By
BRIAN KELLY
Bainbridge Island Review Editor
Bainbridge Island Review Editor
TACOMA
- After a morning of interviews on their willingness to serve and their ability
to be impartial - which included questions on whether police generally abuse
their authority, if police are properly trained to deal with the mentally ill,
and if officers who testify in uniform should be given greater credibility than
civilians - a federal court judge seated the eight-member jury in the civil
rights trial in the shooting of Doug Ostling.
Ostling
was shot by a Bainbridge Island Police Officer Jeff Benkert at his family's
home on Oct. 26, 2010 after officers responded to a 911 call that Ostling had
placed. Investigators said Ostling, who was 43 at the time, came at two
officers with a double-bladed ax after they knocked on his apartment door to
ask about the 911 call.
The
Ostling family filed a civil rights lawsuit against Benkert last year, and the
suit also named the city of Bainbridge Island and Police Chief John Fehlman.
Fehlman
was not in court Monday; the city's attorneys said he had been hospitalized the
night before with pancreatitis and would not be able to attend much of this
week's proceedings.
Stressing
that Fehlman was an essential part of the defense for the city, attorneys asked
U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton to consider a delay in the start of the
trial.
Leighton
quickly shot down the request.
"We
don't have the luxury of time in this case," Leighton said. "We just
don't have any time where we can delay this proceeding.
The
trial is expected to last 11 days, and the judge said he wanted it to wrap up
before the start of June.
"The
chief can join us when he can," Leighton said.
"Come
hell or high water, we are going to get this case done by the first," he
said.
The
judge then interviewed 32 potential jurors, asking where they lived, about
their employment and their interests.
The
jurors selected include a Graham man who works for a stair-cycle company, a
retiree from Orting, a pastor from Kelso, a young nursing student who is
currently working as a housekeeper, a former American Airlines pilot from Port
Townsend who now works for his wife's textbook company, a retired bookkeeper
from Ocean Shores, a woman married to a retired Marine Corps officer who
referred to herself as "Mrs. Colonel," and a retired federal who
lives in Tacoma.
Potential
jurors who were eliminated from consideration included a retired Los Angeles
police detective who lives on Bainbridge Island and has investigated
officer-involved shootings in the past; a woman with a nephew with mental
health problems who she said was treated harshly by police after his arrest; a
former prison warden who was a police officer in Oregon and Hawaii; and a woman
whose husband works for the Washington State Patrol.
Another
potential juror was dismissed after he admitted he would not be able to remain
unbiased in the case and was prejudiced against the police.
"I
went to school in Chicago in the '60s and experienced street crime of two
varieties," he said. "Some of it was police brutality."
"I
think my politics were formed there and haven't changed significantly over the
years," said the man, a Vancouver resident who works in a native plant
nursery.
When
the judge asked if the man could set those feelings aside and base a decision
on the facts in this case, the potential juror said he couldn't.
"It's
a challenge I don't think I am up to," he said.
During
questioning from the bench, another woman recalled seeing news coverage of
improper behavior by Seattle Police.
"You
see it on your TV. Some of it has been very graphic. And very
heartbreaking," she said.
"It's
certainly been a discussion at our family table," she added.
She
was also cut from consideration.
The
small courtroom was filled with prospective jurors at the start of Monday's
session.
Three
members of the Ostling family attended, and watched from the balcony.
Opening
arguments were scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Monday.