SPOKANE -- A
officer has pleaded guilty to a charge that he lied to federal agents about the fatal beating of a mentally disabled man.
that Officer Tim Moses was given a yearlong suspended sentence Tuesday for making a false statement and that he's losing his job on the force.
His statements concerned the case of Otto Zehm, who was beaten to death by police who suspected him of stealing money from a convenience store ATM.
Moses was not involved in Zehm's arrest, but he told a grand jury three years later what his friend, Officer Karl Thompson, relayed to him about the incident. Those details were considered damaging to Thompson's defense in an excessive force case, and 10 months later, Moses changed his story to make it more favorable to Thompson.
-- The Associated Press