Conflicting schedules followed conflicting stories from former Multnomah County Sheriff's Deputy David Kovachevich. In May of 2018 my trial for allegedly assaulting other deputies the night they broke my arm could not proceed because Kovachevich, a key witnees, had already been approved by the county to take a vacation out of state the week of the trial even though the trial date was known months in advance. On top of that he was retiring and would have to be served in his individual capacity and not through the county after that. How convenient is this for a man that told two different stories in writing?
Convenient enough that Assistant United States Attorney Greg Nyhus tried the best he could to keep the trial on schedule because doing so would have kept the jury from learning about how Kovachevich sent a draft titled "narrative" to co-conspirators Matthew Ingram and Timothy Barker before changing his story several hours later in his incident report. The part he changed had to do with when my arm was broken. This changed one paragraph of his "narrative" from:
"I held the sallyport door open for them and as they headed towards 4F, I followed along behind. lnmate Sullivan was struggling/resisting the entire way. Once in 4F, they moved Sullivan into Cell #13 and pushed him down upon the mattress belly down. Only Sgt. lngram and Barker were in the cell and Sullivan was still struggling so I entered the cell and took control of Sullivans legs, crossing them behind his buttocks. Sullivan was handcuffed behind his back, but continued to struggle, at one point he was able to push me off him with his legs, so I had to re-cross his legs behind him."
To this paragraph in his incident report:
"I held the sallyport door open for them and as they headed towards 4F, I followed along behind. lnnate Sullivan was struggling/resisting the entire way. Ance in 4F, they moved Suilivan into Cell 13, Sullivan continued to struggle and fight and therefore it became necessary for lngram and Barker to push him down upon the mattress belly down. Only Sgt's lngram and Barker were in the cell and Sullivan was still struggling so I entered the cell and took control of Sullivan's legs, crossing them behind his buttocks. Sullivan was handcuffed behind his back, but continued to struggle, at one point he was able to push me off him with his legs so I had to re-cross his legs behind him."
Notice how he inserted the text "Once in 4F, they moved Sullivan into Cell 13, Sullivan continued to struggle and fight and therefore it became necessary for lngram and Barker to push him down upon the mattress belly down." That is significant because it adds an accusation that I was fighting in the cell and that pushing me onto the mattress belly down, which is not normally done, was necessary. That is quite a bit different from just struggling to breathe. Greg Nyhus tried arguing that whether or not it was necessary to break my arm on the 4th floor was irrelevant to whether or not I assaulted them on the 5th floor earlier as charged. Fortunately the judge didn't buy it and realized that in a case in which there is no evidence of the guards being injured and whether or not they were assaulted at all depends entirely on their word, any inconsistancies are relevant. As a result my trial date was pushed back to September due to no room being in the schedule before that.
In some ways I might actually owe Kovachevich a little bit or gratitude because in August Greg Nyhus was taken off the case and his successor offered me a decent plea offer. I pled guilty to one count for throwing chips at Barker and Ingram on the 5th floor. Had the cameras actually recorded I could have proven that I never resisted on the 4th floor.