Spokane County Sheriff's deputy placed on leave after video surfaces of him bloodying 62-year-old man

Oct. 6—Eleven hours into his road trip home from meeting his brand new baby granddaughter in Oregon, 62-year-old Kevin Hinton just couldn't keep his eyes open anymore.

He called his teen daughters who live in Spokane Valley to see if he could stop by and say hello. They didn't answer, unsurprisingly, he said, because it was after 10:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 14.

Hinton pulled into the parking lot at Terrace View Park to nap. He pulled off his shoes, yanked a pillow over and turned on a movie to fall asleep to. His pet umbrella cockatoo, Lilly, was nested in the passenger seat.

At about 11:45 p.m., Spokane County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Clay Hilton shined a flashlight into the window of Hinton's Audi and told him he was committing a crime by being in the park after hours.

The two exchanged some heated words, and Hinton refused to tell the deputy his name or provide identification.

Three minutes later, the deputy yanked Hinton out of his car by his legs and hit him multiple times while ripping his shirt and knocking out his false teeth. The violent arrest left Hinton with eight broken ribs, a punctured lung, severe concussion, shoulder injury and a disfigured lip, according to attorneys he hired, Tim Note and Josh Maurer.

He was so beat up that jailers refused to book him and instead sent him to the hospital, Hinton's attorneys said.

Police recommended charges against Hinton for resisting arrest and obstructing a law enforcement officer. When Note brought video of Hinton's encounter to the attention of prosecutors, they promptly dropped the case.

Hilton, the deputy, is 50 and was placed on leave in late September once Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels was notified of the encounter by the Spokane County Prosecutor's Office, according to a news release from the sheriff's office sent Friday afternoon following requests for comment from local media outlets.

Nowels has asked the Spokane Police Department to investigate the incident. He declined to be interviewed Friday but said in a statement that "allegations of misconduct by law enforcement are very concerning to our community and myself."

When reached by phone Friday, Hilton declined to speak with The Spokesman-Review.

'Trying to do the right thing'

When Hinton realized how tired he was after pulling over to try and visit his teenage daughters at their mother's house in Spokane Valley, he "tried to do the right thing" by sleeping a bit before continuing his drive to Colfax, Maurer said.

In his report regarding the arrest, Hilton wrote that he smelled marijuana in the area, Note said. There was no marijuana or any other intoxicating substances found in Hinton's vehicle.

Hilton went up to the window of Hinton's new Audi and made contact with Hinton. The deputy told Hinton he was committing a crime by being in the park after hours.

Note and Maurer said it's not a crime to be in the park after hours. Spokane Valley City Code lists trespassing in a park as an infraction punishable by a small fine. The attorneys also noted it's arguable that Hinton wasn't even in the park because signs listing park hours were on a fence enclosing the grassy area of the park, while Hinton was on the other side of the fence in the parking lot.

In the body-camera footage capturing the confrontation, Hinton tells the deputy that it's not a crime but instead a civil offense to be in the park after hours and offers to leave. Deputy Hilton then interjects and tells Hinton that he's not free to leave. The exchange between the two includes Hinton's surprise at the sudden escalation, and he then refuses to provide his identification to the officer.

Hilton then asks him: "Whose car are you in?"

The deputy asks for his name again before putting on his gloves. He asks Hilton to stand up and put his hands on the vehicle.

The deputy then puts his hands on Hinton, who says "don't put your hands on me, pal."

"You are going to get hurt," Hilton responds.

Within the course of the next minute, Hinton falls back into the driver's seat of his car and is then pulled out by his legs on to the asphalt parking lot.

Deputy Hilton then wrestles Hinton to the ground, where Note and Maurer say he struck Hinton multiple times with a closed fist during the course of the encounter.

There's blood visibly coming from Hinton's face in the video.

"Why did you hit me?" Hinton asked between sobs.

Deputy Hilton responded: "Because you weren't listening."

Eventually, Hinton is handcuffed as other deputies arrive at the scene. He can be seen bleeding with a ripped shirt sitting on the ground handcuffed while at least a handful of deputies mill about.

Hilton turned off the audio of his body camera for a few minutes while talking with other deputies, who also turned off the audio of their body cameras.

Spokane County Deputies are required to have their body cameras activated, including with audio, when in contact with civilians.

Medics were called to the scene but cleared Hinton to be booked into the Spokane County Jail, according to Note. However, jail staff refused to book Hinton and he was instead taken to an area hospital, Note said.

Hinton stayed three nights in the hospital, where his upper lip had to be stitched. Three of his ribs were separated from his sternum and his concussion was severe, Note said.

He contacted Note to represent him in the criminal case when he learned he had been cited for resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer.

Case dismissed

Note met with Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Preston McCollam regarding the criminal charges and reviewed body camera footage with the prosecutor in late September.

The charges against Hinton were dismissed with prejudice on Sept. 29, meaning they cannot be refiled, according to court records. The reasons listed were "interests of justice" and "prosecutor discretion."

That same day, the prosecutor's office notified Nowels of the incident. The sheriff placed Hilton on a paid administrative leave on Sept. 30 and asked the Spokane Police to investigate.

Spokane Police's major crimes unit is investigating the incident, Cpl. Nick Briggs confirmed Friday. The incident is not being investigated through the Spokane Independent Investigative Response Team (SIIR), which investigates deadly uses of force and is regulated at the state level.

The Spokane County Sheriff's Office announced "a sergeant" had been put on leave in their Friday news release but did not name Hilton.

In the statement, Nowels said he trusts SPD to "conduct a thorough, complete and unbiased investigation into the sergeant's actions and this incident."

All body camera footage and reports have already been turned over to SPD. Following SPD's investigation, the sheriff's office will conduct its own internal affairs investigation, as is standard policy.

"I want to assure the public we serve that this investigation will be complete, and that the rights of all individuals involved will be protected," Nowels wrote.

Other deputies who responded to the incident were not placed on leave as of Friday.

Continued controversy

Hilton was recently called out by Division III Court of Appeals Judge George Fearing for his conduct during and after the controversial arrest of Darnai Vaile at a Spokane Valley bar.

Fearing called out systemic racism in the arrest of Vaile, a Black man, in an unpublished opinion. Following that opinion, the prosecutor's office, Nowels and Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl asked Fearing to recuse himself from all cases involving Spokane County law enforcement and prosecutors.

Fearing declined to do so, but said he would recuse himself in cases involving Hilton because of his conduct following Fearing's original opinion.

Following the opinion, Hilton gave notice that he plans to file a lawsuit against Fearing, according to the judge's decision.

"Deputy Clay Hilton's conduct since the issuance of the decision in State v. Vaile suggests that he works as a law enforcement officer not to serve others and benefit the Spokane community, but to intimidate and dominate," Fearing wrote. "I hold no ill will toward Deputy Hilton, but have concern about his anger, inability to reflect on his behavior, and insistence on retaliation. I lack confidence in his credibility."

It does not appear that Hilton has filed suit against Fearing as of Friday, according to a review of court records.

Hilton was hired by the sheriff's office in 2011. He previously worked as a Kootenai County Sheriff's Deputy.

Hoping to heal

More than six weeks after the incident, Hinton continues to heal from his injuries. He no longer has feeling in his upper lip, making it difficult to whistle, something he did when playing music.

He's still dealing with a shoulder injury and likely traumatic brain injury, Note added. His bird, Lilly, is plucking out her feathers following the incident. Hinton declined to be interviewed, instead speaking through his attorneys, who noted he fears retaliation after making the incident public.

"He was almost beaten to death for a $50 infraction," Note said, summarizing the incident.

There are a number of ways the deputy could have de-escalated the situation, Note added. While Hinton was irritable that he was being contacted by the deputy, he was also compliant, Note added.

Maurer is preparing a lawsuit related to the incident, which Hinton hopes prevents something like this from happening to anyone else.

He's concerned that the incident is just now being investigated six weeks after it occurred, when other deputies arrived to find Hinton beaten and bloody and when Hinton was turned away from the jail due to his injuries, Maurer said.

He pointed out Hilton held a higher rank than the other responding deputies. Still, he said, the lack of concern for Hinton is indicative of the culture in the sheriff's office.

"What it shows me is that there's a culture within the Spokane County Sheriff's Department that this type of behavior is permissible," Maurer said.

Multiple deputies turned off the audio of their body cameras when gathered and talking to each other and can be seen smiling, Maurer noted.

"When that number of officers show up and show that little interest in someone who's been beaten nearly to the point where they have died and have had to be hospitalized for multiple days, that's concerning to me," Maurer said. "And that's at least indicative that there may be a cultural problem within that department."

For Hinton, filing the lawsuit is a way to prevent something like this from happening to others.

"We want to make sure that this doesn't happen again," Maurer said.