SPD protocols debated in Riley trial

COEUR d’ALENE — The Sandpoint Police Department’s policies and procedures were placed under a microscope and dissected during the penultimate day of a civil trial over the shooting death of Jeanetta Riley in July 2014.

Law enforcement consultants on both sides of the case offered up dueling assessments of the department’s protocols on Thursday, with the plaintiff’s expert calling them outdated, unclear and technically incorrect. The defense’s expert, however, told jurors in U.S. District Court that the policies are sound and in accordance with modern policing standards.

Joe Callanan said officers Garrett Johnson, Michael Valenzuela and Skylar Ziegler erred by converging on Riley with guns drawn and shouting commands at her.

Riley, 35, yelled “no” and “bring it on” when officers repeatedly ordered her to drop the knife. She was shot and killed when she stepped from a curb toward the officers.

Riley was shot three times by Valenzuela and twice by Ziegler. All three officers were cleared of wrongdoing following a criminal investigation.

Shane Riley, Jeanetta Riley’s husband and the father of Jeanetta’s unborn child, filed a federal suit alleging the officers violated the couple’s constitutional rights and used excessive force which resulted in a wrongful death.

Officers were summoned to the hospital after Shane Riley told a BGH clerk that his wife was outside with a knife and threatening to kill people. BGH immediately called 911 and placed the facility in lock-down mode.

Callanan told jurors that officers should have toned down their approach to dealing with Jeanetta Riley when they first arrived because she had not yet committed a crime and the lack of blood on or around her indicated that nobody had been stabbed. He said officers should have employed a “tactical pause” instead of closing in on Jeanetta Riley. He also felt officers regarded her as a “violator” rather than a patient in need of medical help.

“What has this woman done to qualify as a ‘violator?’” Callanan said.

The department’s use of force policy is overly permissive because it allows officers to use “any means available,” Callanan said.

“It leads to a foggy understanding of when an officer can shoot and when the officer can’t shoot,” Callanan testified.

The defense expert, Scot Haug, said the department’s policies are sound and that officers appropriately responded to a subject with an edged weapon. Haug, a former Idaho Peace Officers Standards & Training commissioner and Post Falls Police chief, cited the 21-foot rule, which holds that a subject with a knife can cover that distance in 1.5 seconds — quicker than an officer can draw a sidearm and fire two rounds.

Though the officers were wearing ballistic vests, they still leave vulnerable areas exposed. Moreover, body armor can be defeated by a knife.

“It will not stop a knife,” said Haug, who showed jurors the incision me made in a vest using the very knife wielded by Jeanetta Riley.

Haug said jolting Jeanetta Riley with a Taser might not have been successful because it was not a very static situation and both barbs on the electrode projectiles need to make contact with the skin in order to complete the electrical circuit.

“It may be a serious mistake,” Haug said of a Taser deployment.

Haug concluded that officer responded to a serious call that did not allow them to hang back and assess the situation from afar and that the verbal commands were clear, as evidenced by Jeanetta Riley’s contextual responses. Haug also found that officers reasonably believed their lives were in peril.

“I believe she posed a deadly threat based on her actions,” Haug told jurors.

The jury of four women and three men is expected to begin deliberations today.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.