City reverses course on man who complained about Seattle cops
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SEATTLE - Earlier this month, the KOMO 4 Problem Solvers aired a story about a man who claimed his complaints about Seattle police led him to be arrested and prosecuted.
Now, we've learned that the city is reversing course.
Donald Fuller told us the last three years have been an absolute nightmare. But two weeks after his story aired, Seattle's city attorney says he wants that conviction tossed out.
The story all begins back in 2009.
Fuller says he was walking downtown when a pair of Seattle police officers told him he could get a ticket for jaywalking. Then he found himself accused of assault, resisting arrest and obstruction.
Initially both city and county prosecutors declined to file charges. But after Fuller complained about his encounter, his attorney says the Office of Professional Accountability - tasked with overseeing Seattle police and investigating reports of misconduct - pushed hard for charges to be filed.
The city attorney eventually complied with the OPA, and Fuller was later found guilty of obstruction.
But the OPA's policies prohibit retaliation - and Fuller's attorney uncovered documents that seemed to show his client would never have been charged were it not for his complaints.
On Saturday, a little over two weeks after the Problem Solvers broke the story, City Attorney Pete Holmes released a statement saying he wants Fuller's conviction vacated.
It's a big win for Fuller, but his attorney James Egan says this isn't over yet.
"This is not a no-harm, no-foul situation," Egan says. "The city attorney is doing the right thing today, but that's not the only thing they need to do."
Egan says the city owes Fuller damages.
"There will be a settlement. There absolutely should be money paid to Mr. Fuller for damage to his person, to his body, to his back and to his career because he got a conviction that never should have happened," says Egan.
"We have to come together," says Fuller. "We have to let them know we are not taking this any more. And it's just not my situation - it's the whole gamut, the whole thing. All around the country we are sick and tired of this."
In his statement, City Attorney Pete Holmes says there was no prosecutorial misconduct, but says Fuller was entitled to "rely in good faith" on the OPA's anti-retaliation policy.
He went on to say, "As a former member of the OPA review board, i understand that it is vitally important for the community to know that neither OPA nor any other arm of law enforcement will retaliate when individuals exercise their rights to complain about police misconduct."
"I am taking this action because it is crucial that the public have full faith and confidence in both OPA and the criminal justice system," he added.
Holmes says his office will work to keep building that trust.
Now, we've learned that the city is reversing course.
Donald Fuller told us the last three years have been an absolute nightmare. But two weeks after his story aired, Seattle's city attorney says he wants that conviction tossed out.
The story all begins back in 2009.
Fuller says he was walking downtown when a pair of Seattle police officers told him he could get a ticket for jaywalking. Then he found himself accused of assault, resisting arrest and obstruction.
Initially both city and county prosecutors declined to file charges. But after Fuller complained about his encounter, his attorney says the Office of Professional Accountability - tasked with overseeing Seattle police and investigating reports of misconduct - pushed hard for charges to be filed.
The city attorney eventually complied with the OPA, and Fuller was later found guilty of obstruction.
But the OPA's policies prohibit retaliation - and Fuller's attorney uncovered documents that seemed to show his client would never have been charged were it not for his complaints.
On Saturday, a little over two weeks after the Problem Solvers broke the story, City Attorney Pete Holmes released a statement saying he wants Fuller's conviction vacated.
It's a big win for Fuller, but his attorney James Egan says this isn't over yet.
"This is not a no-harm, no-foul situation," Egan says. "The city attorney is doing the right thing today, but that's not the only thing they need to do."
Egan says the city owes Fuller damages.
"There will be a settlement. There absolutely should be money paid to Mr. Fuller for damage to his person, to his body, to his back and to his career because he got a conviction that never should have happened," says Egan.
"We have to come together," says Fuller. "We have to let them know we are not taking this any more. And it's just not my situation - it's the whole gamut, the whole thing. All around the country we are sick and tired of this."
In his statement, City Attorney Pete Holmes says there was no prosecutorial misconduct, but says Fuller was entitled to "rely in good faith" on the OPA's anti-retaliation policy.
He went on to say, "As a former member of the OPA review board, i understand that it is vitally important for the community to know that neither OPA nor any other arm of law enforcement will retaliate when individuals exercise their rights to complain about police misconduct."
"I am taking this action because it is crucial that the public have full faith and confidence in both OPA and the criminal justice system," he added.
Holmes says his office will work to keep building that trust.
Low-life gets arrested and now wants some axpayer money.Â
@opout Why do you consider him a "low-life"?
Well at least they can make the right call for once. At least the taxpayers won't be paying for this one.
More examples that the SPD and its OPA (supported by corrupted mayor McSchwinn himself) cannot be trusted.
Damages means the tax vacuumed people of Seattle will pay.Â
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Government does not earn any income. They extort it.
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 @pbs7mm Perhaps if government officials (police) did not abuse the rights of citizens, or taxpayers began demanding that their police act responsibly in accordance to the constitution, taxpayers wouldnt be need to fit the bill
Hope Fuller gets a couple hundred million dollars. Maybe that will bankrupt the police and they'll be forced to layoff a bunch of the terrorists they have working for them.
 @Blindman The taxpayer foots the bill - not the cops.
 @StringerJoe  @Blindman Yeah, but he's got a point about the budget!
good ol' police dept, always willing to admit a wrong - at least after its been pointed out and they are embarrassed about it.
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yay police guild! yay rich o'neal! yay for oversight! ah, but was there actually oversight? nope. took an article on KOMO to expose them....
Will this be the straw to finally break the back of the good old boy system of the SPD?
To those who complain about this guy winning - put yourself in his shoes. SPD did violate their own standards, resulting in the need for this guy to hire an attorney to fight for him. The City owes him.
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Now to those of you who think it can't happen to you - it can. I had an uncle murdered by cops in another state. By the time my aunt and her attorneys were done, the town was without law enforcement - everyone including the Chief down to the jail were convicted of crimes that had been committed over the years.FYI - my uncle was white.  Also, I know of young men who were beaten by City of Pacific cops - who later bragged about it. When it comes to corruption, the police are the worst because of their positions. Beware because the next victim could be YOU!
And how is it that the magic golden police union contract prevents the citizens from firing cops who lie under oath and cost the tax payers millions in lawsuits and settlements? Â
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Seattle Police.... Organized Crime Perfected. Â
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Imagine how many peoples lives have been destroyed who didn't have a lawyer or a means to fight this corruption. Â Peter Holmes is the reason why this man was prosecuted when charges were reintroduced. Â
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The problem with these convictions handed out so freely by our corrupt Seattle Police Department, Our corrupt prosecutors and the corrupt judges who take the word of officer proven to lie is so great that the Seattle City council wants to stop employers from checking criminal status because so many can't get work. Â
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The corruption never ends. Â
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 If I was in Fuller's position, I would have no problem going after Seattle for damages, attorneys fee's, pain and suffering. Seattle should be held accountable for their actions.
So the cops lied in their report about him hitting them??
@cptmac11 At this point, that's actually irrelevant. If the charges were valid, the prosecutor should have acted on them when the police tried to file charges. For whatever reason, no charges were filed.
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What is relevant now is the apparent retaliation of the OPA.
The government is feeling generious lately and maybe Fuller can get $5 Million like those greedy sob's in lakewood.
Just the nature of what happens when an agency is expected to police itself with no oversight. There needs to be civilian people with no connection to law enforcement over seeing this stuff.
Bunch idiot working in Seattle's public sector.
Keep on burning the cash for court settlements Seattle.
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The do away with grocery bags also a joke...why not ban any and everything held in plastic
jugs and wrappings. Â Â
@BellevueRes I literally have no idea what you just wrote, but I believe i am thoroughly dumber for having read it. I did however attempt to correct your sentence structure.
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"Bunch (of) (idiot(s) in Seattle's public sector
"The(n/y) do away with grocery bags also a joke (?)...why not ban any and everything held in plastic jugs and wrappings(?)
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The OPA and the criminal justice system is an utter complete failure.
It's nothing but a bunch of domestic employed criminals making a living off of scumbag career criminals.
The need to charge some people in OPA with obstruction of justice, unlawful retaliation and probably perjury. Then they need to do the same to some folk in the city attorney's office. Then they need to fire every cop involved, plus the chief. This kind of cr@p goes WAY beyond mere injustice and right up to conspiracy to violate civil rights under color of authority.
This story is written so poorly.
"Fuller says he was walking downtown when a pair of Seattle police officers told him he could get a ticket for jaywalking. Then he found himself accused of assault, resisting arrest and obstruction."
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1. WAS he jaywalking? Is telling him he could get a ticket for it, if he was, considered abusive?
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2. He "found himself accused of assault"- how do you "find yourself" accused of assault? what led up to this accusation? Who? What? When? Where? Why?
 @Willow Did you forget to read the prior stories? Or are you just looking for excuses?
 @JLS1950  @Willow Part of writing a good story for a publication, is approaching the story as though the reader has no prior knowledge of the subject.  I also found myself asking the same questions.  Not exactly the best written article, that is for sure.
 @JLS1950  @Willow I read at least one prior story that was worded the same and just as confusing. I realize there must be more stories. It would not hurt the writer to make this one read a little easier with just a few more details.
Here's the thing. Good and dandy that the city will vacate the conviction. However, it would be a good idea to have the person who's running the OPA put under an audit review AND maybe prosecute her for failing to do the job to the letter (retaliation is expressly prohibited...and she still did it).
 @NKato No maybe about it: fire her derriere right now! Diaz also!
I'm reposting this from a commment below because its important to do proper journalism rather than leave facts out to slant your story, KOMO NEWS:
The guy was stopped on probable cause for jay walking, refused to cooperate, and when arrested hit a cop. KOMO left all this out of their original story on this guy and this one as well. (refer to today's Seattle Times for something more like a full story, complete with details about the why of the arrest and the fact that he assaulted one of the cops)
 @rhiga I agree that KOMO shouldn't have left out the part about the guy hitting a cop during his arrest. However, that's not really the point here. The prosecutor's office declined to file charges. It was only after Fuller complained to OPA that he was charged with something, apparently as retaliation for his complaint. That's wrong regardless of what you think about this guy.
 @Illuminati  @rhiga Thanks for filling in the blanks. But now I am left wondering, if he was jaywalking, refused to cooperate, and assaulted one of the cops, what was he filing the complaint about? I guess I will have to go read elsewhere! Sometimes I wonder why I even check KOMO.
 @Willow  @Illuminati  @rhiga If he really did all of these things like they and you say, why didn't he get charged in the first place?
 @Illuminati  @rhiga "That's wrong regardless of what you think about this guy."
And the point that a lot of people won't grasp.
Agreed about the matter of charges being solely for the district attorney and it being bizarre that OPA would "recommend" charges. But, as I suspected, there WAS more to this story. The guy was stopped on probable cause for jay walking, refused to cooperate, and when arrested hit a cop. KOMO left all this out of their original story on this guy and this one as well. (refer to today's Seattle Times for something more like a full story, complete with details about the why of the arrest and the fact that he assaulted one of the cops) So, like many instances, the whole thing was largely driven by the suspect's choices in a situation. But OPA was clearly wrong in this.Â
 @Citizen#3457899654 I'm just guessing that when Fuller protested the jaywalking accusation, the cop spun Fuller around pretty hard, and Fuller's elbow or something struck the cop: and that was the whole basis for the "struck the cop" accusation.
Another story stated that Fuller was "preparing" to step off a curb to cross a street when accosted by the officer - i.e. that he did not actually "jaywalk" at all, but merely "looked like he was gonna" jaywalk. That would seem the jibe well with the cop's reported statement that Fuller "could get a ticket for jaywalking". Apparently Fuller was NOT actually cited for jaywalking, and if I understand the story correctly, he DID NOT actually jaywalk at all: he merely "looked like he was gonna".
 @Citizen#3457899654 "The guy was stopped on probable cause for jay walking, refused to cooperate, and when arrested hit a cop."
A question, if I may...what are you basing the "hit a cop" part? The cop's statement?
Apparently the cop did not make a case that the guy be prosecuted, because it was tossed by the DA...if the DA actually thought there was a chance of a conviction, they would have gone to trial. So...it sounds like he may not have "hit the cop" after all.Â
 @OrcasThunder Read the Seattle Times article, that is what I am basing my statements off of. And we have been provided no details regarding why the prosecutors office originally declined to file charges.Â
 @Citizen#3457899654 And the reasons for the decision of the DA not to charge are also irrelevant here.
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 @Citizen#3457899654 Actually, his actions during the stop are irrelevant here - it was the action of the OPA in bringing the charges - in violation of the rules regarding retaliation against people making complaints - that was in question, and now has been reversed. What led up to his complaint didn't matter, they should not have pressed the charges against him. THAT was the responsibility of the prosecutor, who chose not to.
@Citizen#3457899654 And now he will receive damages??? Unreal! Maybe I should resist and make sure to assault the police so I can get a monetary award also.
 @traceywo Well, you'd also have to get the city attorney and prosecutors office to decline to file charges against you, then you complain to the OPA about the cops, and have the person at the OPA decide to go after you in retaliation. They would have to badger the city attorney and get charges reinstated so you could proceed with your idea. Even people who do something questionable are protected from retaliation by the OPA when they complain. Don't you know that people complain all the live long day to various officials? Some of their complaints have no merit. It is the job of the person hearing the complaints to weed out the nonsense, deal with the valid claims, and not retaliate against either.
Your damn straight the city owes that man damages. The city also owes that b*i*t*c*h at OPA a 6x6 foot cell for her DILIGENT work in making sure that Mr. Fuller was prosecuted out of retaliation.
Nah, no prosecutorial misconduct at all. EXCEPT that it is the province of the DISTRICT ATTORNEY to decide who is or is not to be charged, not the OPA. The POLICE refer to the DA all cases for prosecution consideration, not the OPA.