Current weather:  36° F   mostly cloudy, breezy

sponsored by:

Protester accused of felony assault

Police officer says teen grabbed him by throat

Thomas Clouse
Staff writer
July 6, 2007

Anne Price and Joe St. John were in Riverfront Park applauding members of the U.S. armed forces Wednesday evening when their son called to tell them he had been arrested at the other end of the park on suspicion of felony assault on a police officer.

Zach St. John, 18, vehemently denied in a jailhouse interview Thursday that he assaulted the officer. He appeared in Spokane County District Court along with about half of the 16 other protesters who were arrested near the Clocktower as crowds waited for the fireworks display.

"It’s unfortunate that one of the things the kids were trying to say (Wednesday) was that the police in Spokane have become somewhat heavy-handed," said Price. "There seems to be conflicting stories about what happened. I appreciate everybody’s point of view."

All of the other arrested protesters, some of whom spent a night in the Spokane County Jail, were released after being charged with misdemeanor trespassing and unlawful assembly. Many of them accused the officers of brutal tactics for how they reacted to their otherwise uneventful march through Peaceful Valley and downtown Spokane prior to the confrontation in the park.

Assistant Police Chief Jim Nicks did not respond directly to questions but issued a press release saying the officers "had no choice but to physically arrest them."

"This is not solely an issue of First Amendment rights, but a matter of balancing the rights of all individuals, including the rights of the thousands of people enjoying the events that were occurring at Riverfront Park," Nicks said. "Spokane Police must preserve the rights of all the individuals that were attending the festivities at Riverfront Park."

In his police report, Spokane police Officer Jay Kernkamp wrote that he responded to a group of about 40 people who were yelling "pigs and other threats."

Kernkamp said in his report that he was "providing cover" for a detective when St. John grabbed Kernkamp by the left arm and demanded his badge number.

The officer wrote that St. John "said I pushed him off his seat. I had no prior contact with St. John whatsoever before he approached me."

Kernkamp described a series of actions and a conversation with St. John, who "ignored me ordering him to stay back. St. John started to yell at me profanities and charge me again. This time with his right hand St. John grabbed my throat and squeezed."

St. John, who has no criminal record and is a lead singer in the local band Miao Yin, gives a completely different story. He said he was sitting on a bucket when an officer knocked him off.

"I jumped up and said, ‘Why did you do that?’ Bam, I was on the ground," St. John said. "I had two different knees in the back of my neck. I wasn’t resisting."

St. John said he thought all along that he would wake up Thursday, and the charges would be dropped. They weren’t.

"I don’t want to be here. I’m not into (messing) up my life for a cause," he said.

Dustin Carroll, 22, who was one of those arrested on the misdemeanor charges, said he saw the exchange between St. John and Kernkamp. His account was nearly identical to St. John’s. "Zach’s hands were nowhere near his throat," Carroll said.

Local Democrats in a booth above the meadow said they noticed the protesters as they walked past their booth. "They were making noise, but everybody else was, too, for that matter," said state Rep. Don Barlow, D-Spokane.

Liberty Lake City Councilman Brian Sayrs said he looked down and thought the demonstrators seemed "entirely peaceful" and weren’t trying to provoke anyone. He looked down a few minutes later when they began chanting "We are not afraid," which he feared was a sign that something was about to happen.

"Suddenly there were 60 people surrounded and rushed and I didn’t know what precipitated it," Sayrs said.

After the court hearings Thursday, the protesters gathered around St. John’s parents. Anne Price told them she appreciated their support and asked them to find witnesses who were not part of the protest to come forward.

"Zach and his friends have a right to protest. We obviously raised him to have his own beliefs," she said. "And now, unfortunately, that’s what the kids are believing right now, is that police became heavy-handed. So it’s really unfortunate."

Reporter Jim Camden contributed to this report.

Reporter Thomas Clouse can be reached at (509) 459-5495, or by e-mail at tomc@spokesman.com.

back to top