So, police in Grant County, Washington (about 150 miles east of Seattle) nearly beat Joseph Zamora to death, and the prosecutor made racist statements to the jury, and the state supreme reversed his conviction AFTER he had served his sentence, prosecutors are refiling the case against him because they don't think that he is sufficiently penitent.
It should be noted that the Washington Supreme Court ruled unanimously against prosecutors, and it wasn't even close.
Here is an excerpt from the concurrence:
I concur with, and have signed, the majority opinion. The case before us is one where the jury was asked to decide, among other things, whether Joseph Zamora, a United States citizen, assaulted a police officer’s knuckles with the back of his head. Given the procedural posture of this case, the factual determinations by the jury are usually given great deference. Given the overt bias displayed by the State and infecting the proceedings in this case, however, we must reverse and vacate the conviction.
Seriously judge, enough with the oblique references, tell us how you really fail.
The case stunk to high heaven from the beginning, which is not a surprise. More than 90 miles east of Seattle means that we are firmly in Deliverence country. (Cue Dueling Banjos)
Moses Lake police nearly beat Joseph Zamora to death. Then he was charged with and convicted of assaulting an officer. He served a full prison term. Then Grant County prosecutors asked for the case to be dismissed. Then the state Supreme Court threw out Zamora’s convictions, because the prosecutor used racial bias during the trial.
It’s been more than six years since the beating that left Zamora in a medically induced coma in the ICU for a month, but Grant County prosecutors are reprosecuting him for the same alleged crimes. Even though Zamora already served a full prison sentence. Even though the same prosecutors previously asked to have the case dismissed.
The lingering question: Why? Why recharge a man when even if he is convicted, he wouldn’t serve any more time? Why recharge a man when the prosecutor previously wrote, “it is no longer in the interests of justice for the State to pursue this case?”
………
But in documents McCrae wrote last fall, shortly after he decided to recharge Zamora, he explains his rationale for beginning the prosecution anew.
In the documents, newly obtained through public records requests, McCrae wrote he decided to recharge Zamora, in part, because Zamora had not taken responsibility for his actions.
After the Supreme Court vacated Zamora’s convictions, McCrae wrote, Zamora left him a voicemail “demanding” that he charge the officer who beat him up with attempted murder. Zamora, in court, also asked when he could file a tort claim, a prerequisite for filing a civil lawsuit, against the city and its Police Department, McCrae said.
Zamora, he wrote, had not learned his lesson.
“It is clear to me that Mr. Zamora had not accepted responsibility for his role in this incident,” McCrae wrote. “While there is no more jail time available in this case, any conviction would still count as criminal history on his offender score, would have an effect on the sentence for any future crimes Mr. Zamora may commit, and hopeful impress upon Mr. Zamora the improperness of his behavior.”
………
At trial, then-Grant County Prosecutor Garth Dano asked potential jurors their opinions on a border wall, on illegal border crossings and on crime committed by immigrants.
Zamora, a U.S. citizen, appealed his conviction, arguing Dano’s remarks were racially biased. While his appeal was being considered, he served a full sentence, nearly two years in prison.
After the Supreme Court agreed to hear Zamora’s case, McCrae asked to have it dismissed. He said he didn’t have enough lawyers to try the appeal and doing so “is no longer in the interests of justice.”
But the Supreme Court denied the request, heard the appeal, and ruled unanimously that Dano “committed race-based misconduct” at the trial. It threw out Zamora’s convictions.
BTW, here is another excerpt from the state Supreme Court decision:
A jury found Zamora guilty of two counts of third degree assault of a law enforcement officer: one count as to Officer Hake and one count as to Officer Timothy Welsh. Hake’s injuries included a “couple small scratches around [his] hand and wrist” and some bruising. 3 VRP at 543. Welsh sustained an injury to his hand from punching Zamora in the back of the head multiple times. The actions of the police officers involved in the confrontation are alarming, but this case reached our court, in part, because of the concerning actions of the Grant County prosecutor during jury selection.
(emphasis mine)
The then-prosecutor, and the current prosecutor, and every cop involved in nearly beating Joseph Zamora to death should be in the dock, and Mr. Zamora should be getting a settlement that has him set for life.
Things are looking up for him though, as a result of this outrage, his public defender has been replaced by a very high-powered team of lawyers working pro bono.
Following a previous Seattle Times report on the case, Zamora’s public defender was replaced by five Seattle lawyers, working the case pro bono: Thomas Hillier II, a former federal public defender now with the firm Perkins Coie; David Perez, a partner with Perkins Coie; Cooper Offenbecher, a partner in the firm Allen, Hansen, Maybrown & Offenbecher; Robert Chang, a law professor and director of the Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University, and Mark Middaugh, a criminal defense lawyer in private practice.
Here is hoping that one of these 4 will also represent him in a civil trial, because the documents from the current prosecutor show what is clear a case of truly malevolent malicious prosecution.
The optimum solution would be a judgement large enough to require that Moses Lake, Washington (Population 25,583) has to disincorporate and disband its police force.
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