SPOKANE, Wash – A former Spokane County Sheriff’s sergeant will face a jury this week, charged with assaulting a man he says was refusing to comply.
Clay Hilton is charged with second degree assault for his interaction with 62-year-old Kevin Hinton in August 2023.
The incident was captured on Hilton’s body camera footage.
According to charging documents, Hilton was working an overtime shift for Spokane Valley Police.
Just before midnight on August 14, 2023, he saw a man in a car in the parking lot of Terrace View Park. Hilton’s home happens to be right across the street.
According to investigators, Hilton told Hinton he was breaking the law by being in the park after hours and was subject to arrest. Hinton argued that would be a civil infraction, not a crime.
The two argued about that and Hilton ordered Hinton out of the car. When Hinton refused some of Hilton’s commands, the body camera footage shows Hilton hitting Hinton in the face.
SEE THE BODY CAM FOOTAGE OF THE INCIDENT
Over the course of the next few minutes, Hilton strikes Hinton several times in the face and in the torso.
He places Hinton under arrest and says he’s charging him with being in a park after hours, resisting arrest and obstruction.
When they arrive at the Spokane County Jail, Hinton is so badly injured, the jail staff refuses to book him and he’s taken instead to the hospital.
At the hospital, doctors had to stitch up his face and also discovered six broken ribs.
Prosecutors say Sgt. Hilton sent chat messages back and forth with a dispatcher.
The chat log shows Hilton said “I think he may have learned a lesson.”
The dispatcher responds, “I’m sure he did.”
Hilton replies, “Wait for his booking photo.”
The court system quickly realized the criminal charge with which Hilton attempted to charge Hilton about being in the park after dark was not a Spokane Valley crime. Prosecutors say Hilton wrote down a City of Spokane code instead.
Prosecutors also dismissed the obstruction and resisting arrest charges against Hinton and charged Hilton with second degree assault instead.
In his narrative of the incident, Hilton says Hinton was trying to grab a weapon and he acted with appropriate use of force. Prosecutors contend the body camera footage does not indicate Hinton was ever reaching for a weapon.
They found a knife in the Hinton’s car, but it’s not something Hilton mentioned on the body camera footage or until after the car was searched.
Spokane Sheriff John Nowels requested Spokane Police do a review of the use of force. SPD contracted with a use of force expert from California to do that review.
In his review, John Noble said the use of force was “excessive, objectively unreasonable and inconsistent with generally accepted police practices.”
Noble said Hinton did not pose an imminent threat and that “any reasonable police officer would have attempted to engage in de-escalation techniques to slow the situation, while waiting for backup officers.”
Sheriff Nowels fired Hilton about three weeks after the incident.
In addition to the criminal trial set to begin in Spokane County Superior Court Wednesday, Hilton also faces federal charges in relation to this incident.
He’s charged with deprivation of rights under color of law and falsification of records in a federal investigation.
If convicted of the federal charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison on the falsification charge and up to 10 years in prison for the deprivation of rights charge.
He faces up to 10 years in prison on the state charge, if convicted.
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