Pullman officers cleared of civil-rights violations

SPOKANE — A jury's finding on behalf of three Pullman police officers accused of civil-rights violations when they broke up a fight vindicates a department unfairly accused of racism, an attorney said Friday.

A U.S. District Court jury unanimously found for the three officers Thursday to end a federal civil-rights trial stemming from a call to break up a fight at Pullman's Top of China restaurant in September 2002.

Pepper spray used on fighters in a downstairs restaurant made its way to an upstairs night club, The Attic, where hundreds of people, mostly black students, were dancing. Three people were treated at a hospital for eye and skin irritation.

The incident raised accusations of racial bias, and 136 plaintiffs, mostly black Washington State University students or their guests, joined the class-action lawsuit seeking $22 million in punitive damages.

The jury's finding for the officers repudiated those allegations, Pullman City Attorney Laura McAloon said Friday.

"It is a vindication of the Pullman Police Department. They've been having this cloud hang over them the past five years, with allegations the officers are racially biased," she said. "A jury of seven people unanimously said, 'No way, no how.' "

Darrell Cochran, a Tacoma lawyer who represented the class-action plaintiffs, was not in his office Friday and unavailable for comment.

Officers Dan Hargraves, Don Heroff and Rueben Harris, the first to arrive at the restaurant fight, were accused of using excessive force with pepper spray, acting with deliberate indifference to injured persons and being motivated by racial bias.

The jury rejected those contentions, McAloon said.

All three are still with the Pullman Police Department, she said.

A fourth officer named in the original lawsuit, Andy Wilson, was dismissed as a defendant before the trial began. He no longer works for the department, McAloon said.

The Top of China and The Attic dance club have since closed and were replaced by other businesses.

McAloon said it is unclear whether the federal jury's finding will affect claims made against the officers in a separate state lawsuit in Whitman County Superior Court.

"Hopefully, this is going to be the end of it," McAloon said.

Chief Ted Weatherly said his department was elated by the jury's decision.

"In essence, the officers were found not to have used excessive force. The jury said they did not prevent aid to injured people and the officers did not discriminate based on race," he said by telephone from Pullman. "That was what we believed the whole time. These officers had to wait 4 ½ years before a jury of citizens cleared them."

The incident prompted changes in the type of pepper spray Pullman officers use, but McAloon and Weatherly said independent reviews found the officers followed standard policies and procedures.

That is what the federal jury found, Weatherly said.

"It says what I've said all along," he said. "This department does not tolerate bias; it does not tolerate unnecessary force; it does not tolerate anything that impinges upon the integrity and dignity of people."