Defense phase begins in Barile trial

PALMER -- Tammy Barile took the stand Wednesday and Thursday at her trial, showing the jury her pepper-sprayed and bloody clothing from the February night when she was arrested on a downtown Palmer street while allegedly searching for a missing watch band.

Barile, 35, and Milton Peery, 34, are on trial for charges alleging they resisted being arrested Feb. 26, 2001, by Trooper Eric Spitzer, and for alleged assault and disorderly conduct.

The trial is unusual in its detailed examination of all the parties, including the arresting officer. Jurors heard in testimony from Spitzer about his nine years in the U.S. Marines, where he served at American embassies in Europe, and his time as a brigadier guard and drill instructor. He joined the troopers two years ago, and currently is serving in St. Mary's.

Barile, a Wasilla mother of three who has worked as a substitute teacher and is a heavy equipment operator, told jurors she had never before been arrested. As a lifelong Alaskan, she said she has found police officers and Alaska State Troopers to be helpful and respectful in all her previous encounters. By the end of her encounter with Spitzer, while being treated for a profusely bleeding head wound at Valley Hospital, she felt she had been "beaten up in the street," she testified.

On the night in question, Barile said she finished registering her vehicle at the Division of Motor Vehicles, then went to meet two friends, including Peery, at the Palmer Bar for pizza and drinks. They had ordered out from Delphi Pizza.

The bar was smoky, and since Barile doesn't smoke, she said she and Peery went outside for air just before 9 p.m. They walked down Evergreen Street and at some point, a pin fell from

Barile's gold and diamond watch.

"Milt found the first part of the watch, the face and the band, and we were looking for the other part of the band. We were talking as we walked, about family and just life, like friends do," Barile said. "There was no argument. At no point did Milt grab me, he never grabs me." Barile's friendship with Peery spans her adult life, she told jurors, and he's one of her closest friends.

Spitzer had testified earlier in the week that he believed a dispute was underway and a possible assault, which is one of the reasons he pulled over to investigate the actions of the pair.

"Trooper Spitzer pulled over without lights or sirens," Barile said. With his window rolled down part way, he said, 'Hey, I want to talk to the pair of you.' I said officer, we don't have any problems."

Barile said Spitzer pulled up in his patrol car on the sidewalk as if to block Peery from moving forward. Once Peery stopped walking, Spitzer backed up and parked properly, then got out of his patrol vehicle. He wore his trooper hat and walked to the front of the car, she said. "He grabbed my arm and moved me to the back of the car. I stepped away and asked him not to touch me again. I said I wasn't doing anything wrong and unless he wanted to help me find my watch, he can just move along."

At that point, Spitzer put his face inches from her own, she said. "It was frightening. He started yelling at me to stand to the back."

Barile was asked by her defense attorney, Nancy Driscoll, for minute details on the ensuing events. Barile recounted being repeatedly ordered to stay at the rear of the car, and other orders that made no sense. She repeatedly asked Spitzer why he was doing this when they had done nothing wrong. Peery was being ordered to stand at the front of the car. Barile said Spitzer tried to physically make her stay at the back by shoving her into the car and grabbing her arms. Finally, she got away from him and climbed onto the hood of his patrol car -- for her own safety, she said.

"I started wondering, is this man even a trooper? He was yelling at me like I was a Marine recruit and not like I am a civilian. I didn't enlist," Barile said.

On the hood of the patrol car, Barile was pepper-sprayed the first of two or three times during the encounter, she said. The spray was applied directly into her eyes and mouth. Barile wears contact lenses, and she testified her head went back against the car's windshield in the spray's impact.

Spitzer then dragged her off the hood of his car by her ankle. Since she couldn't see, she fell straight off. He handcuffed her, she said, with her face on the ground and his knee or foot on her back. Then he picked her up by the chain-link in her handcuffs and dropped her. He would do the same thing two more times, Barile told the jury, picking her up and dropping her on her face.

"While he was dropping me, he kept saying, 'quit falling,'" Barile testified.

At some point, Spitzer left Barile in the middle of the road handcuffed and laying down while he dealt with Peery, she said, showing the jury the mud on her pants and fleece jacket from that night.

By the time she was in the patrol car, bleeding from a cut over her left eye that would require stitching, and blind from pepper spray, Barile said she felt sore and in pain on her wrists, her shoulder, her jaw, and pain in her head. Later, more than 30 bruises would be counted across her body, which were photographed and shown to the jury.

Milt Peery took the stand next, recounting the same line of events. He told jurors that he was trying to protect Barile as the night unfolded in a bizarre chain of events that "made no sense."

"I couldn't believe what was happening. It was like a bad movie. I kept asking what are you doing? Why are you doing that? When I was seeing what he was doing to Tammy," Peery said.

Spitzer yelled loud and overly aggressive orders to Peery to turn around while he stood several feet from where Spitzer was dealing with Barile, Peery said. "Turning around was the last thing I wanted to do. I thought it was an unusual request or order, and I kept trying to look over. At the same time, I was saying 'I did nothing wrong. We don't need help, we're just looking for a watch.'"

Soon another officer, Choonkoe Chan, arrived just as Peery was being pepper-sprayed in the face. Chan took Peery several feet down the sidewalk, removing him from the scene. Then he stood with his back to Spitzer and Barile. "I kept asking him to turn around, to watch what Trooper Spitzer was doing. But he wouldn't do it, he wouldn't turn around. I asked him to ask Spitzer why he pepper-sprayed me," Peery said.

Peery described Chan as a respectful, calm officer. Eventually, Peery approached Spitzer, but with his own hands held behind him to "show I wasn't threatening."

Peery asked him why he was being so rough on Barile, he said. Spitzer left Barile in the road at that point, and got into Peery's face. "What are you going to do about it?" was Spitzer's response, Peery said. "This was like someone trying to pick a fight," Peery testified.

Peery said he was struck several times by Spitzer's palm, pushed backwards, and tried to grab Spitzer's hand. He ended up in the snow bank where Spitzer and Chan handcuffed him. Chan also sprayed Peery in the face, then led him to the patrol car.

The difference between how he felt he was dealt with by the two officers was like "night and day," Peery said. Chan, knowing Peery was blinded by the pepper spray, told him where they were walking, and to watch his head as he placed Peery in the patrol car.

The trial continued into the week with the prosecution resting after Spitzer's testimony. Witnesses called by the defense included a corrections officer from Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility who testified that he observed Spitzer in an unprofessional incident at the jail in a previous incident. The corrections officer testifed that Spitzer had yelled and stood inches from a prisoner's face to berate him for driving drunk. Mason said the prisoner was not Spitzer's arrest and that once brought to booking, prisoners are the responsibility of the facility. "He had not right to interfere with a remand [prisoner] who was not his responsibility," Mason said. He reported the incident to his own superiors. Spitzer had told the man, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, that he would have

"handled him if he showed up in his brig," Mason said.

The corrections officer also testified that prisoners have made complaints they were roughed up by Spitzer, and he tells them they must make a report to his supervisor.

The trial continues Tuesday, when attorneys are hoping to finish closing arguments.