he thought.
or a shot at me for exposing the Lesser Video Case, or
perhaps even some type of delay tactic. Either way it is just plain dumb and
really makes SPD look Daffy yet again.
So here is some crazy stuff that has happened.
On June 18, 2019 Christine Coty from the OPO Office sends an
email to IA Lt Bart Stevens and his Boss Director Jacqui MacConnell asking why
SPD changed my name as the Complainant on the Lesser BWC Video Case to OPO Bart
Logue.
There must have been some back and forth between SPD and the
OPO (Thus the need for yet another PRR) and since there is no reasonable
explanation to change the name of the complainant I smell a rat, so I shoot
this back to Logue and everyone else involved.
One would have to be really Daffy to think I wouldn’t submit
a Public Records Request to try and figure out what the hell is going on.
I made the decision to go ahead and play the game and today
I submitted a formal complaint to the OPO so SPD can now change the complainant
back to my name!
Buffalo Brian Breen 