SPOKANE, Wash. — A report from the Spokane Police Department is revealing new details behind a Spokane County deputy accused of beating a 62-year-old man to a point where he had to be hospitalized for several days.
The 1,000 plus page report comes less that two months after SPD recommended the prosecutor's office charge the deputy, Clay Hilton, with assaulting the man at Terrace View Park in Spokane in August 2023.
According to the report, investigators tried to get Ring Camera footage from Hilton's house since he lives on the same street as the park where he hit and arrested the 62-year-old man. Investigators said other sergeants know Hilton does "prowl checks" to keep his neighborhood safe.
Hilton told his co-workers he had seen a knife in the car and that the man tried to drive away. Also, messages between Hilton and some of his co-workers from after the arrest included statements such as, "I think he may have learned a lesson" and "Wait for his booking photo."
The investigation also includes a recap of an FBI interview with the 62-year-old man. He said he was in handcuffs for 3-4 hours and that they were "horrifyingly painful," calling it "torture."
He also said he had five broken ribs, needed six stitches in his lip and now has lingering headaches and memory problems.
The medics who checked him out at the park cleared him for transport to the jail. But, once he got there, the jail refused to book him for his injuries.
Another chunk of the report is emails from the Spokane County District Courthouse.
They said the charges Hilton cited for booking didn't make sense and couldn't be entered into the system.
An outside expert looked over all of this and came to the following conclusion,
"He mistakenly believed he could make an arrest, but the municipal code only allowed for a civil infraction. So, any forced used would be excessive."
The Yakima County Prosecutor is ultimately deciding whether or not Spokane County should charge Hilton with assault. They told KREM 2 in a statement, "We are in the very active process of reviewing the extensive discovery provided to our office."
They said they should know more in the next several weeks.
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