Undercover cops may have broken rules on pursuit
Unmarked cars generally barred from giving chase
By LEVI PULKKINEN
P-I REPORTER
Undercover detectives may have violated Police Department rules when they drove through Seattle streets after a driver who they say pointed a gun at their unmarked SUV.
Details of the June 21 incident -- which police say started as a shouting match after Jesse James Toro II cut off three undercover officers in traffic -- remain in dispute as Toro's attorney and the King County prosecutors prepare for the trial of the 28-year-old jeweler on second-degree assault charges.
But if the attorney is right that officers chased Toro at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour, then they broke departmental rules. The Police Department forbids unmarked cars without emergency lights, such as the one the detectives were driving, to take part in a chase.
The department's pursuit policy states that "unmarked cars shall not participate in pursuits," although it makes an exception for officers in cars equipped with emergency lights and sirens.
Former Bellevue police Chief D.P. Van Blaricom, a 30-year veteran of that department, said there's a good reason for the prohibition.
"The problem of chasing somebody in an unmarked car is that they don't know who the hell is chasing them," said Van Blaricom, who frequently testifies as an expert witness in civil cases involving police conduct.
Prosecutors say Toro shot the tires out of the officers' SUV after leading them five miles from Denny Way and Terry Avenue North to the Green Lake neighborhood.
In statements filed with the court, the detective driving the SUV -- one of three vice squad officers riding in the car -- said Toro pointed a gun at him after a heated exchange of words. The detective fired at Toro, who was alone behind the wheel of a Cadillac STS.
The officer told investigators he fired only one shot at Toro, but Toro's attorney Kimberly Gordon says her client's Cadillac has two bullet holes in it.
Toro drove away after being fired upon, followed by the vice officers. Officers investigating the incident acknowledge that Toro did not know it was police officers who were after him.
In a statement filed in King County Superior Court, Gordon said she's taken a written statement from a driver who reported seeing the vice officers following Toro "incredibly close." The two cars were so close they "went by as one," Gordon said the witness told her.
Gordon said police investigators declined to interview the man after he came forward.
"This witness approached the defense after twice contacting law enforcement about what he saw," Gordon said in a statement to the court.
Seattle police didn't respond to requests this week to comment on the incident. Previously, police spokesmen had said the incident was not a pursuit, but acknowledged that the officers followed Toro.
Detective Nathan Janes, the Seattle detective leading the investigation, characterized the incident as a chase in a court document used against Toro.
Janes went on to say that, while officers chased the Cadillac to the Green Lake neighborhood after calling for backup, they broke off the pursuit when Toro pulled onto a side street.
The detective "slowed down after pulling onto the side streets due to the inherent increased dangers to themselves and innocent civilians," Janes wrote in his report.
Still, the officers followed Toro a few more blocks, onto Ashworth Avenue North. There, prosecutors say, Toro fired three shots at the SUV, disabling it.
Van Blaricom, who served as chief for 11 years in Bellevue, said that pursuit policies across the state bar officers in unmarked vehicles from chasing suspects. Without lights and siren, officers also can't warn other drivers or pedestrians that they're coming.
According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics, about one in four police chases ends in injury. Two out of five end in property damage.
Toro, who turned himself in to authorities the day after the shootings, was freed on $30,000 bail Tuesday.
If convicted, he faces three to four years in prison.
The Police Department's Firearms Review Board will review the officers' conduct in the case.
