REVIEW BAINBRIDGE ISLAND
NUMBER ONE: Spartans girls JV lacrosse team battles to claim state title. A14
FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012 | Vol. 112, No. 22 | WWW.BAINBRIDGEREVIEW.COM | 75¢
Bainbridge celebrates first-ever state title in boys soccer
SPARTANS CLAIM THE CROWN!
BY BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
Bainbridge Island celebrated its second state title in as many weeks after a thrilling 3-2 victory by the Spartans boys soccer team against Mercer Island at Carl Sparks Stadium in Puyallup Saturday. Mercer Island kept the match competitive until the end, leading to a nervous final two minutes on the Spartan sideline. “They got their money’s worth,” said Bainbridge coach George Vukic. The state title was the first ever for Bainbridge in boys soccer, and came shortly after the BHS girls team won the state crown in lacrosse, its ninth state title. The Spartans played for the title last year in boys soccer, but fell to Camas. The players have been enjoying their historic win since the weekend. Sebastian Scales recalled how he was kicking around the ball with a few friends at Battle Point Park two days after winning the state title, when someone called over to ask if he was on the island’s championship team. When Scales answered yes, two young boys came over and asked for his autograph. “That’s probably the first and last autograph I’ll ever give,” Scales laughed. COMPLETE COVERAGE STARTS ON A13
Brian Kelly / Bainbridge Island Review
Spartan goalkeeper Carsten Fredrickson screams with joy as he joins his teammate Jason Dick at midfield after Bainbridge Island won the state 3A soccer title against Mercer Island.
Attorney asks jury to send a message with Ostling verdict City raises alarm about impact to 911 responses BY BRIAN KELLY Bainbridge Island Review
TACOMA — After 11 days of trial and testimony, the jury in the Ostling family’s civil rights case gathered for their first full day of deliberations Thursday to decide whether a Bainbridge
Island officer was justified in shooting a mentally ill man who confronted police with an ax in October 2010. Officer Jeff Benkert shot and killed Douglas Ostling after police came to the Ostling family’s home to investigate a 911 call and Ostling, 43, met officers at the doorway of his room above the family’s garage with a double-bladed ax in his hands. His parents, William and
Joyce Ostling, filed a federal lawsuit against Benkert, the city of Bainbridge Island and Police Chief Jon Fehlman, claiming that Benkert had unlawfully searched Ostling’s apartment, used excessive force in the moments that followed and failed to offer aid after Ostling was shot. The eight-member jury began to sort out two very different depictions of Ostling; a beloved and bright son afflicted later in life with
a mental illness that defied an easy description, and a paranoid schizophrenic with a history of violence who threatened police officers with a deadly weapon. There were also two terribly distinct versions of what the case itself was about. Nathan Roberts, an attorney for the Ostling family, said it was about justice for a family who had lost a son in a tragedy prompted by a police department that had
failed to train its officers to deal with the mentally ill, and a department rife with dishonesty that tried to cover its own tracks after the fatal shooting. Lawyers for the city, led by Stewart Estes, turned Roberts’ own case and comments against him. Roberts had said that the lawsuit was about sending a message to the community, but Estes said that message was wrong.
The other side wanted “lawyer-based policing,” Estes said, where officers wouldn’t investigate emergency calls and check on the welfare of those who had dialed 911.
Police problems Lawyers from both sides presented their closing arguments in the trial SEE TRIAL, A19