Rantz: King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s house of lies is crumbling

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg isn’t having a good week. It’s only Tuesday.

Last week, I reported a policy Satterberg’s office follows that says they will not file charges against a suspect who injures an officer, if the assault occurs when the suspect resists arrest. His office, via email, twice detailed the policy. I discovered this policy when reviewing a recent case where a King County deputy was intentionally kicked in the groin by a suspect and Satterberg chose not to prosecute for felony assault.

Embarrassed by the negative press, Satterberg’s office put out a media statement, sent to select outlets (though not to me), that included three major lies. I’d usually say they were errors but, given his office’s conduct, they seem intentional.

Now, he’s walking one of the lies back.

RELATED: Cops accuse King Co. prosecutors of declining cases
RELATED: Satterberg says “it’s not true” we don’t prosecute property crimes

The original, from his communications director Whitney Keyes, claimed: “In the past 18 months we have filed 367 felony assault 3 cases where officers are the victims, 85% of the cases referred to us.”

Law enforcement officers I spoke with didn’t know where this stat came from and it remains unclear if it’s felony assault cases as a result of resisting arrest, which is what my story was about. Well, they’re now changing the statistic.

Satterberg’s office put out a correction – this time they sent it to me – that dramatically changes the data:

From January 1, 2016, to August 1, 2018, we have filed 367 cases involving a named police officer as a victim. These cases include felony assault, felony harassment and some misdemeanor charges. In addition, since 2015, our office has filed 498 cases related to referrals involving assaults committed against police officers.

So, in other words, the data they used to show they prosecute suspects that assault cops, was wrong. It went from 18 months to 32 months, and it went from felony assault cases to felonies, misdemeanors, and harassment. They overstated the data.

But, questions still remain. How many of the felony cases are related to assaults while a suspect resisted arrest? That’s the only assault topic I raised in my piece. And what’s the break down, of the 367, of assaults, harassment, and misdemeanor charges? That’s very relevant. I haven’t received an answer yet. Indeed, none of my emails have been returned, but I did get one phone call, while I was on the air discussing the office’s dishonesty, telling me they sent me the correction. Gee thanks.

This isn’t enough.

They still have corrections to make: they claimed I suggested that charging policies had been changed. I did not, though that didn’t stop him from making that claim to KIRO 7 TV while reporter DeeDee Sun was investigating more of his inaction.

They claimed there was no evidence suggesting the deputy assault was intentional. But their own office told me it was intentional and, now, Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht has twice confirmed my story and the claim of intention from the suspect.

I don’t like it when people lie to smear me and save face to a public that’s had enough of this lawlessness and light sentencing. Satterberg’s original lie made it onto a KING 5 puff piece which made me look bad. I didn’t deserve that.

You can certainly disagree with analysis, when I provide it, but you don’t get to attack me for printing facts your office provided me. And you certainly don’t get to run away, ignore me when I ask questions, hoping this will just go away. I’m not going to allow that. I’m definitely not going to let you attack me to deflect from your filing standards. LEOs deserve way better than that.

Satterberg has an open invitation to come on my show to discuss this. Any day. Any hour. Any segment. Or his office can simply return my emails and phone calls seeking comment. He can do what’s right and fully correct the record. Or, I suppose, he can keep attacking me on Twitter and ignoring our requests for comments. That’s OK: it’s why we have public disclosure requests.

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3-6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz