I'll be tracking the trial again today with minute-by-minute updates on Twitter. Another defense expert, Dr. Dan Davis, is testifying now. Check it out here.

Here's a summary from yesterday:

YAKIMA – After nearly two weeks of critical prosecution testimony, defense attorneys for Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. opened their case Monday with a medical doctor who told jurors Otto Zehm’s head injuries “couldn’t have” come from a police baton.

The conclusion of Dr. James Nania, a longtime emergency room physician at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane, contradicts testimony of Spokane County Medical Examiner Dr. Sally Aiken and another medical expert called by federal prosecutors last week, both of whom said bleeding under Zehm’s scalp was consistent with baton strikes.

“They couldn’t have been,” Nania said. “You can’t do that kind of injury … without smashing the scalp.”

Read the rest of Tom Clouse's story here.

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