KXLY reported yesterday that former Spokane police officer Karl Thompson has been released from federal prison.

In 2012 Thompson was sentenced to over four years in federal prison for violating the federal civil rights of Otto Zehm.

In 2006 Zehm had been arrested by Thompson and other officers based on erroneous and incomplete information provided to them by citizens and the police dispatcher.  Zehm was a mentally ill but functional janitor, and he had resisted Thompson’s effort to restrain him.  After being restrained, Zehm stopped breathing and was taken to the hospital where two days later, he died.

This Otto Zehm hyperlink above and this Spokesman-Review abbreviated timeline from 2011 provide a little more information about the death of Otto Zehm.

However, a more complete account is in the book ‘Frenzy and Cover Up — The Death of Otto Zehm‘.   The book was self-published in 2015 by its author, Andrew Gabriel Britt.  Britt is a 2012 honor graduate in Sociology from Eastern Washington University.

Britt’s book is a compendium of public records filings, news articles, and other documents.  It is well-researched and well-written.  Though not written in particularly colorful style typical of true crime writers such as Ann Rule, Vince Bugliosi, and Tim Reiterman, his book is nevertheless very readable.

It is available on loan through the Community Library Network – Kootenai-Shoshone Counties .

Although Amazon lists the book’s price as nearly $70 used, we paid $12.95 plus tax when special ordered new from The Bookworm at 1132 N. 4th Street in Coeur d’Alene.