Clay Hilton Case: Firing, Acquittal, and Federal Trial

The Clay Hilton case involves a former Spokane County Sheriff’s Office sergeant who was fired in September 2024 and criminally charged after body camera footage showed him beating a 62-year-old man sleeping in his car at a Spokane Valley park. A state jury acquitted Hilton of second-degree assault and false swearing in June 2026, finding he acted in self-defense, but a federal civil rights indictment and a civil lawsuit brought by the man he struck, Kevin Hinton, are both still pending.

What Happened at Terrace View Park

On August 14, 2023, Hilton was patrolling for the Spokane Valley Police Department when he approached Kevin Hinton, then 62, parked at Terrace View Park. Body camera footage showed Hilton shining a flashlight into the car and telling Hinton it was a crime to be in the park after hours.¹ Hinton responded that the violation was a civil infraction and offered to leave. Hilton told him he was “not free to leave” and demanded identification. When Hinton said he did not have it on him, the encounter escalated.²

The video showed Hilton reach into the vehicle, strike Hinton in the face, pull him out by his legs, and continue hitting him. He knocked out Hinton’s false teeth and, according to trial testimony, mocked him about the blood on his face.² The footage also captured Hinton on the ground afterward, crying and bloodied.¹

Hinton was beaten severely enough that the jail refused to book him, according to his attorneys.³ He spent days in the hospital with eight broken ribs, a punctured lung, a severe concussion, a shoulder injury, and a disfigured lip. He later testified he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the encounter.¹ Hinton was never charged with a crime or cited for being in the park.⁴

Whether Being in the Park After Hours Was a Crime

A central factual dispute was whether Hilton had legal grounds to detain Hinton at all. Weeks before the incident, in late July 2023, the Spokane City Council voted 4-3 to reclassify after-hours park presence from a civil infraction to a misdemeanor, giving officers authority to detain and arrest.⁵ But Terrace View Park sits in Spokane Valley, not the City of Spokane. A Spokane Police Department investigation later determined the violation was at most a civil infraction in this context, and a sergeant who testified at trial confirmed there were no grounds to arrest Hinton for obstruction merely for refusing to hand over identification.¹

Firing and Internal Investigation

Sheriff John Nowels asked the Spokane Police Department to conduct an independent criminal investigation. That review found probable cause for second-degree assault and forwarded the case for prosecution.⁶ Hilton was placed on paid administrative leave while the Sheriff’s Office of Professional Standards ran a parallel internal investigation.

On September 3, 2024, Nowels fired Hilton, a 13-year veteran, after concluding his conduct was “clearly outside of policy.”⁷ Nowels disciplined other officers and supervisors who responded, saying they “did not meet the standards of conduct expected during and after this incident,” and announced policy changes requiring better documentation and review of every use of force, including moving use-of-force review out of the hands of patrol lieutenants.⁸ It was the first time in roughly two decades that a Spokane County Sheriff’s Office deputy had been criminally charged.

The State Trial and Acquittal

To avoid a conflict within the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office, the case was referred to Yakima County. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Joe Brown tried it at the Spokane County Courthouse on charges of second-degree assault, a felony, and false swearing, a misdemeanor tied to Hilton’s arrest report.²

Prosecutors built their case around the body camera footage, which was played in full and reviewed throughout the seven-day trial.⁹ They argued Hilton failed to de-escalate, gave inconsistent commands, and used force that was neither reasonable nor necessary, and that he “lost his cool” because Hinton had not shown the deference he expected.¹ On the false swearing count, prosecutors argued the knives Hilton claimed to have seen in the car were obstructed from plain view, that he never mentioned them on camera during the encounter, and that he added the detail only when writing his report the next day.

Defense attorney Bryan Hershman told the jury Hilton acted in self-defense, fearing for his life because of knives visible in the vehicle. Hershman said the force was consistent with the Basic Law Enforcement Academy handbook and that a “seasoned officer has to engage people in response to defiant and criminal conduct.”⁴ He walked the jury through the footage frame by frame to challenge Hinton’s account, and called the three-year prosecution “disgusting,” framing it as a product of political culture that “targets cops.”¹⁰

Hilton testified in his own defense. On June 24, 2026, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on both charges and specifically found that he had acted in self-defense. Based on that finding, the court ruled Hilton eligible to seek reimbursement of his legal expenses from Spokane County under Washington’s self-defense reimbursement statute, RCW 9A.16.110, with a hearing set for July 24, 2026.¹¹

The Pending Federal Case

The acquittal did not end Hilton’s criminal exposure. A federal grand jury indicted him on October 23, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on charges of deprivation of rights under color of law and falsification of records in a federal investigation.¹² The indictment alleges Hilton deprived Hinton of his constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by punching and kneeing him in the head and torso, and that he falsified his arrest report the next day by claiming he had seen knives in plain view to justify the force he used.²

A state acquittal does not bar the federal case. The charges arise under different laws, and federal prosecutors must prove a different set of elements, including that Hilton willfully deprived Hinton of a constitutional right while acting under color of law. Hershman is representing Hilton in the federal case as well.¹² As of late June 2026, no trial date had been reported.

Kevin Hinton’s Civil Lawsuit

Hinton filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on August 22, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. Hinton v. Spokane County Sheriffs Office et al (2:24-cv-00284) names Spokane County, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Hilton, the City of Spokane Valley, the Spokane Valley Police Department, Sheriff John Nowels, and Dave Ellis. The suit alleges civil rights violations under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and includes a jury demand.¹³

Chief Judge Stanley A. Bastian stayed the civil case pending resolution of Hilton’s criminal prosecutions and, in January 2026, denied a motion to modify that stay.¹³ With the state case resolved but the federal criminal case still open, the civil lawsuit’s timeline remains uncertain.

1
The Spokesman-Review. Defense Paints Former Spokane Sheriff’s Sergeant Clay Hilton
2
The Spokesman-Review. Former Spokane Deputy Found Not Guilty of Assaulting Man
3
KREM. Opening Statements, Testimony Begin in Criminal Trial of Former Spokane County Deputy
4
KXLY. Former Spokane County Sergeant Found Not Guilty of Assault
5
KXLY. City Council Passes Ordinance To Make Being at Parks After Hours a Misdemeanor
6
Spokane County. Sheriff’s Office Statement on Terrace View Park Incident
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KHQ. Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Fires Deputy Facing Criminal Charges
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KXLY. Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Fires Deputy Over Misconduct
9
KXLY. Body Cam Video Takes Center Stage in First Day of Trial
10
The Spokesman-Review. Awful but Lawful or Assault: Jury Begins Deliberations
11
KREM. Clay Hilton Verdict, Spokane County Sheriff’s Office
12
PACER Monitor. USA v. Hilton
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PACER Monitor. Hinton v. Spokane County Sheriffs Office et al