The Spokane County sheriff’s office is recommending a Spokane city police officer be charged with three counts of fourth-degree assault, or domestic violence.
The case involves Officer John Scott, who was arrested late one night in July after deputies came to his house on a domestic violence call. Scott was placed on paid administrative leave while the case was investigated. The next day the prosecutor’s office declined to press charges because it said there wasn’t enough evidence that Scott had committed a crime.
During a press conference today (Tuesday) Police Chief Craig Meidl said the police department’s internal affairs unit initiated a review of the case.
“During the course of the IA investigation, our investigators uncovered additional allegations surrounding domestic violence incidents," Meidl read from a statement. "We suspended the internal investigation immediately and contacted the sheriff’s office with that new information that we’d received.”
On Monday, the detective investigating the case recommended the original fourth-degree assault charge be reinstated along with three additional counts tied to allegations of domestic violence. Two are fourth-degree assault charges, one tied to an incident from August 2016, the other from last April. The detective is also recommending an unlawful imprisonment charge tied to the latter case.
Meidl says, if charges are filed, Scott will be placed on unpaid administrative leave.
Scott has been a Spokane police officer for about 4 1/2 years.