Defense paints former Spokane sheriff's sergeant charged with assault as victim of a 'woke era'

The defense of former Spokane County Sheriff's Office sergeant Clay Hilton, charged with assaulting a then-62-year-old man during an arrest, believes that the case against him is a result of a "woke era" that would rather prosecute a member of law enforcement than the person he arrested.

With his back turned to former and current sheriff's office employees in the audience, Hilton faced his first day of trial Monday in the push to convict him of the second-degree assault of the man he arrested at a Spokane Valley park on Aug. 14, 2023.

Kevin Hinton parked his car at a parking lot outside a gate at Terrace View Park that night after a 10-hour drive from Oregon to visit family. He was headed to Colfax, but said he was tired and wanted a place to sleep.

Hilton, who lived across from the park at the time, approached Hinton's car. He shined his flashlight in the window, telling Hinton it was a crime to be in the park after hours, body camera footage shows. Hinton told him at most, it was a civil infraction and offered to leave. Hilton then interjected and told Hinton that he's not free to leave. Hilton asked for Hinton's identification, he refused, and later responded he didn't have it.

After a brief argument about identification and infractions, Hilton then yanked Hinton out of his car by his legs and hit him multiple times while ripping his shirt, knocking out his false teeth and mocking him after his arrest. The interaction left Hinton with eight broken ribs, a bloody face, a punctured lung, severe concussion, shoulder injury and a disfigured lip, The Spokesman-Review previously reported.

"All he had to do was say his name," said Hilton's defense attorney, Bryan Hershman, during trial Monday. "The jury is gonna be upset. Not at my client, but that a seasoned officer has to engage people in response to defiant and criminal conduct ... In the 'woke' era in which we live, a criminal goes free, and my defendant is on trial."

Hershman claimed Hilton's actions during the arrest were a result of self-defense because of two pocket knives sitting in the car, and that Hilton was angry because he felt the need to use force that night.

"It was lawful, but it's awful," he said. "Use of force issues always look awful."

The only "victim" in the case was his client, Hershman said as he pointed to the defense table.

That isn't what matters at the center of the case, argued Yakima County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brown, whose office is handling the case because of a conflict of interest locally. What matters, he told the jury, is whether Hilton's actions were reasonable and necessary. Officers who use force are judged under a "reasonableness standard," which determines whether the force was reasonable based on the immediate threat and totality of the circumstances.

Under Washington law, officers can only use "necessary" force when a "reasonable effective alternative" does not exist. Brown played the body camera footage of the arrest in full - it showed Hinton refusing commands, putting his hands up, falling back into his car, the entirety of the physical altercation, and then Hinton on the ground, crying with a bloodied face. Brown argued Hilton made no effort to de-escalate the interaction and his commands were inconsistent by telling Hinton to get on the ground as he was already on the ground.

"Why did you hit me?" Hinton asked between sobs.

Hilton responded: "Because you weren't listening."

Brown told the jury they must decide whether the altercation was reasonable or necessary.

"And that was neither reasonable, nor necessary," he added.

The courtroom was nearly full Monday, with some of Hilton's family present, a few federal attorneys sitting to take notes and a group of law enforcement in plainclothes that included Spokane County Sheriff's Office Lt. Andrew Buell and retired Lt. Khris Thompson.

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels fired Hilton last year for his conduct, though that hasn't been brought up in trial. Nowels also disciplined other officers who responded to the incident at Terrace View Park after an internal investigation showed some members of the sheriff's office, including supervisors, failed to meet the department's standards of conduct during and after the incident. Hinton testified in trial that responding deputies stood around and laughed at him as he sat on the ground.

Hilton was also federally indicted for deprivation of rights under color of law and falsification of records in a federal investigation nearly two years after the fact. The indictment says Hilton punched and kneed Hinton in the head and torso, thus depriving Hinton of his constitutional rights, including the right to be free from an "unreasonable seizure" and "unreasonable force" by a deputy.

It also states the day after the alleged assault that Hilton falsified a sheriff's office field case report relating to his use of force against Hinton by stating, "I could see a folding knife in his driver's door pocket and fixed blade knife between his seat and the driver's side." Photos of that knife were shown in court Monday depicting a small black folding knife in the pocket of the driver's side door. The other, Hinton testified was below his seat and he would not have been able to reach it.

"I want you to make your own determination if the defendant really saw the knives at the time he was interacting with Kevin, or did he later put those in his report to justify what happened here?" Brown said.

During Hinton's testimony, Hershman delivered a tense set of questions. He was asking Hinton about his multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the sheriff's office and the motive behind it, to which Hinton answered, "justice." Hershman pushed Hinton further, asking if he was telling the officer the law or being antagonistic, to which Hinton responded, "If someone had asked for my identification and I had done nothing wrong, I would do the same thing (again)."

Hershman also said it appeared Hinton was side-eying Hilton or "challenging" him to arrest him. Hershman then broke down the video frame-by-frame and pointed out Hinton's movements when he agreed for Hilton to arrest him, then told Hilton not to touch him; when Hinton said he fell back into his car, but then said he was pushed; or told investigators in an interview that he was unconscious and Hershman said it was inconsistent with other statements he had made.

He pushed Hinton further, saying, "You were letting him know who's in charge" and "You're letting him know who is who, aren't ya?"

Hinton maintained he believed being at the park after dark was not a crime. A Spokane police investigation showed it was at most a civil infraction, according to previous reporting from The Spokesman-Review. Spokane police Sgt. Zachary Storment, who was asked by the sheriff's office to investigate Hilton, said on the stand Monday that there would have to be an underlying traffic violation for an officer to take further action in that type of situation. Storment agreed Hinton was "hindering and delaying" Hilton's job, but "I would not be able to arrest for obstructing."

Hinton testified Monday he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the incident. He said he responded erratically because he felt like he "was being attacked" and was "bewildered" by the escalation of Hilton's actions. Brown said the former sergeant later joked to a dispatcher about the arrest and said, "Wait for the booking photo."

"Why did this happen?" Brown asked the jury Monday. "It happened because the defendant got upset, he lost his cool. He was under the impression that Kevin had not respected his authority. So he got mad. That's exactly how we got here."

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