“Spokane police officer arrested on suspicion of domestic violence; charges quickly dropped.”

“Former Lincoln County reserve deputy charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of his wife.”

“Judge declares mistrial in sex assault case against former Spokane police officer.”

“Spokane Police officer suspended for five days over domestic violence arrest.”

Spokane newspaper headlines speak volumes about a topic that neither law enforcement agencies nor local domestic violence advocates particularly want to talk about—police officer-involved domestic violence.

Domestic violence victims suffer untold physical and emotional injury, and sometimes death, at the hands of their abusers.

But victims of domestic violence at the hands of police officer-batterers are often in a particularly vulnerable situation, according to domestic violence experts and police who train law enforcement departments on how to deal with the issue.

Officer-involved domestic violence or OIDV is a national issue. Studies indicate that domestic violence is more common in police families than in the general public.

According to the National Center for Women and Policing, several studies indicate that police families are “two to four times more likely than the general population to experience domestic violence, from stalking and harassment to sexual assault and even homicide . . . making the potential for disparities in protective success particularly troubling.”

In Spokane 

The headlines referenced above were taken verbatim from four Spokesman Review newspaper articles over the past two years. They refer to four cases currently under investigation, or are being adjudicated in Spokane.

In the sexual assault case, a Spokane judge declared a mistrial in the case against former Spokane police Sgt. Gordon Ennis in mid-June. Ennis faced second-degree rape charges after he allegedly assaulted a female police officer at a party one weekend in October of 2015. The young female officer told investigators that she drank too much and passed out. When she awoke, she found Gordon Ennis, with his hand down her pants, according to court documents.

Ennis still faces a second-degree rape charge, and prosecutors are expected to retry him later this year.

In early July, Dwayne Thurman, a former Lincoln County reserve deputy, was charged with first-degree manslaughter for the shooting death of his wife Brenda in 2016. His case is set for trial in October, and a wrongful death lawsuit, filed by Brenda’s grown children, is set for April 2018.

In the most recent case, Spokane Police Officer John Scott was arrested on July 11 on domestic violence assault charges. The criminal charges were dismissed the following day, and Scott was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, according to Jordan Ferguson, a Spokane police spokesman who heads up the city’s domestic violence unit.

“Internal Affairs is doing an internal investigation to see if any terms of the domestic violence policy were violated,” Ferguson says.

In yet another case, John Yen was arrested on felony burglary charges after allegedly forcing his way into his girlfriend’s home in 2015, but took a plea deal and was convicted of criminal trespassing, a misdemeanor. Yen pleaded guilty in October 2016 and was fined $950, but received no jail time beyond the one night he spent in jail after his arrest.

The department placed Yen on paid leave following his arrest and returned him to duty following his guilty plea.

What Experts Say
Dave Thomas, a retired Maryland police officer and instructor with Johns Hopkins University Public Safety Leadership Program for many years, today trains police departments to respond to officer-involved domestic violence as a program manager for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Thomas pulls no punches when he discusses the seriousness of the matter. “If an abuser is in law enforcement, he is a batterer with a Ph. D. in power and control . . . and that victim is in double jeopardy,” Thomas says.

“We as law enforcement professionals, have been hesitant to respond to this as we do other criminal activities,” he says.

A greater potential for lethality exists in police-perpetrated domestic violence, Thomas says. With the constant presence of weapons in police family homes, the batterer has access to a service weapon, baton, handcuffs and other tools of abuse.

“Police officers are trained in methods of physical control, and the abuser can use arm locks or choke holds to subdue—with no marks or bruises,” he says.

Thomas collaborated with the IACP in 2004 when it produced a model policy for law enforcement agencies after a deadly domestic violence shooting in Tacoma in 2003.

On April 26, 2003, Tacoma Police Chief Brame fatally shot his wife, Crystal, and then himself. The couple’s eight-year-old daughter and five-year-old son were sitting a few feet away in their father’s car. Brame had been accused of repeatedly choking and threatening Crystal Judson Brame in the months leading up to the murder-suicide. She sought help from the civil and criminal justice system but it failed to respond or intervene to prevent further violence.

In 2004, legislation was passed requiring every law enforcement agency in Washington state to have a domestic violence policy for officers and employees, specifying exact protocol to follow if an officer is involved in a domestic incident or allegation. Today only a handful of states have similar laws, according to a 2016 article in Family Court Review, an interdisciplinary journal.

The Brame case resulted in lost lives and orphaned children, devastated the Tacoma police department, and touched off several investigations surrounding officer-involved domestic violence. It ended with a $12.5 million legal settlement, and a domestic violence center named for Crystal Judson.

A federal law preventing people convicted of domestic violence crimes from owning or possessing firearms, which also applies to police officers and military personnel, has been on the books since 1996 as the Lautenberg Amendment. Thomas calls it a valuable protection for most women, but a police officer who can’t use a gun can’t work—so if victims report the officer, the family’s livelihood is put at risk.

In the past, the lack of police department policy resulted in lawsuits that increasingly were being won by families of victims, at the hands of officers.

“Some police departments have realized the liability they incur when they don’t have proper policy and don’t do things the right way,” Thomas says.

A key principle of any program on officer-involved domestic violence, Thomas says, is the immediate involvement of higher-ranking officers so a junior officer isn’t put in the position of arresting a superior. Agencies must also provide an avenue for family members to reach out to the department.

“And when reports do come in,” he says, “agencies must act fast so there’s no lag time between the time of the report and when something is done.”

Spokane police department policy

The Spokane Police Department’s policy on domestic violence involving law enforcement employees “establishes procedures protocols and actions for investigating and reporting domestic violence involving employees,” says Spokane Police Sgt. Jordan Ferguson, who heads up the city’s domestic violence unit.

Ferguson says the SPD policy on domestic violence by police officers is very similar to the IACP model policy.

“It applies to City of Spokane officers and mandates that supervisors should be notified, duty weapons should be surrendered and says there should be contact with the victim to advise about resources,” Ferguson says. “It is also a part of the hiring and screening process.”

Ferguson says potential officer hires undergo a vetting process including a polygraph test.

“We interview references, friends and family and applicants are required, by policy, to take a polygraph test,” he says. “As a result of the murder involving the Tacoma police chief, all law enforcement has to have a polygraph test and psychological tests. It’s mandatory in this state, but there are states where it’s actually prohibited.”

The Spokane Police Department takes the issue seriously, Ferguson says, both in hiring and with existing policy.

“Our policy, like the model IACP policy, requires that a supervisor be notified when an officer is involved. We encourage law enforcement members who are having family issues to go to counseling, there is a Chaplain’s Corp and every officer is made aware of these resources,” he says.

Fodder for Investigative TV 

One of Spokane’s cases is reportedly being followed by Dateline, an investigative reporting program on NBC, according to Ted Pulver, a private investigator from Post Falls. Pulver has been investigating the death of Brenda Thurman, the woman shot by her husband, a former Lincoln County reserve deputy.

Thurman is suspected of shooting and killing his wife on January 18, 2016 while he was cleaning her .380-caliber Glock pistol.

According to court records, Thurman claimed the gun had malfunctioned, although a state lab later determined that the pistol was functioning reliably.

Brenda Thurman, who had served as an Army Military Police Officer, was a marriage and family therapist who did readjustment counseling at the Veterans Outreach Center in Spokane Valley at the time of her death, according to her obituary.

Soon after the shooting, Spokane County Medical Examiner Sally Aiken ruled the shooting accidental.

Dwayne Thurman was charged with first-degree manslaughter in early July. The couple was just shy of celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary when the shooting occurred.

Brenda’s grown children filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Thurman, their adopted father, in April, claiming he did not try to save their mother after admitting he shot her in the chest while he was cleaning her gun.

“We have evidence that hasn’t been developed by police,” Pulver says. “There is evidence we plan to bring forth in the criminal case as well, but I can’t discuss it before the court case. I’ve investigated the case in support of the children’s concerns and there is clear evidence of wrongful death.”

Pulver claims “every professional courtesy was given to this reserve deputy in numerous instances, and law enforcement chose to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“And the medical examiner came up with the result of accidental shooting before anyone had investigated the case. To go forward and come to the conclusion that the cause of death was accidental after two days, when the investigation wasn’t completed until two years later—it was very unusual for the medical examiner’s office to come to that quick of a conclusion,” he says.

“I’ve talked to co-workers and others to find out whether they have any information on this case, and I ran into a lot of people who were not contacted by law enforcement and that troubles me,” he says.

Pulver is a former law enforcement officer for Kootenai County, and says he has previous experience working domestic violence cases.

“I worked as a detective myself, and I know how gunshot violence cases are handled. I know what is typically done and I know what a lackadaisical and incomplete investigation looks like. This is why I’ve been so vocal about my concerns in the Thurman investigation,” he says.

Pulver also claims it was also no secret that Dwayne Thurman was having an affair and the couple were planning to divorce.

“It was no secret among many people in the community. The key point is that it should have been investigated by law enforcement,” he says.

Some Good News

IACP manager Thomas says there is some good news about OIDV, even though there’s no way to ascertain how many officers are involved in domestic violence. He says he has a sense that not as many go under the wire as in the past when he started training police departments in how to address the issue of officer involved domestic violence.

“Law enforcement agencies are starting to see these perpetrators for who and what they are. If you have an officer committing other crimes like dealing drugs, they handle it forthrightly and transparently,” Thomas says.

“The old way was to brush it under the rug, and some Neanderthals still consider it a family matter. But put in context we realize it for what it is: that law enforcement agencies are conspiring with a criminal,” he adds.

Information from a number of studies reveals that, on average, 15 percent of the general population have experienced domestic violence, defined as intimate partner physical assault. One study focusing on families indicates that 10 percent of families in the general population experience domestic violence. However, when studies focus on police families, the numbers increase. Two such studies indicate that about 40 percent of police families experience domestic violence. Another study that included only experienced officers, found a rate of 24 percent.

Source: Handbook for developing, implementing, and administering local programs to address domestic violence involving law enforcement personnel—the result of collaboration by the Washington State office of the Attorney General, state Office of Crime Victims Advocacy, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Washington Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police, Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

Judith Spitzer is a local journalist and photographer.