Guild Says SPD Officer Charged With Assault Is Victim Of Hate Crime

The president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild said Friday that the City Attorney's Office got it backwards when it charged a Seattle police officer with fourth-degree assault, and that the officer is the victim of a hate crime.

The City Attorney’s Office on Friday charged Seattle police Officer Garth Haynes with one count of fourth-degree assault, a gross misdemeanor, following an SPD investigation of a Dec. 12, 2010 fight outside a Ballard bar.

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"I believe the officer is the victim of a hate crime," Guild president Rich O'Neill said.

O'Neill attributed his allegation to a second police dash cam video in the case that hasn't been released to the public.

Haynes was off-duty and at the BalMar bar with a friend, according to court documents. A woman grabbed their jackets and walked out of the bar, and the two confronted her. Haynes identified himself as a police officer and showed his badge as he followed the woman, but he and his friend were soon assaulted by three men.

The men threw Haynes to the ground and punched and kicked him in the head, according to the documents. The documents also read that there was "little he could do to avoid the punches."

Officers arrived and detained the attackers.

The department would not detail the physical contact between O'Neill and one of the suspects, but sources inside the department told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News that Haynes jostled one of the suspects with his foot, moments after the suspect was detained.

O'Neill said the second, unreleased dash cam video proves his allegation of a hate crime.

"One of the suspects is heard saying words to the effect of, quote, 'What would you do if you saw a black man touching a white woman?'" O'Neill said. "I am calling on the police department and the city attorney's office to release this video immediately."

Haynes is black and the woman who was allegedly involved in the incident is white.

O'Neill said he hasn't seen the second videotape but said detectives told him about the racial comments.

KIRO 7 requested a copy of the tape but our request was declined by Seattle police.

The three men involved in the altercation were originally arrested and charged with assault but those charges were dropped by the King County Prosecutor's Office.

Seattle City Attorney Pete Homes declined to talk with KIRO 7, but did issue a brief statement in a news release about the charges.

"We must continue to ensure that police officers, whether on duty or not, are held accountable for their actions," Holmes said in the news release.

His spokesperson said that by law, the City Attorney's Office cannot prosecute hate crimes, and that what may have been said doesn't justify Hanes' allegedly putting his foot on the head of a suspect after he was handcuffed.

The City Attorney’s Office brought the gross misdemeanor charge against Haynes after the King County Prosecutor’s Office declined to charge him with a felony.

Haynes, who joined SPD in 2009, is on administrative reassignment.

If convicted, he faces a maximum term of 365 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

He is scheduled to be arraigned in Seattle Municipal Court July 22.