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A PRIL 10, 2013
S EATTLE , W ASHINGTON
V OLUME XXXV, N O .27
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
CHIEF RETIRES
Fixing
‘Legal
Mistakes’
State weighs
compensation for
wrongful convictions
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
By Rachel La Corte
The Associated Press
Diaz was named interim chief in 2009, after his predecessor, Gil Kerlikowske, left to become President Barack
Obama’s drug czar. Diaz was given the job officially the next year and immediately faced difficulties, Mayor Mike
McGinn says.
Diaz Steps Down in DOJ Shuffle
New federal plan for use of force prompts retirement decision
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle
Police Chief John Diaz retired
Monday as his department
faces a court-overseen moni-
toring plan to address the use
of force by officers.
The announcement came
after difficult negotiations led
the Police Department to enter
a court agreement with the
U.S. Justice Department last
summer to address concerns
that officers were too quick to
use force.
Diaz said that after a 36-
year career — the past 33 with
the Seattle Police Department
_ he had planned to retire this
year. A judge’s acceptance of
the monitoring plan last
month provided a good oppor-
tunity to do so, he said.
``That monitoring plan is in
place,’’ he said. ``It’s time for
me to let others move forward
on that, but I wanted to make
sure the hard work of the
reform issues, that some of the
innovation that I was really
interested in was up and run-
ning.’’
Diaz was named interim
chief in 2009, after his prede-
cessor, Gil Kerlikowske, left
to become President Barack
Obama’s drug czar. Diaz was
given the job officially the
next year and immediately
faced difficulties, Mayor
Mike McGinn noted.
Soon after his appointment,
the department was tasked
with tracking down a suspect
who had attacked a lesbian
couple in their South Seattle
home, raping and stabbing
both. One of the victims col-
lapsed and died in the street
after escaping the house
naked and covered in blood.
Later that year, Officer Tim-
othy Brenton was shot and
killed as he sat in his cruiser
following a traffic stop.
The next summer, an officer
shot and killed Native-Ameri-
can woodcarver John T.
Williams, who crossed the
street in front of a patrol car.
The officer said Williams
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Alan
Northrop anxiously waits outside a Senate
committee hearing, his girlfriend rubbing
his shoulders and whispering words of sup-
port as he prepares to sign in to testify about
nearly two decades of freedom lost.
“Oh boy, here we go,’’ he says as the door
opens.
Northrop has been here before, but he’s
nervous every time. At stake is a measure
that would compensate him and others like
him who have been wrongfully convicted
and imprisoned.
This is the third year in a row he’s traveled
to the Washington state Capitol to tell law-
makers his story: He was convicted of rape
and served 17 years in prison before he was
exonerated by DNA evidence.
“It’s always intense,’’ he said before the
recent hearing before the Senate Law & Jus-
tice Committee, the third panel he’s testified
in front of this year so far. “I just have to get
in the zone. It’s something that needs to be
done.’’
Northrop’s story starts in early 1993.
While playing pool with friends, detectives
entered the tavern he was in and arrested
him on a bench warrant for failure to appear
at a hearing on a suspended license, later
questioning him about the rape of a house-
cleaner, who was attacked by two men in La
Center while she was alone cleaning a
house.
The woman was blindfolded and caught a
glimpse of one of the perpetrators. Police
later had her produce a composite sketch of
one of them, which was ultimately posted
around town. Someone thought the sketch
looked like Northrop and alerted authorities.
His friend, Larry Davis, has blond hair, a
detail noted by the victim, who also thought
he looked familiar in a photo montage pro-
vided by police. Though she didn’t initially
identify Northrop in a photo laydown, she
See DIAZ on page 3
See CONVICTIONS on page 3
INDEX
News ..................2,3,6,8
Calendar ....................2
A&E ..........................2,5
Opinion .......................4
Bids/Classifieds............7
Mental Health Budget Makes Gains
Legislature ponders most crucial needs in session focused on cuts
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — As state sena-
tors proposed cuts in social services this
week, one area gained ground: money for
treating mental illness.
Budget writers understand how crucial
this spending is in preventing dangerous
people from being on the street instead of in
treatment, The News Tribune reported in
Sunday’s newspaper.
``We had to put some resources there, or
there would be no room at the inn for peo-
ple who were in serious trouble,’’ Hoquiam
Sen. Jim Hargrove, lead budget negotiator
for the Democrats, said Friday night after
senators approved the Republican-flavored
plan.
The Senate proposal and Democratic Gov.
Jay Inslee’s spending plan both spend near-
ly $16 million to avoid making mental
health treatment backlogs any worse. And
lawmakers have proposed loosening stan-
dards in detaining patients with mental ill-
ness. Existing standards are seen as too high
to catch some dangerous people.
The two budgets also add $2.6 million to
cover state psychiatric hospitals’ unexpect-
edly high overtime costs. And they agree to
add millions over the next two years for
See BUDGET on page 3