WA Prosecutor Refuses to Charge Suspects who Attack Officers while Resisting Arrest

The policy came to light when KTTH was tipped off to an incident, where a King County Sheriff’s deputy was kicked in the groin by a 20-year-old female suspect in tall leather boots. She was not charged with assault.

King County, WA, Prosecutor Dan Satterberg will “not file [charges] when assault (on an officer) can be best described as resisting” an arrest from an officer, his office told KTTH.

King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht says “we need to rethink this.”

The policy came to light when the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH was tipped off to an incident, where a King County Sheriff’s deputy was kicked in the groin by a 20-year-old female suspect in tall leather boots. She appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

After Satterberg’s office reviewed the case, the suspect was not charged with assaulting the officer.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office confirmed, in an email statement via a spokesperson, that they will only charge assault in the third degree, “if the assault can best be described as an intentional attack on the officer and the officer has an injury or experiences significant pain as a result of the assault.”

Satterberg tweeted, "In the past 18 months we have filed 367 felony assault cases where officers are the named victims. There is no change in our practice supporting our police." There has been no explanation of what happened during those 367 assaults. 

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