By Eric Nalder, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Four Seattle police officers tried unsuccessfully to pin a charge of obstructing a public officer on Seattle resident Oriyon Abraha.
They also accused him of injuring himself while in their custody — throwing himself on the ground and against a police car, losing a tooth and bruising his face in the process, all to fake a claim of police brutality.
The officers are lying, said Abraha.
Oriyon Abraha, a refugee from Ethiopia, says a Seattle officer slammed his head near here, knocking out a tooth and causing him to lose consciousness.
Records confirm that Abraha lost a tooth in the incident, and was bloodied and bruised on the face.
“He pushed Oriyon,” said witness Enana Kassa, 42, owner of the Blue Nile restaurant, in whose parking lot the Feb. 28, 2004, incident occurred. “I run to the restaurant and I called 911.”
Someone in this case is telling a whopper of a lie.
At a criminal trial where six jurors found Abraha innocent of obstruction, Hyra said Abraha, 49, refused his order to leave a potential arrest scene and contemptuously blew cigarette smoke “directly into my face,” according to a recording of the trial. More than a dozen people had gathered, and Hyra also threatened to arrest them before they moved away.
Abraha remained. To get him to leave, Hyra gripped Abraha’s clothing at the shoulder with one hand and his wrist with another, a police technique known as the “escort hold,” he said. Abraha leaned back, pulled away and threw himself face-first onto the ground with his arms behind him and rolled around, Hyra said.
The officer then handcuffed Abraha, who cooperated by holding his hands behind his back. The officer said he helped Abraha to his feet, told him he was under arrest for obstructing and was escorting him again with one hand gripping his handcuffs and the other on his shoulder, using a technique he described as “positive control.”
Abraha broke his grip again, and threw himself forward, face first, into the squad car, the officer said.
“I was totally not expecting him to do something that outrageous,” Hyra, 41, told the court.
Hyra testified that only “Superman” could have prevented Abraha from escaping his grip and head-butting himself against the car. But minutes later, under cross examination by Abraha’s attorney, he said the slightly-built Abraha “is not that big an individual. So I did not have to use much force to get him to go where I wanted him to.”
Two other officers who had backed up Hyra at the scene confirmed portions of Hyra’s account, though neither officer testified they saw the entire event. Officer Rebecca Miller said she saw the alleged face plant, recalling that Abraha rolled twice after throwing himself to the ground, and that “the second roll was dramatic.” Officer Kimberly Biggs testified she saw Abraha’s headfirst lunge into the car — that he “just went and ran. And kind of fell. And hit his head on the car.”
Sgt. William Robertson, the officers’ supervisor, didn’t witness the event but testified in court that Abraha’s injuries were a type that a person would get if they injured themselves, not if he was assaulted. The officers described Abraha as “mild mannered” and said that Kassa, the restaurant owner, was the argumentative one. She wasn’t arrested.
Abraha, who in the past served as a self-styled liaison between the Ethiopian community and the police, suggested another motive for the officer’s attack on him. He said he had encountered Hyra a month before the assault, and he had angered the officer because he complained to Hyra’s sergeant about his behavior.
“I don’t recall another contact,” the officer responded on the witness stand. “However, it is possible. I’m in the area all the time.”
Abraha said he first encountered Hyra late in January 2004 when he said Hyra spotted him checking a broken speedometer in his sister’s car. Believing it was a car prowl, Hyra was preparing to arrest Abraha when Abraha’s sister showed up and confirmed who he was, Abraha said. The officer then threw Abraha’s driver’s license back at him, he said.
Rather than break off his contact with Hyra, Abraha asked to speak to the officer’s sergeant, according to a lawsuit filed against the city by Abraha after he was acquitted of the February 2004 charge.
The supervisor came to the scene, but not before Hyra had allegedly warned him: “If you make a complaint and it isn’t sustained, you will go to jail.”
At the trial, Abraha’s defense attorney, Gordon Hill, noted inconsistencies in the officers’ testimony. He also said the injuries to Abraha’s face — the bruises and blackened eyes — couldn’t have been self-inflicted. He said statements the officers attributed to Abraha during the trial were not reflected in the arresting officer’s incident report written immediately after the event.
City Prosecutor John McGoodwin noted inconsistencies in Abraha’s statements to the police about when he was handcuffed, and later about the exact date of his previous contact with Hyra. McGoodwin also focused the jury on the definition of obstruction in the city law, which prohibits intentionally interfering, hindering or delaying a public officer, or refusing to leave an investigation scene when asked. Hyra was conducting a lawful investigation when Abraha got in the way, McGoodwin said.
John Teeters, one of the six jurors who found in favor of Abraha, said he was pro-police and had to be convinced by the others on the jury to acquit Abraha of obstructing. But he also found it hard to believe the officers’ claim that Abraha threw himself to the ground and against the police car.
“That didn’t make sense to me,” said Teeters, 37, owner of a sporting goods shop.
“These cops lined up to convict him, and the jury believed him. It gave me a faith in juries,” said Hill, who at the time was a law student working one of his first trials under the supervision of another public defender. “It is tough going against cops.”
Seattle police internal investigators apparently sided with the police, though that’s hard to gauge because only one document from the internal investigation file was released to the Seattle P-I. The department routinely refuses to release files from cases where an officer is not found at fault. The one internal investigations document released to the newspaper indicated that “unnecessary force” was the only allegation examined. There was no mention of an investigation of possible dishonesty.
Abraha produces and appears on a public-access cable television program for Seattle’s Ethiopian community that helps new immigrants adjust to life here. Among his services are programs that teach Ethiopians how to properly interact with the police.
“I want to be (a) bridge,” he told the P-I, adding that he immigrated to the United States in 1983 “for freedom” and that he loves his adopted country.
Other than traffic citations, some dating back to the days when he drove a taxi, Abraha has a clean record.
Hyra, who had been with the department 3 1/2 years when he encountered Abraha, did not respond to a request for an interview.
Hyra has a degree in anthropology from the University of Washington, and told the court he also has taken courses in racial sensitivity. He emphasized that his studies included work with a tribe in Africa. The P-I requested his disciplinary records, and the department responded that there were none.
Abraha wrote a letter to the mayor and City Council in April 2004 complaining about his treatment. Councilman Nick Licata suggested he complain to police internal investigations.
Abraha sued the city, the Police Department and Hyra in March 2006 for claims including civil rights violations, false arrest and assault. He was offered $11,000. Showing a stubborn streak, he refused the offer, even when other attorneys warned him it would mean he could end up with nothing.
Getting nothing, Abraha explained to the P-I, was better than accepting an insulting offer, which was not enough money to cover his dental bills.
His federal lawsuit fell apart after his attorney moved and withdrew from the case. It was dismissed on Feb. 5.