Olympia charges 3 protesters

Prosecutor won't say why others have not been charged

By Jeremy Pawloski | The Olympian • Published May 16, 2008

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The Olympia Prosecutor's Office has filed misdemeanor charges against three of the 61 people who were arrested during November's protests at the Port of Olympia.

The three were identified in a city news release as Shyam Khanna, Kathleen Hutchison and Patricia Hutchison. City Prosecutor Kalo Wilcox declined to discuss Thursday why none of the others who were arrested has been charged, saying that discussing the cases with that level of detail could compromise defendants' right to a fair trial.

"I'm trying to protect the fairness of the trial for both the defendants and the city," she said.

City Manager Steve Hall had said recently that the city has nine good cases against people who were arrested during the protests.

Wilcox said no decision has been made on whether to charge any of the others in the protests, in which participants tried to stop military cargo used in Iraq from returning to Fort Lewis. There is a one-year statute of limitations for filing criminal charges against those who were arrested, and it's possible more charges could be in store, she said.

Individual charges

Khanna is charged by criminal complaint with obstructing an officer and resisting arrest.

Kathleen Hutchison and her twin sister, Patricia Hutchison, are charged with obstructing an officer.

The charges against the three all are misdemeanors, carrying a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

During the protests, which were coordinated by Olympia Port Militarization Resistance, demonstrators threw debris in the road and formed human blockades.

Noah Sochet, a member of OlympiaPMR, said she witnessed the Hutchison sisters' arrests and that the cases against them are weak. He said Patricia Hutchison "couldn't even see when she was arrested" Nov. 10 at Plum Street and Fourth Avenue. Her face was caked with pepper spray, and she was placed in a police van for 25 minutes as she cried and waited to be sent to the police station, Sochet said.

Kathleen Hutchison tried to ask officers if she could help her sister get medical attention, and she, too, was arrested, Sochet said. Sochet added that a man with Kathleen Hutchison also was arrested; he has not been charged.