Relevant calendar date:
- June 20 – trial in Pierce County Superior Court Dept. 5, Hon. Shelly K. Speir-Moss (motions to extend the trial date to reopen discovery and amend the complaint are pending but have not been scheduled for hearing by the court).
Summary:
Puyallup Tribal member Jackie Salyers was shot to death by the Tacoma Police while they were executing an arrest warrant for her boyfriend in 2016. The autopsy proved that Jackie was pregnant.
There was no bystander cell phone video or security video, and the Tacoma Police were not using body cams. They had been searching for Jackie’s husband and had installed a day/night “police pole cam” focused precisely on the very scene where Jackie was shot and killed, but it mysteriously failed to preserve a video record of the shooting. A judge ruled that the loss of the police video was not intentional destruction of evidence.
The police have testified they opened fire because the car Jackie was driving with her boyfriend was being driven directly at the two officers. The shots that killed her came from outside the car on the passenger’s side; none of the bullet trajectories were from the front of the car.
Officer Campbell was standing on the passenger side of the car and Officer Joseph was standing on the driver side. Officer Campbell has consistently testified that he intentionally shot Jackie and killed her.
Officer Joseph claims that he never fired his gun, and that all the shots were fired by Officer Campbell. There is now physical evidence that contradicts this claim. One of Officer Joseph’s bullets was missing. This has not been denied or explained. Jackie’s death was investigated by Tacoma Police Department homicide detectives but they never investigated the missing bullet, never took Officer Joseph’s gun into evidence to see whether it had been fired, and never performed gun residue testing on Officer Joseph’s hands. The first part of their interrogation of Officer Joseph was “off the record.”
Officer Joseph testified under oath that he had no significant disciplinary history with the Tacoma Police Department. The investigator hired by the family’s attorney has now discovered that Officer Joseph was arrested by the Tacoma Police in 2009 and held in jail after he was accused of holding his service pistol to his wife’s head while threatening to kill her. He also was accused of threatening to kill his former partner and threatening to kill himself. The Pierce County Prosecutor later moved to dismiss the felony charges against Officer Joseph and filed a misdemeanor that was later quietly dismissed. The Prosecutor’s Office signed off on a court order expunging Officer Joseph’s arrest record in 2013. See the linked PDF copy of the Motion to Amend Case Schedule and Reopen Discovery at pages 2 – 12.
Documents: (click on links for PDF copies)
- CBS – 48 Hours – Tacoma Police Chief David Brame (September 25, 2003)
- Petition for order of protection against Officer Joseph (August 11, 2009)
- Statement on arrest of Officer Joseph (filed August 14, 2009)
- Prosecutor dismissed felony charges against Officer Joseph (May 12, 2010)
- Order expunging Officer Joseph’s arrest record (May 17, 2013)
- Prosecutor Lindquist admits wrongdoing in homicide case (TNT, November 28, 2018)
- Harmening Investigation – supplemental report (May 10, 2023)
- Motions for statutory disqualification or recusal (May 10, 2023)
- Lobsenz declaration – Motion to amend complaint (May 17, 2023)
- Motion to amend complaint (May 17, 2023)
- Motion to reopen discovery and amend trial schedule (May 17, 2023)
- Mandamus Petition – Washington Supreme Court (May 23, 2023)
- Lobsenz Declaration – Washington Supreme Court (May 24, 2023)
- Emergency Motion for stay – Washington Supreme Court (May 25, 2023)
- Motion to recuse all Pierce County Judges (May 30, 2023)
Note:
The Pierce County Superior Court has failed to schedule a hearing on the family’s motion to reopen discovery. The case went through 5 different Pierce County judges in May and is now on its 8th judge. Most police officers are doing great work to protect the public with courage and integrity every single day. The public must have the utmost trust and confidence in their police, and that is what this case is all about.
