Charges dropped against 3 men accused of assaulting off-duty cop outside bar

Criminal charges have been dismissed against three men arrested in December after an altercation with an off-duty Seattle police officer who stomped on the head of one of the men while he was handcuffed and lying on the ground.

Charges against the three men were dismissed after the officer, Garth Haynes, "asserted a Fifth Amendment right not to testify" through his attorney, according to King County prosecutors. Jon Zulauf, who is representing Haynes, declined to comment Tuesday.

The stomping, which was captured by a police dashboard camera, is the subject of a criminal investigation into the officer's use of force. Haynes, who joined the department in January 2009, has been placed in a nonpatrol job while the matter is investigated, police said.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff, who wrote the dismissal paperwork that was filed Monday, said his office can refile the case if Haynes changes his mind. Sources said that Haynes has refused to testify in the case because his testimony could be used against him in an internal investigation by the Seattle Police Department.

Department spokeswoman Renee Witt declined to comment on the dismissal of the charges.

The three men, including the one who was stomped, were charged with third-degree assault of a police officer, a felony, after the incident. They were identified in court documents as Jake Keegan Baijot-Clary, 21; Simon Lee Thayer, 27; and Jason Reynold Lamb, 27.

The incident occurred about 1 a.m. Dec. 12 outside the BalMar nightclub in Ballard.

While in the club, Haynes and a male friend noticed their coats were missing from their chairs, according to court documents. Haynes found a woman outside the club holding the jackets and asked her to return them.

The woman refused, claiming the jackets belonged to a friend, the documents say. The woman returned the jackets after Haynes identified himself as a police officer. She walked away as Haynes called 911.

A crowd gathered around Haynes and his friend as the two men followed the woman while talking to 911, the documents say. Baijot-Clary, Thayer and Lamb yelled at Haynes and his friend to leave the woman alone. Soon after Haynes identified himself as a police officer and showed his badge to the crowd, he and his friend were attacked, documents said.

The first officer to respond to the call didn't recognize Haynes as an officer. It was after the officer attempted to stop Baijot-Clary and Thayer from assaulting Haynes that he recognized Haynes as a colleague who worked in the same precinct, police say.

After the officer pulled Thayer away and focused on restraining Baijot-Clary, Lamb got up and kicked Haynes in the head, the documents say. Haynes suffered minor injuries.

Other officers arrived and Baijot-Clary, Thayer and Lamb were handcuffed, and the woman had left the scene. While officers were investigating, Haynes stomped the head of Baijot-Clary.

While Lamb and Thayer told police they thought Haynes' badge was a fake, the attorney for Baijot-Clary said his client never saw the badge nor heard Haynes identify himself as a police officer. Baijot-Clary thought he was coming to the aid of the woman, attorney Tim Leary said.

Leary said Tuesday that he is filing a motion this week asking for the case to be dismissed "with prejudice" so charges can never be refiled.

"I have had concerns all along about how the Seattle Police Department has handled this, how they have investigated this and how they treated my client," Leary said.

The officers who responded to the brawl immediately reported Haynes' stomp to their supervisor, who then reported it to the department's Office of Professional Accountability. The stomp was never documented or described in paperwork sent to the King County Prosecutor's Office. The stomping was later disclosed to prosecutors in a follow-up report.

"This thing just needs to go away. Had the Prosecutor's Office had the full story from the beginning I don't know if they would have filed charges," Leary said.

The dismissal of the charges comes as the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the Police Department's use-of-force policies and treatment of minorities in the wake of a series of high-profile incidents, including the fatal shooting of First Nations woodcarver John T. Williams.

Seattle Times staff reporter

Steve Miletich contributed

to this report, which includes information from Times archives.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com