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Thread: Christopher Monfort Sentenced to LWOP in 2009 WA Slaying of Police Officer Timothy Brenton

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    Christopher Monfort Sentenced to LWOP in 2009 WA Slaying of Police Officer Timothy Brenton


    Police Officer Tim Brenton




    November 9, 2009

    Prosecutors to announce charges in Halloween shooting death of Seattle police officer

    SEATTLE (AP) - The man accused in the Halloween-night shooting death of a Seattle policeman remains hospitalized, and authorities were expected to talk more Monday about why they believe the suspect is a domestic terrorist who held a grudge against law enforcement.

    Prosecutors plan to discuss formal charges against 41-year-old Christopher Monfort at a news conference later Monday, police spokesman Mark Jamieson said. King County prosecutors were preparing a potential death penalty charge, The Seattle Times reported.

    Police also believe Monfort played a role in the Oct. 22 firebombings of four police vehicles.

    Monfort was shot by detectives in the parking lot of his suburban Tukwila apartment complex on Friday. The detectives were pursuing a tip that a car at the complex matched the description of a vehicle seen nearby when officer Timothy Brenton was killed.

    Authorities say the detectives opened fire after Monfort pulled a handgun.

    Investigators found improvised explosive devices and two rifles at Monfort's home, Seattle Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said. No evidence has been found suggesting Monfort worked with others, Pugel said.

    Brenton was sitting in a car Oct. 31 with rookie Officer Britt Sweeney following a traffic stop when shots were fired. Sweeney was grazed in the neck.

    The shooting between detectives and Monfort on Friday happened as a memorial service for Brenton was finishing at Seattle's KeyArena.

    Monfort arrived at a Seattle hospital in critical condition with "multiple injuries" and underwent hours of surgery Friday night. He remained in serious condition Sunday.

    http://www.startribune.com/nation/69554232.html

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    Accused Cop Killer Christopher Monfort Facing Death Penalty, Waged 'War' Against Police, says Prosecutor

    Accused cop shooter Christopher Monfort, 41, now faces the possibility of the death penalty for planning and executing "his own personal war" against the Seattle Police Department and killing one of its officers, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced today.

    Monfort was charged with aggravated first degree murder for the Halloween slaying of Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton and had "planned to kill as many officers as he could," said Satterberg. Monfort, if convicted, could face either life in prison or the death penalty; Satterberg did not say which sentence his office would pursue.

    At a news conference, Satterberg alleged Monfort had planned the murder of other officers. He accused the suspect of breaking into a city maintenance yard on Oct. 22, setting police cars on fires, and leaving behind homemade bombs that were set to explode after the arrival of police and fire crews - but failed to detonate.

    He left a note at the scene stating "these deaths were the result of his anger," Satterberg said, and that police should prepare for more funerals. Nine days later, on Halloween, he waited and watched Brenton and officer trainee Brett Sweeney complete a south Seattle traffic stop, then drove up and opened fire with a high-powered rifle.

    After killing Brenton and wounding Sweeney, he reversed his car and left, dropping an American flag bandanna out the window, similar to a calling card he left at the maintenance yard scene.

    Monfort, said Satterberg, was "preparing to make a final armed stand" when police showed up to arrest him at his apartment, where he had bombs and a bunker made of car tires. In a gunfight, in which an officer escaped death, said Satterberg, Monfort was shot in the face; he is now recovering.

    Satterberg also charged Monfort with three counts of attempted first-degree murder for wounding Sweeney, pointing a handgun at a Seattle police sergeant during his arrest, and for attempting to kill officers in his failed firebombing attempt Oct. 22. He also faces a count of first-degree arson for the fires.

    The reason police officers were targeted, Satterberg said, was "solely because of the badge they were wearing."

    http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2009/11/accused_cop_killer_christopher.php

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    Seattle police killing suspect pleads not guilty

    SEATTLE – Paralyzed by a detective's bullet, a man accused of killing a Seattle police officer on Halloween was wheeled into a courtroom on Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges that could bring the death penalty.

    Christopher Monfort, 41, was handcuffed and shackled despite his condition, and a lawyer entered the pleas on his behalf as Officer Timothy Brenton's widow and fellow officers looked on. Monfort's defense team surrounded him, sometimes holding a clipboard in front of his face to obscure the view of him from the packed courtroom.

    Deputy prosecutor John Castleton summarized most of the five charges against Monfort, but read one verbatim: that of aggravated first-degree murder. Investigators said he drove alongside Brenton's cruiser as it was parked after a traffic stop in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood and opened fire, killing Brenton instantly and grazing the neck of his partner, Brit Sweeney.

    Monfort is also charged with arson and attempted murder for the firebombing of several police vehicles in a maintenance yard on Oct. 22 — the first step in what prosecutors called Monfort's "one-man war" against Seattle police.

    Detectives located the suspect at his Tukwila apartment Nov. 6 after the complex's manager called police with a tip that Monfort owned a vehicle similar to the one investigators were looking for, an early '80s Datsun. When they approached him, detectives said, he ran, aimed a handgun and pulled the trigger — to no avail, because he had neglected to load a bullet into the chamber.

    Police opened fire, paralyzing him from the waist down. Inside his apartment, they found evidence he was preparing for a last stand: several guns and homemade bombs, one with a fuse placed on the heating element of his kitchen stove, and stacks of automobile tires that could provide shelter from a hail of police bullets.

    Ballistics evidence proved one of the guns was used to kill Brenton, and Monfort's DNA was found on one small American flag and an American flag-style bandanna left at the site of the arson and on the ground near Brenton's cruiser.

    Monfort was released from Harborview Medical Center last week. He appeared in King County Superior Court in a wheelchair.

    After the arraignment, Brenton's widow, Lisa, told reporters that she had felt helpless, afraid and confused since the shooting and had planned to avoid media at Monday's arraignment. But after visiting the memorial to the four Lakewood police officers killed Nov. 29, she was overwhelmed with a sense of strength and support.

    "From the family of the one to the families of the four, these deaths are not going to be tolerated," she said, breaking down in tears.

    Sweeney did not speak after the arraignment.

    Monfort's mother, Suzan Monfort, told reporters afterward that the killing was a tragedy for both sides.

    King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg has 30 days from Monfort's arraignment to decide whether to seek the death penalty, but such decisions are typically delayed to give defense attorneys more time to prepare.

    No clear motive has emerged, but Satterberg has said that Monfort left fliers at the arson discussing police brutality.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091215/ap_on_re_us/us_seattle_officer_killed_5

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    Death penalty subject of Monfort court hearing

    A hearing to determine when the King County Prosecutor's Office will announce whether it will seek the death penalty against suspected cop-killer Christopher Monfort is tentatively scheduled for tomorrow morning. It is unclear whether Monfort will attend the hearing.

    Monfort is charged with killing Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton and wounding his partner Britt Sweeney on Halloween night.

    Among the topics to be discussed during the hearing is whether the defense will ask King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg to delay his decision so Monfort's attorneys can have more time to prepare their argument in opposition of the death penalty. Julie Lawry, who is representing Monfort, has said that the defense plans to prepare a mitigation package for Satterberg that will outline reasons why Monfort should not be considered for the death penalty.

    Monfort has been charged with one count of aggravated murder, three counts of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree arson. The arson charge and one of the counts of attempted murder stem from the Oct. 22 firebombing of four Seattle police vehicles at a city maintenance yard.

    Brenton, 39, and Sweeney, 33, were seated in their parked patrol car shortly after 10 p.m. on Oct. 31 when police say that Monfort drove up next to them and opened fire. Brenton was killed immediately, and Sweeney suffered minor injuries.

    On the day of Monfort's arrest, three Seattle homicide detectives confronted him at his Tukwila apartment. Charging documents say he twice aimed a gun at officers before police shot him, court documents said. He is paralyzed from the waist down.

    On Dec. 14, in a courtroom packed with police, families and the media, Monfort made his first appearance before a judge. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/theblotter/2010615932_monfort_case_to_be_heard_in_se.html?syn dication=rss

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    Decision on Monfort death penalty to come by June 15

    SEATTLE - Accused Seattle cop killer Christopher Monfort will know by June 15 whether he will face the death penalty.

    Monfort appeared before a judge this morning in Seattle as his attorneys argued for more time to prepare their case on why the prosecutor should not ask for the death penalty.

    Monfort is accused of the Halloween night shooting of Seattle Officer Timothy Brenton and the wounding of his partner, Officer Britt Sweeney.

    In court, Monfort's attorneys argued the holidays have prevented them from assembling a defense team.

    Prosecutors announced that on June 15, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg will make his decision regarding the death penalty.

    A judge ruled that Monfort's jail medical records and his list of defense experts will be kept private.

    Monfort is charged with aggravated first degree murder in the killing of Officer Brenton and attempted first-degree murder for the shooting of Brenton's rookie partner, Officer Sweeney.

    Monfort is also charged with arson and attempted first-degree murder for a firebombing at a City of Seattle maintenance yard, in which Satterberg said Monfort was planning to kill police.

    He also faces attempted first-degree murder for attempting to shoot an officer who was pursuing him the day he was arrested outside his Tukwila apartment.

    Monfort has pleaded not guilty.

    http://www.king5.com/news/Decisionon-Monfort-death-penalty-to-come-on-June-15-80281352.html

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    Monfort's rantings shake packed King County courtroom

    Christopher Monfort, the man charged with killing Seattle police Officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween night, shocked his attorneys and a courtroom full of spectators Thursday when he lashed out at the former King County sheriff's deputy accused of assaulting a teenage girl in a holding cell in 2008.

    Monfort also railed about what he saw as limitations on freedom and his own condition during a more than five-minute outburst before the start of a hearing in King County Superior Court.

    In his first public comments since his arrest Nov. 6, Monfort compared the former deputy, Paul Schene, and another deputy also present in the holding cell to Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin.

    Monfort said society depends on the police to "protect us from the police as well."

    "If the police are wrong, we depend on the police to cross the blue line of silence and apprehend, detain and file charges against those police who are corrupt," said Monfort in a rambling discourse that took place before the judge entered the courtroom.

    Prosecutors have alleged it was anger at Schene and the holding-cell incident that drove Monfort to kill Brenton and to firebomb four Seattle police vehicles nine days earlier.

    Defense attorney Julie Lawry admonished Monfort, saying "Don't do this," but he ignored her and continued directing his comments to the media and audience.

    Among those in the courtroom were Brenton's widow, Lisa Brenton, and Monfort's mother, Suzan, who sat with her head in her hands.

    Monfort is charged with one count of aggravated murder — and could face the death penalty — as well as three counts of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree arson.

    Along with the fatal shooting of Brenton and the wounding of his partner, Britt Sweeney, Monfort is accused of firebombing four Seattle police vehicles on Oct. 22.

    Prosecutors say Monfort was motivated by anger over Schene, who is accused of beating Malika Calhoun, then 15, in a SeaTac City Hall holding cell after she was arrested for investigation of car theft on Nov. 29, 2008.

    The incident, caught on video and released to the news media, gained widespread attention and led to Schene's firing in September.

    Schene's first trial on fourth-degree assault ended in a mistrial in January, and prosecutors have said they will retry him.

    A note found at the scene of the firebombing specifically mentioned the Schene case. The note writer also focused on rookie sheriff's Deputy Travis Brunner, who was with Schene at the time of the holding-cell incident, according to court documents.

    In addition, a written, out-of-date address that once belonged to Schene was found in Monfort's apartment when Seattle police searched it after Monfort's arrest, according to law-enforcement sources.

    During previous court hearings, Monfort has remained relatively silent, speaking only to his attorneys. He uses a wheelchair after he was paralyzed by a police officer's bullet when he was arrested. He also suffered a bullet wound to the face.

    Monfort, who earned a degree in Law, Societies and Justice from the University of Washington in 2008, talked Thursday about the nation's Founding Fathers, particularly John Adams. He wondered aloud what would have happened if a daughter of one of the them had been beaten in a jail cell.

    "Freedom is not free. I'm speaking with a lisp right now. I've got, the side of my face is paralyzed. I can't walk. I'm dead from the waist down," Monfort said.

    "Freedom is not free. It requires sacrifice. And although all the freedom we have now has been won for us by our Founding Fathers, from time to time we must maintain that.

    "Can anybody here tell me the price of freedom? Anybody? It's death. It's not free."

    During his statement, Monfort also vigorously defended press freedom, saying the media were "as important as the air that we breathe."

    Later in the hearing, Judge Ronald Kessler heard objections from the defense and prosecution over a public-disclosure request from The Seattle Times related to documents in the Monfort case.

    Monfort has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty for the slaying of Brenton.

    Brenton, 39, and his partner, Britt Sweeney, 33, were seated in their parked patrol car shortly after 10 p.m. Oct. 31 when police say Monfort drove up next to the officers and opened fire. Brenton was killed immediately, and Sweeney suffered minor injuries.

    On the day of Monfort's arrest, three Seattle homicide detectives confronted him at his Tukwila apartment. Charging documents say he twice aimed a gun at officers before police shot him, court documents said.

    Lisa Brenton and Suzan Monfort declined to comment after the hearing. Both women appeared shaken and were escorted by friends and legal staff into different elevators.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011323989_monfort12m.html?prmid=obinsite

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    Accused Seattle cop killer Christopher Monfort: loner, obsessed by ideology

    When Christopher Monfort was arrested last November on suspicion of assassinating a Seattle police officer, detectives scoured his background, searching for a telltale record of violence.

    Instead, they found little more than a traffic ticket. He seemed, as one put it, a "ghost."

    Monfort's life, it seems, is one of unfulfilled ambition. Driving trucks, he talked of flying airplanes. Working security, he talked of being a cop. Taking classes at community college, he talked of Harvard Law.

    His four years as a 30-something college student in the Seattle area give the clearest picture of the obsessive political ideology of Monfort, who carried a copy of the Constitution in his breast pocket and saw himself as a modern-day version of a Revolutionary War-era patriot.

    Monfort, 41, now is accused of what prosecutors call a politically driven, violent campaign against the Seattle police that culminated in the Oct. 31 slaying of Officer Timothy Brenton and wounding of Officer Britt Sweeney.

    Against the advice of his attorney, Monfort continues to talk, both in the courtroom and in interviews with The Seattle Times. In the interviews, he evaded questions about the criminal charges but offered to tell his story if he were paid. He was not.

    As he awaits King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg's decision on whether to seek the death penalty, Monfort spends his days in a wheelchair, a bullet still lodged near his spine.

    For Monfort, it was education — first at Highline Community College, then at University of Washington — that influenced his philosophy and views, revealing a man of outsized ambition and social isolation, at war with the world around him.

    "A loner like no other"

    Monfort enrolled at Highline in Des Moines in 2002 at the age of 34, twice as old as some of the students. He went straight from class to his job as a short-haul trucker.

    He drifted through business classes until finding the Administration of Justice program, which pointed to a career in law enforcement. The curriculum was both practical (preserving evidence) and theoretical (preserving the Bill of Rights).

    Monfort "caught fire academically," Highline instructor Garry Wegner said shortly after Monfort's arrest in November. "He always seemed to be a natural leader, and people would gravitate toward him."

    Monfort excelled in school for the first time. His papers had detail and sweep, especially if the subject was the just-launched Iraq war.

    His intensity was palpable. He took over class discussions and challenged instructors about what they taught and how they graded.

    "He knew what he was talking about," said Bryan Stumpf, who taught Monfort in a Writing 101 class. "You could always trust him to be able to speak to things from the perspective of the Constitution. He could cite why the war was unjust and unjustifiable."

    But Monfort's focus also was off-putting. He got into such a heated argument with Stumpf during an after-class meeting that the instructor called campus security. Monfort later apologized, saying he'd had too much coffee.

    In class and at campus forums, he relentlessly campaigned against the war and the Bush administration's expanded anti-terrorism powers. Sometimes his arguments took peculiar side roads.

    "The King of Saudi Arabia, all of his children and relatives, and an entourage of more than 3,000 people have been vacationing on Spain's coast in Del Sol since Aug. 14," he told one audience, saying this cost U.S. taxpayers $185 million.

    Monfort gravitated toward the Black Student Union, where he described the "unique challenges" of being biracial with Kolesta Moore, the group's president.

    "He was a square bear," said Moore, now a successful R&B singer under the stage name Choklate. "He was someone with a lot of social-communication setbacks. He was a loner like no other. I never saw him in jovial situations, in a casual social environment with other people. He was always alone. Always alone."

    Monfort irritated students by insisting the Black Student Union emphasize politics, not parties. "No one really liked Chris," Moore said. "But they didn't dislike him. He was an oddball. He had ideas, but no one was interested in them."

    That made his run for student senate during his second year a surprise. The other candidates papered the campus with fliers and pledged to improve cafeteria food and lower textbooks prices. Monfort simply put his name on the ballot and vowed an end to the war in Iraq. "Too often, too many of us walk around with our head in the clouds. Our freedom is under attack," he said at one debate, according to the Highline student newspaper.

    All of which made the results even more surprising: Monfort won in a landslide.

    Jonathan Brown, a Highline administrator, studied the election's results and saw signs of fraud everywhere.

    The total vote count, 529, was about twice the norm. And the votes — cast at designated computer terminals — were suspiciously clustered, seconds apart, in ascending order by student ID number. It was as if "people [were] lining up by Social Security number," Brown said. "The randomness of that was so unbearably unlikely."

    The disputed votes accounted for more than two-thirds of Monfort's 290 votes. Brown invalidated the results and questioned Monfort, who denied having anything to do with the fraud.

    Monfort told Highline's student newspaper: "I think that the fraudulent votes favored me because I'm the one with the strong platform, and I really want to bring the people from Iraq home. People feel so strongly about what I'm trying to do that they would resort to unethical means to make sure I get in."

    Because the college couldn't prove Monfort's culpability, he stayed in the race for the subsequent election. With anemic turnout, he collected 56 votes — enough to snag one of three seats. Kolesta Moore was elected student body president.

    Once seated, Monfort continued to push an agenda more fitting for the U.S. Senate. To the other senators, all younger, Monfort was demeaning and condescending. "He made younger girls cry," Moore said. "He had a sharp tongue. If he could make you upset, it was really satisfying to him."

    Midway through his term, Monfort was accused of sexually harassing another student. The college, citing student-privacy laws, won't say if he was disciplined.

    Alienated from other student leaders, Monfort began fading away. He ultimately resigned his seat. He graduated in 2004, but left the campus where he started — a loner, stuck in his head.


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    Part 2

    A check mark, erased

    Monfort once told a fellow student he felt family pressure to succeed. Born in 1968, he grew up in Hartford City, Ind., where his grandfather owned the newspaper and served on the local bank's board of directors. Monfort's grandmother was a society columnist; many of his five aunts and uncles became successful. His mother, Suzan, ran a fitness gym in Alaska.

    Monfort's parents split up when he was young, and he said he rarely saw his father, who is black, as a child. "I didn't spend much time with him," he said in an interview from jail. "I wish that were different." He also rarely saw a face like his own. The 1980 census recorded no African Americans in Hartford City, pop. 7,622.

    When Monfort was 11 or so, Dan Fruits, who was dating Suzan Monfort at the time, said he watched Christopher Monfort fill out an application for an after-school activity. When the form asked for race, Monfort checked African American. Then he erased the mark and checked white, Fruits said.

    "That's where he is," Monfort's mother told Fruits.

    Fruits and Suzan Monfort married and moved Christopher Monfort to Bethel, deep in the Alaska bush, where Fruits taught school. Monfort learned to ride motorbikes and snowmobiles.

    To Fruits, his stepson was smart and sometimes funny, but prone to arguments. "It was the sulky teenage behavior, but exaggerated." Monfort tagged along as Fruits, supplementing his teaching job, installed microwave towers on mountaintops and worked on a fishing boat. Fruits admits he was not prepared to be a father.

    "In retrospect, I should have realized what a difficult situation we got into. And I wasn't prepared to be in a difficult situation."

    The couple split up around 1984, and mother and son moved to Denver, where Suzan Monfort had family. Her son enrolled at Thomas Jefferson High, an urban multicultural school with strong academics.

    Tall with an athletic build, he made little impression except as being polite. "He didn't stand out in any way," one former classmate said. Class yearbooks turn up no clubs, honors or sports. His senior picture captures him with a wispy mustache, pinkie ring, crystal pendant and a black-and-blue sweater. Monfort left the space for a favorite quote blank.

    After graduating in 1987, Monfort moved to Southern California, waited tables, considered becoming a police officer and eventually learned to drive trucks. He rented a room in Pasadena. For a year, his landlord saw no visitors.

    Monfort sued the city of Pasadena in 1991 for a motorcycle crash involving a fire truck; he lost but made an impression on his attorney, Michael Danis. "He was responsible — a good person, a fine young man, a kid I'd be proud to say was my stepson or something."

    Monfort settled in Washington in 1999 with a plan to translate his interest in video games into a career as a computer technician. He soon dropped out of computer school and worked for several years setting up conventions and trade expos. When he subsequently landed a degree from Highline, it marked a rare occasion of finishing what he started.

    Law, Societies and Justice

    After graduating, Monfort worked as a security guard at a warehouse along the Duwamish River with Sam Raisio. Monfort continued to rail against the Iraq war.

    "His big thing was, it wasn't fair to people," said Raisio, an Army veteran. "He talked a lot about the fact the Army was made up of people who weren't as well off, and it was injustice."

    Monfort tried socializing, spending $500 on a guitar and amp to jam with colleagues at a trucking firm, where he also worked. But when he showed up and started talking politics, the others told him to shut up and play. He eventually peeled off, unable to keep up with the more talented players.

    In 2006, Monfort was admitted to the UW. He majored in Law, Societies and Justice, boring into the justice system's racial disparities while making the honor roll. He also became a McNair scholar, a prestigious program that encourages minority students to hone their research skills and pursue graduate degrees.

    Monfort was consistently skeptical of government, and his ideology congealed into that of a left-wing constitutionalist. He again challenged his professors and impressed them with well-researched papers. Unlike in the past, he didn't get involved on campus.

    He studied jury nullification, a practice in which jurors take it upon themselves to reset social priorities by returning a verdict they consider just, no matter the judge's instructions on the law. Maybe jurors believe the country's drug laws go too far, or the laws unfairly punish African Americans. Those who embrace jury nullification believe it's OK to account for the defendant's race and acquit.

    Monfort displayed his jury-nullification research, "The Power of Citizenship your Government doesn't want you to know about," at a UW conference.

    Monfort's research cited UW sociology professor Katherine Beckett, who analyzed the Seattle Police Department's drug-enforcement practices using data back to 1999. Her study concluded that while most of Seattle's drug traffic involves whites, blacks are more likely to be arrested because the SPD focused on crack cocaine. Her conclusion: Seattle had one of the highest disparities between the drug-arrest rates of whites and blacks among the nation's mid-sized cities.

    In March of 2008, Monfort earned his bachelor's degree. He was six months shy of 40. For so long, he had toyed with the idea of law school, or graduate school, or maybe getting a doctorate and becoming a history professor.

    Instead, he continued driving trucks until last August, when he was fired for missing a delivery deadline. More than two months later, he was arrested for one of the most shocking attacks on police in the city's history.

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    Part 3

    "Taking things apart"

    On a recent Wednesday evening, Monfort sat in a wheelchair on the seventh floor of the King County Jail. His left hand was handcuffed to the chair. He picked up the telephone receiver with his right and talked to a Seattle Times reporter on the other side of the glass.

    Monfort asked if he could get paid to tell his story, with the money going to his mother. If she got paid, he said, he would "give up the goat" about the charges against him.

    "My motivation is — my body is in decay. My time here may be shorter than others. I'm really motivated by doing something for my mom."

    According to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, Monfort waged a one-man war against the Seattle police last October. He is accused of firebombing an SPD maintenance yard in a failed attempt to kill police, and leaving an American flag stabbed into the roof of a police car. A week later, on Halloween, he targeted two SPD officers in an assassination attempt, according to the prosecutor. Brenton was killed, and Sweeney, his training partner, was wounded.

    When Monfort was arrested Nov. 6, he allegedly put a gun in an officer's face and pulled the trigger. It misfired, and Monfort was shot in the face and stomach. Police found a copy of the Constitution in his pocket.

    Monfort has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which could carry the death penalty. His defense team is preparing a biography, including a mental-health evaluation, to try to persuade Satterberg not to seek capital punishment.

    Monfort, himself, says he has never been depressed, but that he painted and played music if he "got the blues."

    Told that The Seattle Times would not pay, Monfort declined to talk about the charges against him. But he said: "My intentions are the best for the city and the country. The things I'm accused of are selfless acts. I didn't get anything out of them. I'm not accused of robbing banks or stealing."

    Monfort is paralyzed from the waist down. The right side of his face is dead; his right eye droops to a slit. He speaks out of the left side of his mouth, like he's mumbling a secret. He doesn't know the month. He forgets some words. "Of course, I've got some brain damage," he says. "I'm in constant pain." He says he takes anti-seizure medications, but few painkillers.

    In the prosecution's theory of the case, Monfort retaliated for a recent case of alleged police brutality. At the bombed maintenance yard, police found a note referring to a highly publicized case in which an ex-King County sheriff's deputy, Paul Schene, was videotaped repeatedly punching a 15-year-old girl.

    Monfort repeatedly brought up Schene: "To me, that's attempted murder. I don't see how you can see it any other way."

    He cut short the interview, but a few weeks later invited the reporter back, writing, "Why don't you show up on Wed nite, I have a few ideas and would like to speak with you."

    In this visit, he remains fixated on police misconduct. He cites cases across the country — in Detroit; Everett; San Bernardino, Calif., — in which police were accused of brutality. Violent crime nationwide has fallen, yet "we're still seeing a ridiculous amount of police brutality," he says.

    Why? "The problem is not just with the police," he says. "The problem is with the citizens."

    Monfort is scornful of citizens — "Tories among us," referring to supporters of the British monarchy — who lavish praise on police who "don't even do their jobs."

    "We've got people who say police can do no wrong, 'Oooh, it's a tough job,' " Monfort says mockingly. "A tough job? If it's so hard, quit."

    He also criticizes juries that twice failed to convict Schene. In both cases, juries deadlocked. The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office recently said it would not try Schene a third time.

    Monfort puts police misconduct in the context of the American Revolution, and salts the interview with references to Samuel Adams, the American Revolution-era Townshend Act (spelling the name out, correctly) and the exact order in which the signers of the Declaration of Independence inked their names.

    "We ought not to lavish praise on the public official, but we should lavish praise on the Constitution," Monfort says, claiming to quote Adams' writings from a Colonial newspaper, the Public Advertiser.

    Monfort says he was a lousy student before attending Highline. Referring to his failed effort to become a computer programmer, he says, "I was good at taking things apart, but only some of them worked when I put them back together."

    He cited Ralph Nader as a modern hero, calling him the country's most "selfless citizen," and he referenced philosophers he studied while at the UW, Jeremy Bentham and Michel Foucault.

    Near the end of the interview, Monfort says again his body is rapidly deteriorating, in part because he has a bullet lodged near his spine. Referring to the potential death-penalty decision, Monfort says, "You might as well kill me before I die."

    He laughs harshly. "Now that's hilarious."

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012442504_monfort25m.html?syndication=rss

  10. #10
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Death decision next week in Seattle cop killing

    A death penalty decision is expected next week in the prosecution of the man accused of killing a Seattle police officer.

    A King County Superior Court judge denied a defense motion Wednesday to give lawyers more time to find cause for leniency for Christopher Monfort.

    King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg says he'll make a decision by the Sept. 3 deadline.

    Monfort is charged with aggravated murder in the shooting of Officer Timothy Brenton who was gunned down as he sat in a patrol car on Halloween. Monfort has pleaded not guilty.

    KOMO Radio reports Monfort talked loudly about police brutality as he was brought into the courtroom for Wednesday's hearing.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012718341_apwaseattleofficerkilled.html?syndicati on=rss

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