Fired Tacoma cops accused of telling woman to beat 9-year-old plead not guilty to assault
Two fired Tacoma police officers pleaded not guilty Friday to charges they told a Tacoma woman to beat her 9-year-old grandson with a belt.
Damion Birge and Jesse Jahner are both charged with third-degree child assault, coercion and official misconduct in Pierce County Superior Court.
Court Commissioner Sabrina Ahrens allowed both men to remain out of custody on their own recognizance.
Birge is 42 and was with the department for about 12 years. Jahner is 34 and was with the department for about nine.
They were fired in October, following a separate internal investigation, The News Tribune has reported.
“We have a lot we’d like to tell, but now is not the time,” attorney J.C. Becker, who represents Birge, told The News Tribune by phone after the arraignment. “Our side, which is much different, will be presented in court.”
Attorney Dave Allen, who represents Jahner, told media outside court that Jahner had been following department procedure regarding advising parents about corporal punishment.
“I feel very, very confident that, with a jury, we’re going to be able to establish that Jesse is not only innocent but also should have never been charged,” Allen said. “He’s a hard-working, dedicated officer, and he’s very anxious to get back to work and do the job.”
According to the charging papers:
Birge and Jahner responded to a 911 call about the boy June 5, 2017.
The child suffers from psychological and emotional disorders, and Catholic Community Services workers were watching him that day while the grandmother ran a quick errand.
He locked the workers out of the house when his grandmother left. Then he started screaming, did not listen to the workers, broke windows and dishes and armed himself with a knife.
That’s when a social worker called 911.
The grandmother had returned and was sitting with the boy when Birge and Jahner arrived.
They yelled at the grandmother to get a belt and said police wouldn’t respond to the home anymore if she refused, the charging papers show.
Birge told the grandmother to “beat the demons” out of the child, and Jahner held the 9-year-old down for her to do so, the paper state.
Then the grandmother struck the child about 20 times. He was taken to a hospital afterward, where a social worker noticed bruises on his body.
Attorney Allen argued prosecutors should have acted sooner in making their charging decision. Jahner, he said, “wants to get this thing decided one way or the other so he can move on with his life.”
Pierce County prosecutors asked Thurston County to handle the case to avoid a possible conflict of interest.
Thurston County said a charging decision was delayed for bureaucratic reasons, such as employee turnover, The News Tribune reported last month.
Charges were filed Jan. 22.
This story was originally published February 1, 2019 at 1:31 PM.
