Published: Tuesday, September 4, 2012, 5:26 p.m.
Judge ponders new trial in Spokane police beating
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SPOKANE -- A federal judge is deciding whether former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson should receive a new trial in the beating death of a suspect.
Judge Fred Van Sickle heard arguments Friday that Thompson should receive a new trial because prosecutors hid information from the defense that could have won his acquittal.
The Spokesman-Review reports several assistant U.S. attorneys disputed the assertions, countering that they had done everything required.
Thompson was convicted in November of using excessive force and lying to investigators in the violent 2006 confrontation with Otto Zehm, a mentally ill janitor mistakenly identified as a possible thief. Zehm died two days after being beaten, stun-gunned and hog-tied by police in a Spokane convenience store.
Thompson remains free during the appeal.
Judge Fred Van Sickle heard arguments Friday that Thompson should receive a new trial because prosecutors hid information from the defense that could have won his acquittal.
The Spokesman-Review reports several assistant U.S. attorneys disputed the assertions, countering that they had done everything required.
Thompson was convicted in November of using excessive force and lying to investigators in the violent 2006 confrontation with Otto Zehm, a mentally ill janitor mistakenly identified as a possible thief. Zehm died two days after being beaten, stun-gunned and hog-tied by police in a Spokane convenience store.
Thompson remains free during the appeal.
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