SPOG contract spares cops punishment for chaotic arrest

Though OPA found officers endangered bystanders by dousing a fleeing driver in pepper spray, the 180-day deadline expired before it got the complaint.

Thanks to deadlines in the police guild contract, two Seattle police officers escaped discipline for violating de-escalation policies and pepper-spraying a fleeing driver, who subsequently crashed into two parked cars during a stop last year. The Force Review Board submitted the complaint to the Office of Police Accountability a month after the investigation deadline had passed, according to a disciplinary report released earlier this month.

Last July, officers Joshua Loberg and Eric Rusher responded in a two-person vehicle to a homeowner's call about two men sleeping in a running car in front of his house. After running the plates, they tentatively identified it as a stolen car.

SPD trains officers to treat these situations as high-risk vehicle stops. This means waiting for additional officers and contacting the suspect over the PA from shielding with their guns drawn.

Instead, Loberg and Rusher advanced to the car on foot, with Loberg carrying pepper spray and Rusher a 40-millimeter launcher. They reasoned it was better to take the suspects by surprise before they could drive off, according to their use of force statements and OPA interviews.

Bodycams record Rusher, the senior officer of the two, telling Loberg that the car’s windows were open and to “start flooding it with fucking pepper spray” if it tried to ram the backing officers’ cruiser parked in front of it.

Rusher parked his police cruiser behind the vehicle, and the two officers approached from the driver’s side. The two backing officers went around the passenger side. They woke the driver and passenger up and ordered them out.

After initially raising his hands, the driver suddenly grabbed the wheel and shifted the car into drive. Loberg tried to grab the man’s arm, but the driver accelerated into the backing officer’s vehicle. Rusher pointed the 40-millimeter at the man’s head and yelled to Loberg, “Spray the gas in there! Spray it!”

Loberg sprayed into the driver-side window for about two seconds. The driver pulled up onto the curb, striking a no parking sign while the passenger attempted to run but tripped and fell. Loberg and a backing officer arrested him.

The driver entered the roadway, struck two parked cars and tried to flee on foot. Rusher shot him with a 40-millimeter foam round and arrested him when he fell.

The OPA agreed with the Force Review Board’s finding that Loberg and Rusher violated SPD policy and training. Rather than initiating a high-risk vehicle stop as they were trained, they “abandoned distance and shielding,” two core components of de-escalation, creating “significant dangers” and making further communication “unfeasible," the OPA wrote.

SPD policy forbids officers from using pepper spray against subjects in vehicles unless there is an imminent risk of bodily harm. While OPA argued that the risk was present, pepper-spraying him in the face while he was determined to flee only “heightened” the danger he posed to officers and pedestrians.

The OPA would’ve sustained most allegations against the officers, but according to the Seattle Police Officers Guild agreement, the clock on the 180-day investigation deadline starts 14 days after the case was forwarded to the officers’ chain of command.

An administrative note points out that Loberg and Rusher’s sergeant submitted the incident for review to the East Precinct chain of command on July 26, 2023, so the 180-day deadline ended on Feb. 5, 2024, a month before the Force Review Board filed its complaint to the OPA.

The chain of command, consisting of Watch Lieutenant Daniel Curtis and Captain Jung Trinh, found no issues with Loberg and Rusher’s tactics or decision-making. By the time the Force Review Board discovered the misconduct and forwarded it to the OPA, it was too late.

According to OPA data, only 10 cases have not been sustained due to deadlines in the SPOG contract in the past 10 years. Half of those cases occurred in the last two years during the tenure of OPA Director Gino Betts.

Most recently, sexual assault unit detective Anthony Belgarde escaped discipline for a DUI arrest after an all-day drinking binge. He refused field sobriety tests, breathalyzer and a mandatory blood draw, which is supposed to be an automatic license revocation.

He reported the 2020 arrest to his supervisor and was placed on administrative leave, but OPA never opened an investigation, though the previous director, Andrew Myerberg, was notified.

Hired in 2019, Joshua Loberg made $136,010 in 2023. Eric Rusher, hired in 2016, made $207,580 last year.