Pubdate: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 2014 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409 Authors: Steve Miletich and Evan Bush Page: B1 CITY ATTORNEY HOLMES TO SEEK BROAD DISMISSAL OF POT-USE TICKETS In Municipal Court Not Just Those Issued by Police Officer Facing Discipline Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, reacting to one police officer's personal campaign to write citations for public marijuana use, will announce Monday that he will seek dismissal of more than 85 tickets issued during the first seven months of the year, according to two City Hall sources. Holmes, who is set to discuss the decision at a briefing of the City Council on Monday morning, will go beyond Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole's request to dismiss tickets written by bicycle Officer Randy Jokela and include all infractions, out of fairness to everyone who was cited, according to the sources and briefing materials provided to The Seattle Times. Jokela, who issued about 80 percent of the $27 tickets for public pot use during the first half of the year, wrote on many of them "*Attn: Petey Holmes*." Holmes actively supported Initiative 502, which legalized pot smoking in 2012 but barred public use. Jokela also wrote on one ticket that he flipped a coin to decide which of two people to cite. Holmes' plan means 86 infractions written between Jan. 1 and June 30 - - originally believed to be 82 in a Seattle Police Department report - - stand to be dismissed if approved during a Municipal Court hearing planned for Tuesday. Holmes will also ask that all tickets written in July be dismissed because Jokela also issued tickets during that month, according to the briefing materials. The number of those tickets was not immediately known. People who were cited had the option of paying the fine, mitigating the sum or contesting the infraction. Those who defaulted had their cases sent to collections. How the city will resolve each case if the tickets are dismissed wasn't clear. O'Toole, acting on information uncovered in an internal investigation, wrote to Holmes asking that he seek dismissal of Jokela's tickets, which included at least 66 written during the first half of the year. City Councilmember Bruce Harrell, chairman of the council's public-safety committee, arranged Monday's briefing, where Holmes is scheduled to appear with Craig Sims, the chief of the city attorney's criminal division. Deputy Police Chief Carmen Best and Assistant Chief Nick Metz also are set to appear before the council. O'Toole has notified Jokela that he faces a three-day suspension without pay, and she has informed Jokela's immediate supervisor, Sgt. Ryan Long, that he faces a one-day suspension without pay, according to a third source familiar with the matter. Jokela and Long are scheduled to soon meet with O'Toole as part of their legal right to offer their side, though both are expected to accept the discipline, the source said. Monday's council briefing is not expected to delve into the details of possible discipline, because O'Toole has not made a final decision. Jokela, who joined the department in 1990, is widely known on the street as "Officer Joker." Holmes sponsored a city ordinance enacted last year that gave police the authority to write $27 tickets for using pot in public. The City Council action called for police to give warnings whenever possible before issuing fines and to study enforcement patterns. Although Jokela referred to Holmes on tickets, the city attorney's office does not screen tickets written for public marijuana use. They are filed directly by police officers in Municipal Court. If a ticket is contested, an infractions attorney from Holmes' office then becomes involved. Jokela's actions came to the attention of Police Department staff reviewing data collected for its first semiannual report on pot-law enforcement delivered to the council in July. Jokela works in the West Precinct, which includes the downtown business district, the Chinatown International District, Queen Anne, South Lake Union and other neighborhoods. He was reassigned to administrative duties at the time O'Toole revealed the internal investigation, but after apologizing to O'Toole, he was returned to regular duties while the inquiry continued. The marijuana-enforcement report, delivered to the City Council on July 23, found that 99 percent of all public-use tickets were issued for infractions in the West Precinct, primarily in Victor Steinbrueck Park, Westlake Park, Occidental Park and downtown streets. Blacks were disproportionately cited, receiving 37 percent of the tickets, the report said. Blacks account for 8 percent of the Seattle population, according to 2010 census figures; 50 percent of the tickets went to whites, who represent 70 percent of city residents. O'Toole has said she has not seen any evidence Jokela's actions were racially motivated. The report, for reasons that remain unclear, didn't note Jokela's role in writing so many of the citations, a factor that gave a false picture of overall ticket writing. O'Toole, who was sworn in as police chief June 23, has said she wasn't told of Jokela's role when she was briefed on the report before the department delivered it to the council. She said she wasn't provided the information until July 29 - six days after the report's release. The next day, O'Toole publicly disclosed the internal investigation into Jokela's conduct. The Police Department's Office of Professional Accountability, which handles internal investigations, has been looking into the circumstances of the release of the report and why O'Toole wasn't told. Under a new city directive to be disclosed at Monday's briefing, officers will first warn offenders using pot in public, whenever practical, according to the briefing materials. But warnings won't be required. Officers must document warnings in incident reports, according to the materials. Council members also are expected to be presented statistics on 27 tickets issued between July 1 and Sept. 15, of which 59 percent were handed to whites and 30 percent to blacks. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom