Why wasn't he fired for all the other crimes he committed, in addition to murder?

@2 Will in Seattle: +1 Agreed. It's fucked up that Seattle and King County have no reliable police force.
Law enforcement is supposed to protect and serve the public.
SPD and SPOG don't fight crime---they're all for it, especially if it involves worshipping the Orange Turd.
I'm pretty confident the five assholes from the SPD who took part in the January 6, 2021 coup attempt aren't facing prison time, either.

Not a shock. If regular citizens are allowed to mow down pedestrians in Seattle with impunity, then why wouldn't a cop be?

@3 you are correct

How would we attract officers at $200K+/yr if we went around prosecuting ones that killed people?

@7 exactly.
PTO oughtta be
Punishment enough.

@4 driving recklessly is not an accident. it's intentional. responding to an emergency doesn't absolve the emergency vehicle driver of adhering to laws and operating the emergency vehicle in a safe manner.

not to mention the fact it wasn't even something police should be responding to.

fuck the police. all of them .

@11, my only lament regarding gun control is that the guns have won. there's no point trying to pretend otherwise.

RCW 46.61.520(1)(c) "When the death of any person ensues within three years as a proximate result of injury proximately caused by the driving of any vehicle by any person, the driver is guilty of vehicular homicide if the driver was operating a motor vehicle with disregard for the safety of others"

They didn't think they could prove this??

@13 they didn’t want to prove it

Even if homicide charges were truly difficult to stick, that doesn’t mean he should not face any sort of legal consequences. This is just another slap in the face to the city where cops keep getting more money to do more horrible shit, that horrible shit gets forgiven and swept under the rug, and then they act befuddled as to why no one likes or trusts them.

@4 assuming for the sake of argument the person was actually OD'ing (they weren't) what was the cop gonna do? If an ambulance driver had mowed down a pedestrian while driving 3x the speed limit without continuous siren I could maybe see the argument, but this was an entirely senseless and unnecessary killing and the officer escaping accountability is a travesty of justice.

Here's what the prosecutor had to prove for vehicular homicide:
To operate a motor vehicle in a reckless manner means to drive in a rash or heedless manner, indifferent to the consequences.
or
Disregard for the safety of others means an aggravated kind of negligence or carelessness, falling short of recklessness but constituting a more serious dereliction than ordinary negligence. Ordinary negligence is the failure to exercise ordinary care. Ordinary negligence is the doing of some act which a reasonably careful person would not do under the same or similar circumstances or the failure to do something which a reasonably careful person would have done under the same or similar circumstances. Ordinary negligence in operating a motor vehicle does not render a person guilty of vehicular homicide. WPIC 90.05

@4: "to serve and protect an overdose"

Very low priority, in my opinion. You do drugs, you take your chances. We've got to stop coddling the druggies.

@16 RCW 46.61.465 "The unlawful operation of a vehicle in excess of the maximum lawful speeds provided in this chapter at the point of operation and under the circumstances described shall be prima facie evidence of the operation of a motor vehicle in a reckless manner by the operator thereof."

Hard to imagine 3x the limit wouldn't then be criminal negligence

@ 18. The Washington Pattern Instruction committee recommends that an instruction based on RCW 46.61.465 not be given. In other words, it is possibly bad law and using it could cause an appeals court to overturn the conviction.

WPIC 94.04

https://govt.westlaw.com/wcrji/Document/I0943897ea75611dd8931e514b9d4bd12?transitionType=Default&bhcp=1&contextData=%28sc.Default%29

Also excessive speed alone does not constitute driving in a reckless manner. State v. Farr-Lenzini, 93 Wn.App. 453, 470, 970 P.2d 313 (1999)..." State v. Dickey, 40783-3-II (Wash. App. May 03, 2011)

Amy Freedheim, the prosecutor who made the call in this case, is in charge of every vehicular homicide in King County and has been doing this for decades. She's the most experienced vehicular homicide prosecutor in WA history. She's also been one of the biggest promoters of stricter DUI and vehicular homicide/assault laws over the years.

@19/20 the reported OD was from cocaine so no I wouldn't have wanted a cop (or anyone) to administer Narcan. And one defense the prosecutors suggest, that the victim was an intervening cause of her own death, is facially absurd. No jury would ever blame a victim for not anticipating someone may be driving 75 in a 25 and therefore not be able to stop in time before stepping into a marked crosswalk. The only reason they're even entertaining that notion is because this driver was a cop and they're flailing to justify not charging him. In both this and the Showbox shooting the officers used poor--albeit opposite--judgement and both should be held appropriately accountable.

@21 just because an instruction isn't recommended to be given doesn't mean it's bad law or can't be argued. In Farr-Lenzini the instruction WAS given and the appeals court found no error where the driver was going 30-40 miles over the limit. Here the cop was driving 50 miles over the limit.

@23 if you know Freedheim you know she would never treat a case involving a non-cop defendant this way. This is unequal justice and it's a disgrace

An officer is allowed to speed when responding to a priority 1 call, correct? Someone posted protocol says up to 50 mph on this street (not sure if this is correct, just what someone else said). The officer was traveling 74 mph on a 25 mph limit, but allowed to go 50 mph, so 24 mph over the speed limit. Makes a big distinction. People traveling 24 mph over, with no other bad driving, and normally not cited for reckless driving.

@24. "the trooper testified that Farr-Lenzini was driving “erratically,” she ran a  four-way stop, and she had to cut across lanes to negotiate a corner. Given this evidence, one can say with “substantial assurance” that the presumed fact of Farr-Lenzini's reckless driving more likely than not flowed from the proven fact of her speed."

Lot more evidence of bad driving in Farr-Lenzini than what we have here.

@27 you mean aside from hitting and killing a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk? In any event I was speaking only to your mistaken suggestion that the RCW in question may be bad law.

@26 here are the applicable RCW and SPD policy manual sections:

https://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.61.035

https://public.powerdms.com/Sea4550/tree/documents/2042749

Note both explicitly state drivers are not relieved from the obligation or duty "to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons"

@30 I'm not gonna respond to your ad hominems except to say you couldn't be more wrong about my opinions regarding the criminal system. But if you know Freedheim like you claim to please tell me I'm wrong, that she would similarly decline to charge a non-cop who drove 75 in a 25 and hit and killed a pedestrian in a marked crosswalk because it was partly the pedestrian's fault for getting in the way. You can't. I'm mad about the hypocrisy like everyone of conscience should be.

Prosecutor Leesa Manion The toothless tiger prosecutors

Prosecutor Leesa Manion The toothless tiger