LAW ENFORCEMENT
BEHIND THE BADGE
An Airway Heights police officer — honored as a leader combating domestic violence — is accused of abusing numerous women BY WILSON CRISCIONE
C
urtis Tucker, in his full police uniform, rises from his seat when his name is called. At a celebratory breakfast in 2013, the YWCA presents Tucker, an Airway Heights police officer, with a certificate of appreciation thanking him for how he responded to a domestic violence call. It’s officers like him, a presenter says, who improve the lives of domestic violence survivors. As the room applauds her husband, Heidi Starr watches in disbelief. Surrounded by police officers dedicated to arresting abusers and advocates devoted to helping abused women, Starr wants them to know the truth. She wants to tell them the man they’re praising has been abusing her for three years. She wants to report that Tucker has hit her, choked her, raped her and held a loaded gun to her head. But speaking up, she tells the Inlander today, didn’t feel like an option. “Who was going to believe me?” Starr says. For two more years after that breakfast, she says the verbal, physical and sexual abuse by Tucker continued until she filed for divorce in May 2016. She never called the police, she says, because Tucker himself was a police officer and she feared they’d take Tucker’s side. Airway Heights Police Department learned of Starr’s allegations against Tucker in 2017, when she detailed them in court documents requesting a domestic violence
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protection order. But the Airway Heights department never conducted its own investigation into the matter. Instead, in 2019 the police department chose him to be its board representative on the Spokane Regional Domestic Violence Coalition. An Inlander investigation, however, has found a pattern of alleged domestic violence by Tucker. A previous ex-wife, who asked to be referred to by her middle name of Lynn, documented in court records similar allegations of violence, including both physical and sexual abuse. Three other women who’ve had personal relationships with Tucker in the last decade say he was abusive as well, the Inlander found. Their allegations include instances of choking, threats with his gun or other physical abuse. All of these women, who requested to remain anonymous for this article, say they were afraid to report the violence because Tucker was a police officer. Airway Heights Police Chief Brad Richmond says 47-year-old Tucker — who’s been an Airway Heights officer for 15 years — does an “exemplary job day in and day out.” In an interview with the Inlander, he questioned whether the allegations against Tucker are racially motivated, as Tucker is Black. Tucker, in an interview with the Inlander, denies all allegations of abusive behavior toward women. He says if he truly was a habitual domestic abuser, then surely someone would have reported it.
“I don’t think it’s true that years and years of abuse can go unwitnessed and unreported,” Tucker says. “It just simply didn’t happen, and that’s why it didn’t get reported.” Domestic violence victim advocates and law enforcement experts, however, say statements like that are rooted in a misunderstanding of abuse. Norm Stamper, former Seattle police chief and author who’s examined systemic issues within police departments, says police officers know the system well enough to know how to get away with domestic violence. “They know where on the body to hit, they know how to threaten or otherwise intimidate their victims in order to ensure that no report is given to local law enforcement,” Stamper says. “Domestic violence offenders who happen to be police officers are in a position to wield enormous power and influence… and domestic violence, we know, is at heart a crime of power and control.” Starr says Tucker used that power dynamic to his advantage. “It’s all a power game, and it’s all a mental game. And he was very good at convincing me there was no option, and that my life was in danger [if I report],” she says. “And because he was a cop, I literally had no idea who I would report it to, or what that would look like, or if they could get to me before he killed me.” ...continued on page 10