Former police sergeant may be retried
Trial ended Sept. 19 in hung jury; could be tried on same felony charge
September 24, 2019
The Whitman County Prosecutor’s office is considering retrying a former police sergeant after the trial resulted in a hung jury.
Dan Hargraves, former Pullman police sergeant, was arrested by the Washington State Patrol on Oct. 30, 2018, for first degree custodial sexual misconduct after an incident involving a female WSU student occurred in April.
Hargraves was charged by the Whitman County Prosecutor’s Office with first degree custodial sexual misconduct, which is a class C felony.
Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said the minimum sentence for the felony charge would be six months in county jail if the perpetrator had no criminal history. The maximum sentence would be a year in county jail.
Tracy said Hargraves’ trial began 9 a.m. on Sept. 9. He said closing arguments occurred Sept. 18 which was followed by jury deliberation.
Tracy said the jury has to be unanimous when deciding a verdict. A jury consists of 12 people. The jury was not able to reach a verdict, he said.
“The judge brought them back into the courtroom and questioned them all one by one,” he said.
Tracy said the judge asked the jury if they were certain that they were unable to agree within a reasonable time. He said the jury responded that they were not able to.
Tracy said this resulted in a hung jury. It was declared a mistrial 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Tracy said.
He said he has spoken to members of the jury for feedback concerning the trial.
“I am actively reviewing the case and deciding whether or not to retry it,” he said.
Tracy said he is consulting the victim to see if she is willing to undergo the court process again. Tracy said he will make his decision on whether or not to retry Hargraves by the end of the week.
He said if Hargraves is retried, the charges are likely to be the same. He said the entire trial process would be restarted from the beginning, including a new jury selection.
“[It] would be up to the judge to set that date, but I would hope that would happen before the end of the year,” he said.
Hargraves is currently on pre-trial release status, meaning he is not and has not recently been in custody.