Ex-Richland mayor says DUI evidence should be tossed because his arrest was illegal

Richland’s former mayor wants any statements he made to a trooper after his DUI arrest tossed out before his trial.

But there may be some disagreement on just when the arrest was official.

Bob Thompson, 64, believes he was under arrest at the point he was forced to step out of his SUV against his will one night last summer, according to his attorney Kevin Holt.

Court documents say it wasn’t until Thompson was outside his SUV — after using the car door to balance himself, suggesting his girlfriend could drive and refusing to perform voluntary field sobriety tests or take a portable breath test — that he was placed under arrest by Washington State Patrol Trooper James Stairet.

Holt has represented his longtime legal colleague and friend since immediately after the June 29 arrest in Kennewick.

He recently filed the motion to suppress the traffic stop on “the illegal arrest.”

On Thursday, Judge Brian Sanderson scheduled a March 10 hearing in Kennewick for arguments and testimony on the motion, along with others filed by the defense and prosecution.

Benton County judges, prosecutors off case

Sanderson is on the Yakima County District Court bench. He is presiding over Thompson’s case because of a conflict with the Benton County District Court judges.

The case also is being prosecuted by the Yakima County Prosecutor’s Office.

A trial date has not yet been set.

Thompson is charged with driving under the influence, a misdemeanor.

He has been a criminal defense lawyer since 1982 and has handled innumerable cases at the local level in District and Superior Courts.

He also has been on the Richland City Council since 1994.

Tuesday night, after serving the last four years as mayor of Richland, Thompson removed his name from consideration for another term as mayor.

In court Thursday, Thompson appeared relaxed as he laughed along with other lawyers and the judge about the difficulty in getting everyone’s court schedules to mesh for future hearings.

He occasionally paced the courtroom — which is characteristic of Thompson during cases on which he is the defense attorney — and was glad to have his own hearing done after more than a half hour.

“Now I can go back to work. Whew,” said Thompson, who had at least one client waiting for him in another courtroom.

SUV was speeding, drifted out of lane

Thompson was pulled over at 11:58 p.m. after Trooper Stairet noticed him traveling 42 mph in a 30-mph zone on Quinault Avenue near the Columbia Center mall.

The actual traffic stop was at Gage Boulevard and Center Parkway.

Stairet reported seeing Thompson’s 2014 BMW drift out of its lane, then correct back into its lane at least twice.

Thompson was surprised to hear he’d been going over the speed limit and told Stairet he had three drinks while dining with a fellow lawyer.

In his narrative of the arrest, Stairet said Thompson appeared impatient and bothered about the traffic stop, and had watery and bloodshot eyes.

He said Thompson became argumentative when asked to get out of the SUV, and told the trooper to read him his Miranda rights because otherwise he couldn’t make the driver get out.

“I advised the subject I could make him get out of the car. The subject asked if he was under arrest when he stepped out of the car,” Stairet wrote. “The subject then asked if I thought he was going to hurt me and then stepped out of his car.”

The trooper reported that he had turned Thompson around and was grabbing both of his hands to place him under arrest when Thompson “forcefully withdrew both of his hands from my grasp.”

Stairet said he regained control and placed Thompson in handcuffs.

Thompson blamed it on dehydration

Thompson took a breath test once at the Benton County jail. His blood-alcohol level was 0.11, he said, which is just over the legal limit to drive in Washington state.

Before he was booked into the jail, Thompson also asked to get independent blood work at a Tri-City hospital. Thompson must pay the bill for those tests, but his attorney can seek to use the results at the trial.

Two days after his arrest, Thompson told the Tri-City Herald he thought it was safe to drive after having three drinks earlier in the evening. He also said dehydration may have contributed to his unexpectedly high readings.

Lawyers plan to argue about the use of a scientific and mathematical process that estimates what a person’s blood-alcohol content was at the time the were driving based on results of a later test.

Prosecutors said under the law it is legal for a person to be 0.08 within two hours of driving, but not to be higher than that while driving.

Holt argued that it might not matter since he is trying to get everything suppressed after Thompson stopped his SUV and made initial contact with the trooper. That includes the evidence and statements.

He added that the defense believes once Trooper Stairet tried to open the SUV door and told Thompson he has the right to take anybody out of their car that he wants to, at that point an arrest has taken place.

Judge Sanderson said since the trooper will be in court March 10 for the motion to suppress evidence, they should also address at that time any statements made by Thompson.

This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 5:00 AM.