Cops and Prosecutors Doing Cop and Prosecutor Things

[benji]

Moses Lake police nearly beat Joseph Zamora to death. Then he was charged with and convicted of assaulting an officer. He served a full prison term. Then Grant County prosecutors asked for the case to be dismissed. Then the state Supreme Court threw out Zamora’s convictions, because the prosecutor used racial bias during the trial.

It’s been more than six years since the beating that left Zamora in a medically induced coma in the ICU for a month, but Grant County prosecutors are reprosecuting him for the same alleged crimes. Even though Zamora already served a full prison sentence. Even though the same prosecutors previously asked to have the case dismissed.

“It is clear to me that Mr. Zamora had not accepted responsibility for his role in this incident,” [Grant County Prosecutor Kevin] McCrae wrote. “While there is no more jail time available in this case, any conviction would still count as criminal history on his offender score, would have an effect on the sentence for any future crimes Mr. Zamora may commit, and hopeful impress upon Mr. Zamora the improperness of his behavior.”

“Hopefully the individual involved learns something and is deterred from further similar actions in the future,” McCrae wrote.

McCrae’s reasoning came in a draft, sent to a deputy prosecutor in his office, in which he was responding to a complaint filed against him with the Washington State Bar Association over his handling of the case. The complaint was ultimately dismissed.

In the draft he also criticizes the state Supreme Court, saying it ignored facts and law in its opinion in the case, and said he was reprosecuting it, in part, to get a “full airing of the facts.”

“However, the Supreme Court opinion goes much farther, undercutting faith in law enforcement and the legal system in general,” he wrote.

“Ms. Trombley and the Supreme Court have managed, based on a poor decision by the prosecutor, to turn the case into an indictment of law enforcement, when the purpose of a criminal case is to hold an offender accountable,” McCrae wrote.