By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
As the King County Superior Court prepares for what is likely to be among the most high-profile cases in Seattle history, attorneys have their work cut out for them: prosecutors must overcome possibly critical omissions in police procedures, and defense attorneys must back up the insanity plea on behalf of their client in the shooting at the Jewish Federation in Seattle more than a year and a half ago.
Naveed Afzal Haq is accused of forcing his way into the downtown offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle that Friday afternoon, shooting six women who worked there, killing one.
During pre-trial hearings Monday and Tuesday, Haq watched intently from his seat in a high-security Seattle courtroom, while prosecutors played videotape of his July 28, 2006 precinct interview with detectives. On the screen, he cried about his family and ranted about Jews while officers kept several downtown blocks closed and the local Jewish community held vigil at Harborview trauma center.
When opening statements begin on April 14, security at the King County Courthouse will be at a maximum and seating will be at a premium for one of the most serious and troubling cases in the Northwest in decades. The trial is expected to last six weeks.
Ultimately, a jury will decide whether Haq, 32, a self-described Muslim of Pakistani heritage with an extensive history of mental illness and on medication at the time of the shootings, was legally insane when he researched Jewish sites on the Internet, bought weapons, and drove hundreds of miles to Seattle to commit the crimes.
Haq’s attorneys have entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. On Wednesday, King County Superior Court Judge Paris K. Kallas ruled the burden of proof will be on the defense to prove Haq was insane at the time of the shootings.
Central to the defense’s case is that the side effects of the drugs Haq was taking for his “schizoaffective disorder” caused him to act out in an uncontrollable and violent rage that day. Haq has since been prescribed different medications, his lawyers told Kallas.
In documents filed by the state, however, prosecutors note that mental health professionals who evaluated Haq three days before the shootings indicated there was no sign that “he was manic or experiencing psychosis.” He had recently been charged with exposing himself at a Kennewick, Wash. shopping center.
In this trial, Haq faces one count of aggravated first-degree murder with a firearm; five counts of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm; one count of first-degree kidnapping with a firearm; one count of unlawful imprisonment with a firearm; six counts of malicious harassment with a firearm; and six counts of first-degree burglary with a firearm. The kidnapping charge stems from allegedly forcing the 14-year-old niece of a Federation employee into the building at gunpoint to gain entry.
Defense attorneys object to the inclusion of the malicious harassment charges, which is Washington’s hate-crime law. They say it was their client’s persistent and severe mental illness that guided his actions and caused him to kill that day — not a targeted hatred for Jews.
Prosecutors allege that Haq spewed anti-Israel and anti-Jewish slurs during the attack, while decrying Israel’s involvement in the Iraq War and the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Haq made similar comments on the video shown in the courtroom this week.
According to a court memorandum, Haq told a 911 operator during his shooting rampage, “I’m not upset at the people, I’m upset at your foreign policy. These are Jews. I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”
Several of the women who were victims of the attack are on the witness list and are scheduled to testify.
During the interview with police taped at the station, Haq said that he picked the Federation at random after looking it up on the Internet. He said he just wanted to “make a point.”
Motions to be decided on later this week by Judge Kallas are whether to admit into the record these and other statements Haq made to detectives after his arrest that day, and whether the officer who first secured Haq at the crime scene properly advised him of his Miranda rights, which include his right to not make statements and to speak to a lawyer.
The videotaped interview with detectives recorded in the police precinct interrogation room shows Haq making several requests to speak with a lawyer and none being present.
Prosecutors agreed to suppress statements that Haq made to detectives during the interview after his second statement about possibly talking to a lawyer.
Judge Kallas moved on to instructions for jury selection, which should be complete by Friday, when the court will impanel a 12-person jury from the nearly 400 potential jurors that were summoned for the case.
The shooting shocked a community that had trouble believing that such an event could happen in one of its own Jewish centers. But when Seattle Police Department motorcycle officer Glen Cook stopped and cited Naveed Haq for traveling in the “bus only” lanes of downtown Seattle in his white pickup truck, he could not have known that within minutes, this same man would be roaming the halls of the Jewish Federation, shooting and wounding several innocent victims before surrendering to police.
Before his untimely death last year, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng opted against the death penalty in the Haq case in favor of life in prison without parole. He called it “one of the most serious hate crimes that has ever occurred in our community.”
In a statement about the shootings, Maleng wrote in August 2006 that Haq chose the Federation because it was a “convenient local symbol representing the nation of Israel and Jewish people throughout the world.”
The Federation refurbished and remodeled the two-story building and moved back in March of 2007. The narrow stairway leading up to the second floor of offices in which Pam Waechter, the only fatality, died, has been completely renovated.