Probe of Seattle cop may hurt case against alleged attackers

The Seattle Police Department's criminal probe into the conduct of an off-duty officer who stomped the head of a handcuffed suspect may hinder the case against the three men accused of assaulting the officer, according to the King County Prosecutor's Office.

Jake Keegan Baijot-Clary, 21; Simon Lee Thayer, 27; and Jason Reynold Lamb, 27, were charged with third-degree assault Dec. 15, three days after they allegedly attacked Officer Garth Haynes and his friend outside the BalMar nightclub in Ballard, according to charging documents.

Before the alleged assault, Haynes and his friend were in a dispute with a woman who had walked out of the club with the two men's jackets, the documents say.

But the Seattle police report included in the court documents — which prosecutors used in their decision to charge Baijot-Clary, Thayer and Lamb — is silent on Haynes' conduct after on-duty officers arrived, handcuffed the three men and had them lie facedown on the sidewalk. It was then that Haynes stomped on the head of Baijot-Clary, an incident captured on the dashboard camera of one of the responding officers.

Seattle police said Wednesday that officers who responded to the brawl at 5449 Ballard Ave. N.E. immediately reported Haynes' stomp to their supervisor, who then reported it to the department's Office of Professional Accountability. But the stomp was never documented or described in paperwork sent to prosecutors, Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff to King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, said Thursday.

According to Goodhew, prosecutors didn't learn Haynes had stomped on the suspect until Jan. 12.

Video made public

Seattle police released the dashboard video to the media Thursday morning. Goodhew said a Seattle detective immediately requested a 911 tape and dashboard video footage as soon as he was assigned the case Dec. 14. The detective received that evidence Jan. 7, a Friday, and gave them to prosecutors Monday, Jan. 10.

Officials in Satterberg's office reviewed both tapes Jan. 12 and provided copies to the suspects' defense attorneys that day, Goodhew said.

"Does that kick [to Baijot-Clary's head] affect Officer Haynes' credibility in any way about the earlier [assault] case?" Goodhew asked. "The question now is since the department has opened an investigation into Haynes, how can he participate in any trial as a victim or witness?"

Now, prosecutors "have to assess whether we have a case if Haynes doesn't participate in it," Goodhew said.

Police officers accused of misconduct are not required to make any statements while a criminal investigation is ongoing.

Even if Haynes is not criminally charged, his conduct will likely be subject of an internal investigation by the Office of Professional Accountability and could result in discipline. He could be compelled to make a statement by the department, but that statement could not be used against him in any criminal case.

The criminal investigation into Haynes' conduct comes just as the U.S. Department of Justice is beginning a preliminary review of the department, which was prompted by several high-profile incidents involving officers' use of force, including the fatal shooting of First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams by Officer Ian Birk in August.

In the December incident, Goodhew said Haynes can be heard on the 911 tape identifying himself as a police officer and telling the woman to wait for responding officers: "You can clearly understand him — he's not slurring his words, he's not stumbling drunk," he said.

But Baijot-Clary's defense attorney, Tim Leary, said Haynes can also be heard cursing on the 911 tape "what are you going to do about it?"

The statement was presumably made to the three men who confronted Haynes about "putting his hands" on the young woman who had taken his coat, Leary said.

911 tape not released

Police spokesman Mark Jamieson said Thursday the department had not decided whether it would also release the 911 tape.

Leary said his client along with Thayer and Lamb thought they were intervening in a crime being committed against the woman. According to Leary, Baijot-Clary didn't hear Haynes identify himself as an officer or see his badge.

Lamb and Thayer both told police they thought Haynes' badge was fake, according to the police report.

The unidentified woman also told Haynes, "anybody can get one of those" when he flashed his badge, the report says.

Haynes and his friend eventually retrieved their jackets from the woman, police said.

On the 911 tape, Haynes is "not attempting to de-escalate the situation. His actions are actually escalating the situation," Leary said.

"There was a physical altercation, absolutely," Leary said. But he said his client and other witnesses have said Haynes was "out of control" and acting in a manner inconsistent for an officer.

According to the police report, the three men are accused of jumping Haynes and his friend from behind. Lamb allegedly punched Haynes' friend in the face while the other two suspects allegedly assaulted the officer, punching and kicking him, the report says.

If Haynes wasn't a police officer, Leary said the three men would be facing a fourth-degree assault charge, a gross misdemeanor.

The men are facing the more serious felony charge "because of the victim's special status as a police officer, which is one of the big problems," Leary said. "There was no interview of [Haynes], there was no discussion one way or another about if he'd been drinking. The reports are silent on that. So how was he acting as a law-enforcement officer?"

Leary said the woman who took the jackets contacted his office Thursday after seeing news reports of the incident, but he said he didn't have a chance to interview her.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com