Officer Jeff Nelson / Satterberg / Larson / Olst / Eyewitness Lies?

Repentance
The only viable solution for those in the legal profession is to repent. Because sooner than they want to think God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:14)

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Seattle Times staff reporters King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced Thursday morning that his office is charging Auburn police Officer Jeff Nelson with second-degree murder and first-degree assault in the May 2019 fatal shooting of 26-year-old Jesse Sarey. The case marks only the third time a police officer in Washington has been charged for killing someone in the line of duty, and the first time under new police accountability legal standards approved by voters in 2018. Nelson has an extensive history of using force and has shot and killed two other people in the line of duty, with one of those cases reaching a $1.25 million settlement just days before he was charged in Sarey’s death. Nelson killed Sarey on May 31, 2019, after Nelson responded to a disorderly-conduct call in the 1400 block of Auburn Way North around 6 p.m. He encountered Sarey, who had reportedly been throwing items at cars and kicking buildings. Nelson and Sarey got into a physical fight before Nelson shot Sarey, who died later that night at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center. Nelson, who is now 41 years old, was also injured but was not shot. The fatal shooting was investigated by the Valley Independent Investigation Team, made up of detectives from the Tukwila, Auburn, Des Moines, Federal Way, Kent, Renton and the Port of Seattle police departments. Advertising A video forensics expert hired by the prosecutor’s office later concluded Nelson’s written statement of events were inconsistent with video-surveillance footage from the scene. Additionally, two police use-of-force experts — Jeff Noble, a former deputy police chief in Irvine, California, and Scott Haug, a former Post Falls, Idaho police chief — agreed Nelson did not follow his training in a number of ways: Nelson had no reason to believe Sarey was armed and there was clear evidence Sarey was suffering a mental-health crisis or under the influence of drugs; the officer should have waited for backup; he failed to use less lethal options, including deploying a Taser that was strapped to his thigh; and failed to use any de-escalation techniques, according to the charges. “Both experts label what occurred as a police created emergency,” the charges say. “That is, by failing to employ reasonable, proper tactics and de-escalation techniques common to modern policing and part of the Auburn Police Department’s policy and training, Officer Nelson created the very situation that brought about his use of force.” Nelson has not been arrested: Satterberg said his office won’t be seeking to detain Nelson or request bail but will ask a judge to bar Nelson from possessing firearms. Under Superior Court criminal rules, a summons to appear must be issued instead of an arrest warrant unless the court finds there is reasonable cause to believe the defendant won’t appear in response to a summons, will commit a violent offense, will interfere with witnesses or the administration of justice, or the defendant is in custody. “There is no evidence to support a request for bail under this rule, provided that Officer Nelson is not working in law enforcement as an officer,” charging papers say. Advertising Nelson is being represented by attorney Alan E. Harvey of the Vancouver law firm, Northwest Legal Advocates. He was not available, according to his outgoing phone message, and voice and email messages were not returned Thursday. “The loss of life is tragic, and we extend our sympathy to the Sarey family and the community,” Auburn police said in a statement, adding that they would not comment further since it is a pending legal matter. “We, the City of Auburn, acknowledge that this is an important time to do internal work and reflection coupled with community engagement.” Nelson’s employment status with the Auburn department wasn’t clear Thursday. Elaine Simons, who fostered Sarey and his younger brother, said the prosecutor’s office told her and Sarey’s family of their intent to bring charges Wednesday. “We all just turned to each other, and it was like this weight was taken off our shoulders,” Simons said. “But now a new weight has been put on our shoulders, going through the entire court case. It’s going to be a long process for us.” Simons said she believes the decision was the result of “built up momentum” from recent protests against police violence that came after the killing of George Floyd and previous efforts in the state, like the push to pass Initiative 940, which implemented new legal standards for prosecutions in police use of force cases. Charging documents did not indicate Nelson’s race; Sarey’s mother was from Cambodia. (Satterberg said the charges against Nelson were not in response to political pressure and that the police investigation was completed in November; further review was slowed down by the coronavirus pandemic). “This is giving hope not just to the Sarey family but other families who have been waiting for justice,” Simons said. Advertising The shooting Sarey’s family described him at a vigil last year as a fun-loving person who had fallen upon hard times, and Simons said she saw his death as the result of broken-down support systems. Sarey’s mother fled the Cambodian genocide with her parents and siblings for the United States. Sarey, who had four brothers, lived with Simons for about six months when he was 11, then was placed in a residential program for adolescents with mental health issues, Simons said. He had struggled with addiction and was living homeless before he was killed. On the May evening when Sarey was killed, police said they received multiple reports that Sarey had thrown garbage at cars, banged on windows and kicked walls outside of businesses in the area. Nelson responded and told Sarey he had received complaints about his behavior. Sarey walked away across Harvey Road and went to Sunshine Grocery, according to police documents and charging papers. 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Nelson told Sarey to put his hands behind his back, and Sarey said he hadn’t done anything. Nelson told Sarey he was under arrest and the two fought as Nelson tried take him into custody, with Sarey telling Nelson to take his hands off him, according to investigative documents and video obtained from the Auburn Police Department by The Seattle Times. Sponsored Within 38 seconds of contacting Sarey, Nelson “went hands on,” delivering seven punches to Sarey’s head and upper body, Satterberg said. Nelson later told investigators he sustained an injury to his rib while attempting a hip throw and believed he sprained his wrist. A witness who had been sitting in his car jumped out and told Sarey to stop resisting. The man later told police it looked like Sarey touched the officer’s gun, according to charges and a video of a police interview with the witness. He said a folding knife flew over toward him, so he grabbed it and put it on top of his car. After punching and grappling with Sarey, Nelson shot Sarey, whose back was to the ice machine, in the abdomen. Sarey fell to the ground. Nelson’s gun jammed so he cleared the slide and shot Sarey a second
time in the forehead, 3.4 seconds after firing the first shot, the charges say. Nelson later said in his July 2, 2019 written statement that he believed Sarey had his knife and posed a threat before firing the first shot, and that Sarey was on his knees in a “squatting fashion… ready to spring forward” before he fired again. But video footage and witness accounts indicated the witness picked up Nelson’s closed, folding knife, which had fallen to the ground in the struggle, two seconds before the first shot was fired. After being shot in the abdomen, Sarey slid to the ground with his legs extended in front of him and his head slumped toward the pavement when Nelson fired the second round from 7 feet away, according to the charges. Advertising The witness who saw the shooting disputed Nelson’s account, telling officers, “After the first shot, he was done.” “I understand being an officer, you just shot somebody and your adrenaline is going and maybe you’re scared or something and you don’t know what’s going to happen so you shoot him. But I don’t know man, I just don’t know about that one,” the witness said in a recorded interview with an officer who responded to the shooting. Another witness, who was in his car, told police Sarey went down and that it felt like minutes later when the “the officer just walked back up and popped him again.” Noble and Haug, the police use-of-force experts hired by prosecutors, “found significant discrepancies” between the video evidence and Nelson’s written statement and said there was no evidence to support Nelson’s claim Sarey armed himself with Nelson’s knife or grabbed the officer’s gun in a way that would have defeated the officer’s “triple retention holster,” the charges say. The experts concluded Sarey did not pose a threat of serious physical harm to the officer and that Nelson’s second shot was unreasonable, say the charges. Nelson was charged with second-degree murder for the first round that pierced Sarey’s liver, mortally wounding him, Satterberg said. Advertising Nelson was charged with first-degree assault for the gunshot to Sarey’s forehead. Evidence in the case showed after the shooting, Nelson radioed that shots had been fired, then sat on the curb near Sarey’s prone body and did not render aid, say the charges. Other Auburn police units arrived just over two minutes after the second shot was fired and an officer immediately began life-saving efforts. Medics arrived and found Sarey didn’t have a pulse but administered CPR and medications and restored his pulse. Sarey was transported to Harborview Medical Center. Doctors performed emergency surgery but were unable to stop the bleeding from the gunshot wound that went through Sarey’s liver. Sarey died in the operating room. Toxicology tests on his blood later came back positive for methamphetamines, the charges say. The shooting occurred less than two weeks after another police shooting in Auburn that killed 26-year-old Enosa Strickland. Advertising New standards Nelson is the first police officer in the state to be charged with murder under the new legal standard that came into play after 60% of Washington voters approved Initiative 940 in November 2018. Under the prior, 32-year-old law, county prosecutors had to be able to prove law-enforcement officers acted with “evil intent” — or so called “malice” — when bringing criminal charges. Washington was the only state with such restrictive language. Satterberg said Thursday it was a virtually impossible standard to prove. It’s only resulted in one officer being charged: Everett Police Officer Troy Meade was charged in the shooting death of Niles Meservey but was acquitted by a Snohomish County jury in 2010. Only one other Washington officer has faced criminal charges for taking someone’s life: Spokane officer Karl Thompson Jr. was convicted on federal charges of violating the civil rights of Otto Zehm, who ended up in a coma and died after Thompson hit him multiple times with a baton and fired a Taser into his chest in 2006. I-940 requires proof that a reasonable officer would have used deadly force in the same circumstance and sincerely believed the use of deadly force was warranted. The initiative also requires de-escalation and mental-health training for police; requires officers to administer first aid to a victim of deadly force; and requires independent investigations into the use of deadly force. During Thursday’s video news conference, Satterberg explained a jury will likely be asked to consider the reasonableness of each shot and noted under I-940, officers can use deadly force if an individual posed a serious risk of injury or death. Advertising Mark Larson, the prosecutor’s longtime chief criminal deputy, who retired in January, has stayed on as a special deputy prosecutor and is prosecuting the case against Nelson alongside Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kathleen Van Olst, Satterberg said. “While the defendant has no known criminal history, defendant Nelson’s discharge of his firearm in this case is of grave concern,” Larson and Van Olst wrote in charging papers. They requested Nelson be prohibited from possessing any firearms while the case is pending, “to ensure that until this case is adjudicated Officer Nelson is not in a position where he might have to decide whether to administer deadly force.” History of force Meanwhile, attorneys for the brother of Isaiah Obet, who was shot and killed by Nelson in 2017, confirmed that the City of Auburn settled a civil-rights lawsuit filed in June for $1.25 million last week, likely in anticipation of the criminal charges filed against the officer on Thursday. Obet was shot by Nelson during a confrontation on June 10, 2017, after Nelson responded to a report of a man acting strangely, possibly armed with a small knife. Nelson confronted the man at a downtown intersection, where Nelson said the man ran from him and tried to open the door of a nearby vehicle. The lawsuit alleged Nelson, an Auburn K-9 officer, released his police dog, which latched onto Obet’s arm, despite the fact Obet had been “exhibiting signs of mental distress.” Obet, the lawsuit said, was struggling with the dog and posed no threat to Nelson when the officer drew his .45-caliber service handgun and shot Obet in the chest. The lawsuit states Nelson had a Taser, but chose not to use it. The claim alleges that gunshot likely would not have been fatal. Obet, it says, fell to the ground with the dog still biting his arm. “Lying on the ground, with a bullet in his torso, and a K-9 having mauled him, Isaiah posed no threat to Defendant Nelson or anyone else,” the lawsuit alleged. “Nonetheless, as Isaiah lay on the ground, Defendant Nelson walked over to Isaiah, aimed his gun at him a second time, and fired a shot directly into Isaiah’s head as he stood above him.” Advertising Nelson was awarded a department “medal of valor” for that shooting. “The City’s record-breaking time in reaching this agreement with Obet’s family — before discovery began — illustrates how egregious Nelson’s actions were,” said Seattle attorney David Owens, who filed the lawsuit in June on behalf of Isaiah Obet’s brother, Slaughter Obet. Federal civil-rights cases often take years to resolve through litigation. But more than the money, Owens said, the family demands transparency and accountability in Isaiah Obet’s death and urged Auburn to drop its opposition to the stalled King County inquest process, which has been on hold almost since its implementation due to legal challenges from municipalities and their police departments. “We alleged then — and firmly believe – that Nelson’s ‘kill shot’ was a street execution,” with striking similarities to the Sarey shooting, he said. Thursday’s homicide charge in that case “only confirms that the public needs to know what happened with Isaiah Obet.” In 2011, Nelson shot and killed Brian Scaman, 48, during a traffic stop. Scaman threatened an officer with a knife, according to initial media reports. Nelson

’s record of using force while with the Auburn Police Department als
King County, Seattle, Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, Prosecutor David Seaver, Prosecutor Jason Simmons, Prosecutor Lisa Johnson, Prosecutor Mark Larson, Prosecutor Nicole Weston, Prosecutor Rich Anderson, Prosecutor David Seaver