Kathleen Zellner, a Chicago-area attorney who won a $9 million jury verdict for Clyde Ray Spencer in federal court, has agreed to reduce her request for fees and costs from $2.49 million to $1.73 million.
She wrote in court documents that reductions to her original request, proposed by attorneys for former Clark County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sharon Krause and Sgt. Mike Davidson, are “either unwarranted or clearly disputable.”
“However, in the best interests of facilitating a resolution and promoting judicial economy, plaintiff hereby agrees to defendants’ significant reduction of hours and costs,” Zellner wrote.
Olympia attorneys Guy Bogdanovich and Jeffrey Freimund, who called Zellner’s initial request for fees and trial costs “excessive,” have also filed a motion asking U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle to either enter a judgment in favor of Krause and Davidson or order a new trial.
A hearing has been tentatively set for March 21 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
Spencer, a former officer with the Vancouver Police Department, spent nearly 20 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of sexually abusing his two children and a stepson. Gov. Gary Locke commuted his sentence in 2004, citing numerous flaws in the investigation. Spencer’s convictions were subsequently thrown out, and the charges were dismissed.
A jury handed down the verdict Feb. 3. Krause was found to have violated Spencer’s constitutional rights to due process by fabricating police reports. Her former supervisor, Davidson, who had an affair with Spencer’s wife, was also found liable.
Clark County commissioners have said they won’t pay the $9 million verdict, claiming Krause was acting beyond the scope of her duties as a county employee when she fabricated reports. The county didn’t carry liability insurance when Spencer was convicted, so no carrier will cover any verdict or fees the county has to pay.
The county, which has spent $495,000 in legal fees and associated court costs to defend Krause and Davidson, continues to pay their legal bills.
Zellner plans to file a writ of execution, asking the judge to order the county to pay the $9 million verdict plus interest accruing at about $2,700 a day.
