My long battle (well over a year now) with the City of Spokane and SPD to be transparent with the Public about the termination of former SPD Lt. and former President of the SPD Lieutenants and Captains Association, David McCabe who retired in lieu of termination in June of 2018 has resulted in some new twists.
Although most local reporters have little or no interest in getting to the truth about things going on at SPD, my position is the Public has a right to know and someone has to do the tedious work of trying to get to the truth.
For those that aren’t aware Lt. Dave McCabe while on SPD became addicted to morphine that addiction and other issues it appears to have cost the taxpayers a considerable amount of money, yet someone made the decision not to prosecute the criminal conduct involved as would likely happen to most Citizens who perpetrated the same conduct.
The new twist came when I appealed the redactions made in the McCabe IA Case which took me well over a year to obtain and the City made every effort to hide from the Public.
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:cc0f4215-95ed-43ee-9ddf-5d1e41f0fb59
For folks that aren’t aware when someone submits a Public Records Request, and they receive heavily redacted documents the City of Spokane process is that the requestor can appeal the redactions to the City of Spokane Hearing Examiner to review and make a finding whether or not the redactions are appropriate based upon Washington State Law. The requestor can bypass the Hearing Examiner process and appeal directly to Spokane County Superior Court, but I think most lawyers would advise that it is best to exhaust all options available in the Government established process before filing in Superior Court. Once the appeal is made by the requestor to the Hearing Examiner the City Division involved will provide the Hearing Examiner with an always lengthy justification as to why the redactions should remain. In my appeal Ms. Mary Muramatsu who works for City Attorney Mike Ormsby in the role of legal advisor to SPD one again did just that as she has in other appeals.
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:b838cee3-ea6e-421d-bea4-84c6d4830363
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:6a9122d3-9537-49f4-af0c-cf30423d83fa
The twist or at least interesting aspect in the documents submitted to the Hearing Examiner is City Attorney Michael Ormsby’s declaration under oath.
The problem I’m having with Mr. Ormsby’s declaration under oath is that it sure seems to contradict his duties which are outlined in RCW 35.23.111 which specifically states, “all legal matters pertaining to the business of the city” and seems to be in conflict with the City of Spokane’s own description of what the City Attorney is responsible for and which includes this language “and prosecutes all criminal misdemeanor cases, infractions and code violations on behalf of the city.”
You might notice in the image below that City Attorney Michael Ormsby oversees two divisions “The Office consists of the civil division and the prosecution division.”, which is the same structure as Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell oversees.
Having dealt with many Prosecuting Authorities including the City of Spokane Attorneys and Spokane County Prosecutors I know darn good and well if you want a case charged that involves a Law Enforcement Officer you have to go right to the top guy/gal.
There sure as heck seems to be some conflicting issues with City Attorney Ormsby and Chief Meidl’s people since on several occasions SPD has reported that the City Attorney “did not wish to move forward with criminal charges.”
Maybe we will be able to clear this whole thing up…but I’m not holding my breath.
Story Images:
https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:cda2479c-eec1-4848-b81f-b8ad157ef111
Buffalo Brian Breen 