the Mirror previously reported<\/a>. The Kent, Federal Way and Auburn police departments each have an inquest case on hold.<\/p>\nThese invalid procedures now include allowance of pre-written discovery, issuance of pre-hearing “discovery” subpoenas, introduction of evidence regarding compliance with officers’ training and policy, limitation of the chief law enforcement officers’ testimony about training and policy compliance, and allowance of outside expert witness testimony.<\/p>\n
These are invalid because the inquest administrator cannot be an “at-will” employee of the King County Executive, according to court documents. The process by which the executive orders were drafted and the hearing procedures themselves “appear unfair,” according to court documents.<\/p>\n
While the inquest process was established in state law in 1854 to review the death of any individual, King County uses the process only in incidents involving uses of deadly force by police officers.<\/p>\n
“The new rules established by Executive Constantine went well beyond the purpose of the inquest process, and created an expensive, time consuming trial-like atmosphere far removed from determining cause of death,” according to the joint news release from the South King County cities. The included South King County cities determined that an impartial judicial review of the process was appropriate.<\/p>\n
Pausing the inquest process does not stop the criminal prosecution of a police officer who is found to have violated the law as criminal prosecution is separate from any inquest process or outcome.<\/p>\n
Kent Mayor Dana Ralph said while she supports reforms that better the community, those reforms must respect the constitutional rights of all involved.<\/p>\n
“Today, a judge agreed with that sentiment, and now we must begin the work to create a system that is fair, accountable and transparent for everyone. I am committed to working with legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle to create a system that is consistent across the state,” Ralph said.<\/p>\n
Federal Way Mayor Jim Ferrell said the four involved cities have a commitment to their combined 400,000-plus residents.<\/p>\n
“Clearly the Executive exceeded his authority and I look forward to a process which will be fair to all parties and seeks the truth in achieving justice for everyone involved,” Ferrell said.<\/p>\n
“The rule of law matters,” Ferrell told the Mirror. “It’s important that we strictly adhere to what the law is designed to do.”<\/p>\n
The judge who ruled has also asked the Washington State Supreme Court to review the matter.<\/p>\n
Six King County victims with inquest hearings on hold<\/strong><\/p>\n• Damarius Butts<\/p>\n
Seattle Police Department<\/p>\n
Date of Incident: April 20, 2017<\/p>\n
Butts, of Kent, died from multiple gunshot wounds after a reported shootout with Seattle Police on April 20 when he fled after allegedly robbing a 7-Eleven store, 627 First Ave., in downtown Seattle.<\/p>\n
• Isaiah Obet<\/p>\n
Auburn Police Department<\/p>\n
Date of Incident: June 10, 2017<\/p>\n
Police say the officer shot Obet after the 25-year-old man entered a home armed with a knife and later tried to carjack an occupied vehicle.<\/p>\n
• Charleena Lyles<\/p>\n
Seattle Police Department<\/p>\n
Date of Incident: June 18, 2017<\/p>\n
Lyles, 30, was shot seven times in her Seattle apartment by two Seattle Police officers. Officers fired after they said Lyles threatened them with a knife.<\/p>\n
• Eugene Nelson<\/p>\n
Kent Police Department<\/p>\n
Date of Incident: Aug. 9, 2017<\/p>\n
Nelson, 20, died from multiple gunshot wounds after he allegedly tried to flee in a vehicle while dragging an officer in the 23600 block of 104th Avenue Southeast.<\/p>\n
• Robert Lightfeather<\/p>\n
Federal Way Police Department<\/p>\n
Date of Incident: Oct. 30, 2017<\/p>\n
Lightfeather, 33, died of multiple gun shot wounds from a shooting at South 316th Street and Pacific Highway South outside the Elephant Car Wash. Federal Way police responded to a 911 caller who reported seeing a man pointing a gun at two men.<\/p>\n
• Curtis Elroy Tade<\/p>\n
Kirkland Police Department<\/p>\n
Date of Incident: Dec. 19, 2017<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Reporter Steve Hunter contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Court says King County Executive overstepped his authority regarding rules for investigating officer-involved deaths. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":665,"featured_media":46975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11,4,24],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-46974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-home2","category-news","category-northwest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46974"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46974"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=46974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}