Civil rights trial of port protesters begins

Court: Olympia accused of violating Constitution

CHRISTIAN HILL; The Olympian | • Published November 05, 2009

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TACOMA - The first civil trial stemming from the Port of Olympia protests two years ago began Wednesday with differing accounts of the encounters between the two plaintiffs and police officers.

William Hamilton and Larry Mosqueda, both of Olympia, have sued the city of Olympia and several of its police officers for allegedly violating their civil rights through the use of excessive force during separate incidents Nov. 10 and Nov. 11, 2007.

During the protests, which resulted in more than 60 arrests, demonstrators attempted to prevent the return of military equipment used in Iraq to Fort Lewis through the use of human blockades and placement of items, including fencing, concrete blocks and trash bins, in the street.

The trial is being held in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. It began on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the military ship USNS Brittin’s arrival at the port. The two plaintiffs, the six police officers named in the lawsuit and Olympia Police Chief Gary Michel, who will testify, were in the courtroom. The officers’ wives, also named in the lawsuit, listened from the gallery.

Christopher Taylor, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told the jury – six jurors and two alternates – that officers were carrying out a city directive to use pepper spray and riot batons to disperse demonstrators, “rather than using those tools to make the arrest happen.

“They could have done nothing,” he said of other options available to the officers. “They could have arrested the individuals.”

Both plaintiffs said they suffered temporary blindness and breathing difficulties caused by exposure to the pepper spray. Hamilton said he suffered bruising to his jaw, chest, stomach and groin from the pepper-spray projectiles that struck him.

Taylor said Hamilton, a member of the Olympia chapter of Veterans for Peace and a Marine Corps veteran who saw combat in Vietnam, has curtailed participation in the group’s activities since the incidents because of a “newfound fear of law enforcement.”

Donald Law, the attorney representing the city and officers, said the use of pepper spray was necessary because protesters refused to move off the street, and physically removing them carried a greater risk of injury for both protesters and the officers.

Hamilton said he was pepper-sprayed by three police officers – Bob Krasnican, Cliff Maynard and Michael O’Neill – on Nov. 10 while in a gravel lot designated as a safe area. The officers were attempting to remove a fence and human blockade across the main access road into port property. Law says Hamilton felt the residual effect of the aerosol directed at someone else and that there’s no evidence of the so-called safe area.

Hamilton alleges that the following day, officers Rich Allen and Paul Bakala struck him with riot batons, and that officers Don Heinze and O’Neill hit them with pepper-spray projectiles, while they were attempting to use a crosswalk to cross the street in the protest area.

Law said the officers took the action after Hamilton used his 315-pound frame to “literally try to bust through” the line of police officers.

Mosqueda, a professor at The Evergreen State College, alleges that he was pepper-sprayed Nov. 10 while trying to help a female protester who was pushed to the street as demonstrators tried to block military convoys at Fourth Avenue and Plum Street. Mosqueda stated in court papers that he was on the sidewalk. The city maintains that Mosqueda was pepper-sprayed after getting into a confrontation with an officer at the edge of the road.

The jury will determine whether the six officers’ actions violated Hamilton’s constitutional rights to free speech and protection from unlawful seizure. It also will decide whether the officers’ actions against him were negligent or constituted battery. Finally, jurors will decide whether the city’s policy violated Hamilton’s and Mosqueda’s First and Fourth Amendment rights.

The judge earlier threw out other claims by Mosqueda, because he couldn’t identify the officer who pepper-sprayed him.

The jury will determine the amount of any damages it awards.

Testimony began with Hamilton, and the day ended with Law cross-examining Hamilton. The trial is expected to last several days.

Taylor showed jurors three video clips of police officers pepper-spraying and moving protesters as he questioned Hamilton.

The city also plans to show video clips of the protest and the officers’ response to bolster its case.

Christian Hill: 360-754-5427

chill@theolympian.com