Decision in jail death not ready

Whether criminal charges will be filed in the beating death of Spokane County Jail inmate Benites S. Sichiro should be known within two weeks, officials said Thursday.

Spokane County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll, who is reviewing the case, declined to say if he’s leaning one way or the other. He said once he’s done, he’ll forward his recommendation to Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker, who did not return calls seeking comment.

But while the prosecutor’s review is still under way, Spokane police already have concluded that at least one of the jailers involved in the fatal Jan. 29 confrontation, Corrections Deputy John Elam, broke no laws.

The Police Department hired Elam three weeks after Sichiro’s death.

“A specific in-depth investigation was done after Elam told us about the jail incident … and investigators found no reason not to hire Elam,” Spokane Police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee said.

Elam was the corrections officer who reportedly used his foot to push Sichiro under a bunk when deputies attempted to get out of Sichiro’s jail cell. The action, referred to as a “donkey kick,” wasn’t reported until three days after the inmate’s death, but it was described in the 300-page investigative report of the inmate’s death made public this week.

Sichiro, 39, was booked into Spokane County Jail on Jan. 27. He fought with corrections officers in three different incidents on Jan. 29, and they struck him with their knees and fists and jolted him with Tasers.

Officials said the inmate resisted corrections officers’ commands repeatedly and was combative when they tried to move him to a cell closer to a jail nurse to be observed for health reasons, according to the reports. Sichiro was reportedly suffering from alcohol withdrawal and was delusional.

Sichiro died on Jan. 29 from a lacerated liver caused by blunt-force trauma to the torso that likely occurred sometime during his altercations with corrections deputies, an autopsy later indicated.

The FBI is also looking into Sichiro’s death, but spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs said she couldn’t comment.

Eight jailers were involved in the incident. With the exception of Elam, all have returned to county duty.

Elam, 28, was sworn in by the Spokane Police Department on Feb. 17. He is in training at the police academy until June 27, Lee said. Then he will be in field training under direct supervision for four additional months.

“We have every confidence that he will be a good police officer,” said Deputy Chief Al Odenthal. “We don’t anticipate he will be charged.”

Sichiro, who moved to the U.S. from the Marianas Islands in Micronesia about 10 years ago, was under investigation for the rape of a 12-year-old girl.

According to investigative reports, the girl first encountered Sichiro on Jan. 26.

The girl had been home alone and decided to take a bus downtown to pick up job applications and went to an area near Deaconess Hospital to fill them out, according to her statement to police. She asked Sichiro for a pen and sat down by him and a boy, described as 14 to 15 years old.

The girl told police Sichiro grabbed onto her wrist, and the boy punched Sichiro in the eye. “That is how Sichiro received the black eye” that shows up in jail booking photos, the report said.

She told police she was sitting on a bench between the two males and asked Sichiro for a drink from his cup. Then she passed out.

The report says that the next time the girl woke up, she was in Sichiro’s nephew’s garage under a blanket. At one point, Sichiro threatened her with a knife.

Statements regarding any sexual acts are blacked out in the police reports.

According to Sichiro’s statement, the girl told him she wanted to drink beer and willingly went with him to his nephew’s house. The girl told Sichiro she was 18, the report said.

Sichiro’s family members described the girl as big, tall and looking as if she were in her 20s.

The girl called her mother when she and Sichiro eventually went to a gas station to get beer and cigarettes. Her mother then phoned police.

Sichiro was fleeing the gas station when police arrived and immediately began apologizing to officers after being stopped, the report states. Sichiro told them the girl had been his girlfriend “for a couple days,” it states.

According to the police reports, determining whether a rape had occurred on Jan. 26 would have required further investigation. Since Sichiro had three outstanding misdemeanor warrants, he was arrested and booked at Spokane County Jail.