In a Monday morning ruling before jury selection began in the trial of the Spokane 3 and over arguments from the federal government, Judge Rebecca Pennell ruled that body camera footage from Sheriff’s Deputy Brittan Morgan would be admissible in court.
Morgan, who is scheduled to be called as a witness by the prosecution, was captured on his own body camera calling protesters “cunts,” and stating to other deputies that he wanted to use violence against them. The sections of footage Forral’s defense team wanted to introduce include the following quotes from Morgan, according to a motion they filed with the court:
“God I hope they do some shit. I want to hit someone with a stick today. This is my only day off you fucking cunts,” Morgan said, according to the defense motion, then later added, “I cannot tell you how pissed off that I’m here right now. Not that I don’t want to be here, I’d love to hit someone with a stick, but this is my only day off you fucking cunts.”
Forral’s lawyer Andrea George also moved to include screengrabs of Morgan pointing a less lethal rifle at Forral from point-blank range, and stills of Morgan grabbing two protesters by the hair. She also wanted to include other material in Morgan’s file that showed he was disciplined for failing to report an instance of using force in 2023; relevant, she argued, because he also failed to report pointing his nonlethal weapon at Forral from a close distance at the June 11 protests.
George argued that this material should be admissible in court because it showed “inability to follow Sheriff Department rules, his aggressive and inappropriate conduct, and acts of dishonesty.” She wants to use the body camera footage and disciplinary record to impeach Morgan on the stand during his testimony as one of the government’s witnesses.
In a motion to exclude the material about Morgan, federal prosecutors Lisa Cartier-Giroux and Rebecca Perez wrote that “None of the behavior described in the disclosed materials bears on officer credibility.”
They further argued that the issues disclosed were “addressed through additional training or counseling or letters of reprimand,” and that the “respective sanctions are therefore irrelevant to the officers’ credibility and ability.”
Pennell ruled that “aggressive or unprofessional speech captured on body camera would be probative of how the officer would be conducting himself on the day in question,” and that the defense could introduce it. She did state that Morgan’s prior use of force likely couldn’t be introduced because it wasn’t relevant to the case at hand.
On a call with multiple reporters, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Mark Gregory said he had no comment on Morgan’s conduct. He did not respond to a second call for comment from RANGE by press time.
Other issues discussed at the pretrial included a motion filed by the federal prosecutors to prohibit the defense from calling Spokane Police Department Chief Kevin Hall as a witness, and to warn a handful of other defense witnesses that they could be at risk of incriminating themselves by providing testimony.
“Defendants have included the names of possible witnesses who were present on June 11th, including some who based on their actions may be subject to potential prosecution for obstructing and impeding officers and/or assault on an officer,” the prosecutors wrote in a motion filed May 14. “While the United States is not indicating by this filing that these individuals will ultimately be charged, the 5th Amendment applies to any stage of a criminal investigation or questioning where answers may be used to implicate the person in a crime, and is simply providing notice to the Court in the event the Court believes it is necessary to provide any warnings outside the presence of the jury to these witnesses or appoint counsel prior to their testimony.”
The witnesses who received those warnings were Caleb Hutchins, Laura Tewel, Liz Moore and Gian Mitchell. Pennell issued a ruling this morning that separate counsel would be appointed for any of the witnesses who did not secure their own counsel.
She also issued a provisional ruling allowing the defense to call Hall if the testimony was relevant to determining what defendants’ states of mind were on June 11.
