In February, a U.S. District Court jury in Tacoma handed Clyde Ray Spencer a $9 million award, a monetary atonement of sorts for the 20 years the former Vancouver police officer spent in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
And now, in a case that’s becoming as much about money as it is justice, lawyers for the defendants — the former Clark County Sheriff’s Office employees whose investigation into sex-abuse claims led to Spencer spending two decades behind bars — are asking that Spencer pay court costs.
Attorneys for former sheriff’s office Detective Sharon Krause and Sgt. Mike Davidson filed a motion earlier this month asking that Spencer pay more than $37,000. The post-trial motion came less than a month after the judge in the case vacated the jury’s decision, thereby nullifying the $9-million award to Spencer.
In response to the motion, Spencer, 66, said in a court filing Monday that he is of limited means, given that he spent two decades in prison and that he and his wife, who’s 70, are both unemployed and live primarily off Social Security payments and an individual retirement account, or IRA. Adding to their financial hardship, their apartment was robbed in February, shortly after the jury verdict, resulting in the loss of $30,000.
Spencer, who now lives in Southern California, said he believes his third-story apartment was targeted following news of the jury award. Burglars punched through the deadlock of his door, ransacked the home and made off with three safes full of money, 10 firearms, ammunition and jewelry.
He called the motion requesting he pay court costs a stall tactic, and one he can’t afford.
“I was pretty shocked considering what has transpired here,” he said. “My gut feeling is, this is a tactic, knowing both me and my wife are unemployed. … This is a way to intimidate me.”
Attorneys for Krause and Davidson were not available for comment Wednesday.
In February, the District Court jury found that Spencer’s constitutional rights were violated when he was wrongly convicted in 1984 of molesting his two children and stepchild, and that Davidson was liable in his supervisory capacity for Krause’s actions as the lead detective on the case.
Spencer had long argued that Davidson and Krause withheld exculpatory evidence during the 1984 trial, including medical exams showing two of the three alleged victims had not been sexually abused. Davidson also had an affair with Spencer’s then-wife, though Davidson said the relationship didn’t begin until Spencer was in prison.
Spencer’s children also have said he never molested them, and he was released from prison in 2004 after his sentence was commuted by former Gov. Gary Locke. His stepson, however, has never recanted his claims against Spencer.
While the judge threw out the jury’s award, Spencer’s lawyer, Illinois-based Kathleen Zellner, filed an appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and plans to continue seeking remuneration.
She called the motion seeking court costs from Spencer “ill-advised,” but said she didn’t expect it to have an effect on the appeal.
Who’s going to pay Spencer, if the jury’s decision stands after appeal, is also in dispute. Clark County commissioners in March voted not to pay the jury award.
County attorneys have argued that if Davidson and Krause withheld evidence that would have cleared Spencer, they did so independent of their official duties with the county.
The county, however, covered Krause and Davidson’s attorneys’ fees during the initial trial and will continue to do so during the appeal.
An agreement with Krause and Davidson’s attorneys calls for the county to cover attorney’s fees. It also grants the county the ability to determine, post-trial, whether it’s obliged to indemnify the two, said Chris Horne, the county’s chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney.
“We believe we’re in the same position as when this trial began,” he said.
The county has covered settlements associated with wrongful imprisonment cases in the not-so-distant past. Just last year, the county paid $5.25 million apiece to two men who spent 17 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of rape.
The county took out a loan to pay the settlement after its insurance claim was rejected because the county didn’t have insurance in 1993, when the men were convicted. The county was later booted from its pooled insurance provider and is currently self-insured.
For now, Spencer said his position is the same as the county’s: He’s not paying without a judge’s order.
“If it were to come to my having to pay (the costs),” he said, “that would have to come after the Ninth Circuit decision.”
