Port protest video mysteriously disappears: Second Olympia amnesia case, as OPD detective can't remember anything

author : Drew Hendricks topic : police misconduct | Port Militarization Resistance | Port of Olympia

by Drew Hendricks

The case against antiwar protesters arrested at the Port of Olympia just might get thrown out of court.

Paul Lower, an Olympia Police Detective, was at the main gate of the Port's marine terminal in downtown Olympia on May 30. Several dozen protesters gathered there on that day to oppose the use of our property to support the occupation of Iraq. Detective Lower was shooting videotape during the arrests of several protesters, according to eyewitnesses, photographs, and court documents. He then destroyed the videotape he shot, on or about July 30, according to his account. Unfortunately he did not make this videotape available to Olympia Copwatch, which requested the material prior to its destruction. The legal requirement is that the department keep any videotape of a specific case until at least 30 days after the disposition of criminal court cases involving that evidence. The city of Olympia follows the State's mandated rules specifying this time requirement, according to a letter I received from the Olympia Police Department on October 27, 2006.

When one of the protesters facing charges, "Oly 22" defendant Andrew Yankey, found out about the destruction of potentially exculpatory videotape evidence on August 22, he scheduled an interview with Detective Lower for August 28. OPD Detective Lower informed the Deputy Prosecutor of this, and she unilaterally rescheduled the interview for August 30, and notified the inexperienced defendant of the change by voice mail.

There was no reason why the prosecutor, who does not represent the OPD, should have decided when and where the deposition may be held. But that is exactly what happened in this case. Thurston County Deputy Prosecutor Debra Eurich injected herself into the deposition of OPD Detective Paul Lower and made misrepresentations to the judge in the case, convincing the judge to hold the deposition in District Court instead of a private attorney's office. But to get there, she first took us on a bizarre ride.

Several people arrived on August 30 at the satellite office of the Prosecutor, a small office on Lakeridge Drive, apart from the main courthouse complex. This was the rescheduled day, and venue, where the deputy prosecutor wanted us to be. She was at the outer door to the office, holding the door open as we approached across the parking lot. She said "Oh, no -- not all of you!" and closed the door quickly, going inside another, locked door within the foyer and closing it as well. We had been maybe 20 or 25 feet from the outer door when this happened. There were maybe 11 of us, only two of whom were not direct parties to the case, which has 22 defendants -- many of whom are defending themselves (pro se). One of the attorneys, Larry Hildes, tried several times to negotiate a solution with Ms. Eurich by using the wall intercom in the foyer, to no mutually satisfactory result. We stayed at the prosecutor's office for an hour, and actually had to deal with three Olympia police officers, who were called as if we were trespassing in the public foyer of the prosecutor's office. They left without citing or arresting anyone.

In her statement to the court, Deputy Prosecutor Eurich claimed that Detective Lower had to escape her office by a back door due to our presence. But first, she privately questioned him about the videotaped evidence and his reasons for destroying it. She also refused to allow more than the single attorney and one pro se defendant to be present at the questioning (a condition which they refused), essentially lending sanctuary to a witness so that we could not speak to him on that day unless she dictated who could be present.

Many weeks later, on October 19, we finally got our chance to depose Detective Paul Lower about his destruction of the videotape. But we had to do this in the District Courtroom Number One, and the Judge presiding over the case, Susan Dubuisson, excluded myself and several other supporters of the Oly 22 from the proceedings, on unspecified grounds. (She excluded me when Deputy Prosecutor Eurich pointed me out and named me.) I can only assume that the declaration that Deputy Prosecutor Eurich provided the court so prejudiced the Judge that she thought it prudent to decide whether I could attend an open courtroom in the United States, turning it into a branch of the Prosecutor's office.

The trial of the Olympia 22 is set for Monday, November 13 and 14, 2006 at 9 am in District Court. The pretrial hearing on Monday, November 6 will determine whether the case is dismissed prior to trial.

Drew Hendricks is with Olympia Copwatch.