ER - Council to rule on Cooke claims

Council to rule on Cooke claims
by Glenn Franco Simmons, 8/6/2007

Eureka City Attorney Sheryl Schaffner has recommended that the City Council at its meeting tonight reject two separate claims for damages stemming from the law enforcement shooting death of Zachary Cooke in January.

The meeting will take place at 6:30 in the City Hall’s council chamber.

The first claim on the council’s agenda — which can be voted on as part of a consent calendar that requires no discussion, unless it is “pulled” for discussion — was filed by Cooke’s father, Alan Cooke, who lives in the Bay Area.

According to the California Department of Justice’s Megan’s Law Web site, Alan Cooke has been convicted of lewd or lascivious crimes against children.

The second claim was filed by San Francisco-based lawyer W. Gordon Kaupp, who is the attorney for Alan Cooke and the estate of Zachary Cooke.

Based upon Schaffner’s agenda summaries provided as part of the agenda packet, the city’s ability to process such claims is limited by its participation in the Redwood Empire Municipal Insurance Fund.

“In order to maintain coverage,” the summary states, “the city has agreed to certain terms that are common in coverage agreements, including giving REMIF the right to: control, investigate, settle or defend any claim that is covered by the coverage agreement.”

As such, Schaffner determined that the proposed claim rejection is in compliance with REMIF’s conditions regarding the handling of such claims.

Included among the actions the council can take are: rejection of the claim; allowance of the claim; allowance of the claim in part, and rejection of it in part, if the claim is deemed valid... .; or rejection or a compromise of the claim if legal liability is disputed.

As reported in July by The Eureka Reporter, Schaffner said the council has 45 days to accept or reject a claim once it is filed. If the claim is rejected, the person filing the claim will have six months to file a lawsuit.

Alan Cooke filed his claim against the city of Eureka on July 9.

On July 5, the second Cooke-related claim on the agenda was filed by Kaupp against numerous law enforcement-related entities and the cities of Arcata, Eureka and Fortuna. In Kaupp’s filing, it states that he is the attorney for Alan Cooke and the estate of Zachary Cooke.

The reason the cities and law enforcement-related agencies are being sued together is because these agencies collaborated to form a task force that had been established to investigate a series of local armed robberies, in which Zachary Cooke was a suspect.

The task force comprised officers from the Eureka, Arcata and Fortuna police departments, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Marshal’s Office, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

On Jan. 4, task force officers shot and killed Zachary Cooke while he was in a vacant house at 3207 Albee St., in Eureka.

In a report sent last week to law enforcement officials and obtained by The Eureka Reporter, Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos said the shooting was justified and that the officers who shot and killed Zachary Cooke “acted lawfully and in self-defense, and the use of deadly force was reasonable and justified.”

Additionally, the report said there was “compelling evidence” that law enforcement agents faced a life-threatening situation.

The DA’s report also confirmed that Zachary Cooke had fired one round from a short-barreled, pistol-grip shotgun with two unfired shells in the magazine, and was additionally armed with a fully loaded six-shot revolver.

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