A broken jaw left one man with a different perspective on police after last year's protests in Spokane, while the majority of those arrested had charges dropped

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Emma Epperly, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
·5 min read
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May 29—Most days, on the way to his job at Pistole Boardshop, Jordan Graham passes the spot where a rubber bullet struck him in the face and broke his jaw.

Graham, 28, had his jaw wired shut for six weeks following the May 31 protests over George Floyd's death. He lost 30 pounds, making his small, typically 160-pound frame skeletal.

"My humor is, like, weird," Graham said of reliving the experience daily. "It doesn't get me like stressed or PTSD or anything like that; it is what it is."

The amateur skateboarder had headed downtown that night to help protect Pistole, the skate shop that sponsors him to compete at events up and down the West Coast. If the store had been vandalized or looted, the locally owned business may not have been able to sponsor as many athletes, Graham said.

Hoping to deter damage, Graham and some friends went to see what was going on.

Officers told Graham and his friends who were on skateboards to leave, so they started backing up and out of the area near the Bank of America building.

"They've acknowledged that we're leaving," Graham said. "Then, like, last minute, we're, like, all the way up the block and then some dude decided to pull the trigger."

He was hit with the rubber bullet on the upper portion of his mouth, breaking his jaw.

"I just thought it was, like, so ironic that they shot the one Black person in the whole area, and that's what this whole thing is about," Graham said. "I'm not going to go out of my way to say it was, like, a collective consensus, but I definitely think that whoever did pop it off probably had some bias."

At the hospital after he was shot, police did a "textbook good cop, bad cop" routine on him, insinuating it was his fault he got shot, Graham said.

Now a year later, Graham has gained back the weight he lost, but not his trust in police.

Being biracial, Graham had experienced racism in typical ways like comments from friends' parents, he explained, but never from an authority figure.

"It impacts my mentality, because I've had a pretty decent time with police in situations where I got pulled over and stuff," Graham said. "It's definitely dissolved the respect and relationship I had with police."

While he was downtown that night, Graham said the most aggressive thing he saw done to police, who were in full riot gear, was protestors throwing water bottles at them.

He questioned why officers couldn't handle the situation without being violent.

According to police, they targeted protesters who were being violent toward them and arrested many of them.

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But the majority of people police arrested in connection to the May 31 demonstration, described by police as a riot, had their charges dropped. While every arrest is nuanced, according to Police Chief Craig Meidl, it is disappointing so many people didn't face consequences for what happened that night.

Meidl called the unlawful assembly, declared after protesters looted the downtown Nike store, an "overwhelming tense situation" and blamed the escalation from the earlier peaceful protest on people using the event "as cover to engage in predatory behavior."

There were 23 people arrested in connection to the May 31 protest in Spokane. The majority of those people were charged with misdemeanors like disorderly conduct or malicious mischief in Spokane Municipal Court. Only a handful of those arrested had prior criminal records, and a few more had minor traffic citations on their records.

Thirteen people's charges were dismissed, according to court records. Three people's charges were dismissed with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be brought back into court. Court records do not show any charges filed for one of the people the Spokane Police Department said they arrested.

"It weakens the legitimacy of law enforcement when we're trying to keep downtown safe," Meidl said, of the charges being dismissed. "It sends a message that you're not going to be prosecuted."

Four other people had a stipulated order of continuance put in place, stating if they had no new law violations, the charges would be dropped.

Rosemariaeh, aka Corrine Brown, 19 at the time, was charged with failure to disperse. She didn't show up to court and now has a warrant out for her arrest.

Zaxch Hasbrouck, 55 at the time, was charged with second-degree malicious mischief. He also has a warrant out for his arrest after not showing up for court.

Gene Gallagher, 33 at the time, was charged with possession of an incendiary device and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail toward police. His trial is currently set for July 19.

Miles Crane, 19 at the time, was accused of damaging a deputy's patrol vehicle. He was charged with malicious mischief in Spokane County Superior Court and is currently in a diversion program, according to court records.

Steven Tharaldson, 40 at the time, was charged with arson and commercial burglary, and those charges had an "uncontested resolution" at the end of June.

Nathan Thomason, 36 at the time, was charged with disorderly conduct and obstructing a police officer. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and the obstruction charge was dismissed with prejudice. He has multiple vehicle-related prior citations and one conviction for a violent offense.

Thomason is the only person so far found guilty of a crime related to the protest.

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