Sheriff Dave Reichert fired John Vanderwalker in April 2000 after a long internal investigation into accusations that he pepper-sprayed two art students in a car and kicked a medic as she knelt on the ground in unrelated incidents Dec. 1, 1999, during WTO protests.

Yesterday's ruling "stunned" Reichert and other officials, said Sgt. John Urquhart, spokesman for the sheriff's office.

"The arbitrator basically ruled that it was OK to pepper-spray those girls in the car, and it was OK to kick that medical worker while she was on the ground," Urquhart said. "We disagree, and we believe it was a legitimate termination."

Vanderwalker, 48, was a 19-year veteran on the force before his firing. When asked about his reinstatement, he told The Associated Press, "This is great."

Ruling on an appeal to last year's firing of Vanderwalker, arbitrator Michael DeGrasse ordered the King County Sheriff's Office to reinstate the former deputy to his patrol position in the Maple Valley precinct.

The binding ruling also compels the county to compensate Vanderwalker for back wages and lost off-duty and overtime pay.

Both WTO incidents were captured on videotape.

In one of the most widely publicized incidents stemming from the WTO, two art students shooting footage from a car in a Capitol Hill parking lot captured an officer as he approached them, ordered them to roll down their window, and then doused them with pepper spray.

Although the officer was unrecognizable in a gas mask, Vanderwalker came forward several weeks later.

The students, Shauna Balaski and Melissa Benton, sued King County over the incident and received $100,000 as part of a settlement.

In the second incident, caught by a news camera, an apparently disoriented woman wearing a red-and-white arm band and holding a first aid kit is crouching on the ground. An officer then runs up and kicks her in the back, knocking her forward.

Sheriff's officials have said they identified Vanderwalker as that officer by enlarging images to read his name on his helmet.

In his 10-page ruling, DeGrasse, an independent professional arbitrator hired by both sides to rule on the appeal, said that Vanderwalker's use of force was appropriate under the circumstances.

He also ruled that Vanderwalker did not lie in his statements to sheriff's officials about the incidents -- a contention that sheriff's officials held as part of the grounds for his firing.

©1999-2001 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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