Opinion ID: 2604616
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Valentine's Facts

Text: Whether this arrest was indeed unlawful under every construction of the facts we need not determine, nor need we decide whether the facts as related by Valentine truly describe the incident. These are questions which the jury should have decidedbut were improperly withheld. Ronald Valentine presented his version of the facts to the jury. He claimed the police had a personal vendetta against him, spotted him, sent half a dozen officers after him, harassed him, provoked him, and then beat him unconscious. Valentine's evidence shows the Spokane police knew him from prior encounters. They had cited him twice for license plate violations, the second occurrence only four days prior to this incident. The night before his arrest Officer Yates and two other officers exchanged words with Valentine in a local tavern. Valentine testified the officers told him he had a bad attitude and then said, We are going to get you. RP (3/5/92) at 186. The officers then discussed Valentine the next morning at roll call. Later that same day police spotted him on a street corner looking suspicious and began trailing him as he entered his car and drove away. The police initially followed with two squad cars and a motorcycle, but by the time they pulled him over for failing to signal, several more officers had arrived. According to oral argument the entire downtown police force was in attendance. When Valentine said he was tired of the harassment, which he attributed in part to his race, [3] Officer Moore purportedly responded We've got a place for your people, you know. It's downtown. RP (3/5/92) at 192. According to Valentine, without first being afforded an opportunity to sign a traffic infraction citation for a defective turn signal (because one had not been written), the officer told him he would be arrested and his car impounded. Not only is it uncontroverted that no ticket had been written, but the officers showed no intention to write one. The officers never began to write a ticket nor did they produce the customary ticket book upon which a ticket could have been written had they so intended. RP (3/4/92) at 64. Even so, according to the testimony of Officer Jones, Valentine was still calm and cooperating to this point. RP (3/5/92) at 174. Valentine testified that as he was closing the window of his car to secure it he heard Moore say to Robinson, Let's get him now. RP (3/5/92) at 194. Officer Robinson testified that he focused on Valentine's arms, twisting them behind his back while wrenching the thumb to the wrist. Moore simultaneously rushed Valentine and cracked him in the face with a police radio, splintering Valentine's glasses and breaking the radio. According to Valentine's testimony, he was not only arrested but was physically battered before he hit Moore. Officer Yates, who had exchanged words with Valentine in the tavern, came from behind and slammed Valentine's head into Valentine's car. Officers Jones and Webb joined in. One requested handcuffs, to which Yates reportedly responded: Don't worry about the cuffs because we're going to kill him. RP (3/5/92) at 197. Webb worked on twisting Valentine's other arm behind his back while Yates was applying an artery chokehold which renders the victim unconscious if applied correctly. Majority op. at 1296 n. 4. If not applied correctly, the hold can be fatal. [4] When Valentine arrived at jail, the jail nurse supervisor refused to admit him because of his injuries but rather ordered him delivered to a hospital emergency room for treatment. After Valentine came around during his four-hour emergency room stay, Officer Moore wrote up and presented the ticket to him for the first timewhereupon Valentine signed the ticket immediately. RP (3/4/92) at 71. Valentine was then charged with third degree assault. He was never charged with refusing to sign the infraction. CP at 1. At his trial for assaulting an officer, Valentine asked that the jury be allowed to decide whether striking this officer was a reasonable response to this illegal arrest However, the trial court held, and the majority today agrees, the use of any force whatsoever to resist an unlawful arrest is in itself a criminal act. The effect of this rule is to make irrelevant whether the arrest was unlawful, a prospect which neither the majority nor the Spokane municipal authorities seem particularly intent to address. I posit this arrest was indeed unlawful because in Washington one may not be arrested for an ordinary traffic infraction. RCW 46.63.020. However, failure to sign an infraction constitutes a misdemeanor (RCW 46.61.021(3), .022) for which arrest is permitted. RCW 10.31.100(1). Yet Valentine was never charged with failure to sign; nor was he even presented a ticket to sign before his arrest. I can find no lawful basis to arrest this man prior to initiation of physical contact by the police, and the majority apparently cannot either.