At trial former deputy says he was assaulted by teenage girl

Testifying for the first time about a videotaped holding-cell encounter with a teenage girl, former King County sheriff's Deputy Paul Schene told a jury Tuesday he'd kicked, grabbed and punched the girl when he felt she'd assaulted him by kicking an athletic shoe toward his groin.

"At that point, it was my right and duty to arrest her and stop her from assaulting me again," Schene said of the highly publicized incident that led prosecutors to charge him with misdemeanor assault.

Under questioning by his attorney, Peter Offenbecher, Schene said he was concerned the girl would do the same with her other shoe.

He said the actions of Malika Calhoun in the early morning hours of Nov. 29, 2008, constituted assault on an officer as defined by law, even though he was not injured by the shoe.

Schene had asked Calhoun, who was 15 and under arrest for allegedly stealing her guardian's car, to remove her shoes as she entered a holding cell at SeaTac City Hall.

Schene, who is being tried in King County Superior Court, was fired from his deputy job in September because of the incident.

On the witness stand Tuesday, Schene said he used standard techniques taught at the police academy to control Calhoun.

He said he first kicked her to spin her around, grabbed her hair to control her, shoved her against a wall in a failed attempt to handcuff her and forced her to the ground by her hair to apply handcuffs.

He said he punched Calhoun twice in the left shoulder while she was on the ground because she was resisting him and his partner, who was also trying to handcuff her.

Calhoun, now 16, testified last week that the blows struck her head and that she had not resisted.

Under cross-examination by Deputy Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff, Schene testified that when he served as an elite Army Ranger before joining the Sheriff's Office, he underwent rigorous training that included demanding physical tests and learning to ambush and kill the enemy.

Ernsdorff then asked Schene if he was afraid of Calhoun the night he arrested her and another teenage girl who had been driving the car. Schene replied, "I was afraid of being injured by her."

During questioning by Offenbecher, Schene said Calhoun had turned and folded her arms, then "scowled at me and gave me a dirty look" before kicking off the shoe.

Standing before a TV monitor using a pointer, Schene explained his actions as jurors watched freeze-framed video of the encounter.

When Calhoun kicked the shoe at the entrance to the cell, Schene said, it flew up toward his groin before falling and hitting his right leg.

"I felt it was intentional," Schene said, adding that he reached that conclusion because of the "deliberateness of her actions, along with her angry face."

Schene said he went after Calhoun instead of closing the door because police are trained to control and handcuff people who pose a threat. She had risen to the level of being "assaultive or combative," he said.

He said he used more force on her than she did on him because police are trained to make sure during a fight they don't lose their gun, Taser and other weapons they carry. "I can't lose," he said.

After applying the kick, Schene testified, he tried to grab Calhoun's hair with his right hand, but she blocked him with her right arm. Hair holds are a standard police technique to control people, Schene said.

Schene said he then used his left hand to grab the girl's hair and push her against a wall to handcuff her.

But the space was too tight to apply handcuffs because of a toilet and sink, Schene told jurors, so he pulled Calhoun to the ground by her hair. He said he grabbed her hair because that allowed him to control her head, instead of risking serious injury to her by tackling or tripping her.

When Calhoun was handcuffed, Schene said, he pulled her to her feet by her hair because he thought she was refusing to get up, unaware his partner was holding her legs.

Schene, who wanted Calhoun to be charged with assault, said he wrote in a report he had suffered a cut and lump on his leg when the shoe struck him.

He said it wasn't until later, after looking at videotape, that he realized he must have suffered the injury when his leg hit the cell's stainless-steel toilet.

At the outset of his testimony, in response to a question from his attorney, Schene told jurors that he is married with two small children.

Schene, who is to return to the witness stand today for cross-examination, denied he had called the girls ugly while booking them, as they alleged in earlier testimony.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com