Tag Archives: courts

Seattle reaches $10M settlement with 50 plaintiffs harmed by police response to 2020 Black Lives Matter and CHOP protests

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The city will pay $10 million to protesters harmed during the Seattle Police Department’s response to the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the city and the CHOP Capitol Hill protest camps, settling a sprawling lawsuit and bringing to a close one of the last major legal battles from the period of unrest and heavy response from law enforcement.

“A historic legal battle of epic proportions brought by 50 George Floyd/BLM Peaceful Protesters against Seattle and its Police Department has ended,” the Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore announced Wednesday.

“This decision was the best financial decision for the city considering risk, cost, and insurance,” Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison said in a statement on the deal. “The case has been a significant drain on the time and resources of the city and would have continued to be so through an estimated three-month trial that was scheduled to begin in May.”

Davison said the city “admits no wrongdoing in the case, which was significant in scope, with plaintiffs alleging injuries sustained during the protests.”

Included in the plaintiffs is the estate of Summer Taylor, the Capitol Hill resident and protester who died in a July 2020 crash on I-5 as a driver attempted to speed through a demonstration on the freeway. In September, CHS reported on the plea deal that brought a 6 1/2 year sentence for the driver in that case.

That sentence and the newly announced settlement mark some of the last major legal maneuverings as the City of Seattle has been tied up in court for years in battles over civil rights and wrongful death lawsuits stemming from the protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the flawed Seattle Police response. Continue reading →

Even with few arrests under Seattle’s new drug law, city’s diversion program won’t be able to keep up in 2024

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(Image: Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion)

There has been about one arrest per day under Seattle’s new public drug use law but a core city program hoped to divert more of those arrested out of jail and into rehab still won’t be able to keep up next year.

In a presentation (PDF) to a Seattle City Council committee this week, officials said Seattle Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program or LEAD will reach its capacity for serving new referrals by May of 2024.

The Seattle Police Department reported fewer than 50 arrests had been made under the new drug law through November with 33 people diverted. LEAD stats show a big bump in the final weeks of October as the law went into effect that has since leveled off.

But the program’s capacity is still about to reach a breaking point. Continue reading →

The mess at HoneyHole now includes $13K in unpaid rent, questions about owner’s background

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With the closure now stretching into weeks, we’re getting a sense of the continuing implications of the HoneyHole meltdown.

Evan Bramer has still not responded to CHS’s multiple inquiries about the sudden shutdown that left the E Pike sandwich bar locked, its E Jefferson spinoff dark, and employees in the lurch.

But Bramer is not on the line for some of the more costly repercussions.

According to a notice posted by legal representation for building owners Timberlane Partners, husband and wife business partners Kristin and Pat Rye remain the guarantors on the HoneyHole lease.

According to the notice affixed to the E Pike shop’s locked front door with painter’s tape, HoneyHole owes its landlord nearly $13,000 including two installments of its monthly $4,989.43 rent. Continue reading →

Assault charges in stabbing that injured four outside Capitol Hill bar

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SPD says it recovered a small knife from the suspect during a frisk

A First Hill resident has been charged in the stabbing incident outside a Capitol Hill bar early last Friday that sent two people to the hospital and injured two others.

The King County Prosecutor’s office announced Tuesday that Thomas Ellis, 36, has been charged with two counts of second degree assault.

CHS reported here as police and Seattle Fire were called to the Diesel bar on 14th Ave off E Madison to the just after 2 AM fight and stabbing.

Arriving officers found a chaotic scene outside the bar with multiple people suffering from stab wounds in the attack. A fourth victim had left the scene but was located nearby.

According to police, Ellis told officers the stabbings came in self defense after punches were thrown in a fight in front of the bar. But victims described a swift and violent retaliation stemming from an argument that quickly led to Ellis pulling out a knife. One of the victims described being chased down by the assailant in an unprovoked attack that “was in no way self-defense.”

The injuries in the incident were significant. Police say one victim suffered an “approximate 10” wide and 1” deep slash wound across the front of his chest, filleting him open, as well at least one stab/puncture wound on his right side.”

Ellis has not yet entered a plea on the charges and remains jailed on $300,000 bail.

 

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Seattle joins cities including Anchorage and San Diego in asking Supreme Court to rule on camping bans

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As the city’s mayor is rolling out his 2024 budget proposal including tens of millions of dollars for affordable housing and homelessness spending, Seattle’s city attorney is fighting for the legal right for the city to sweep encampments without federal restrictions.

City Attorney Ann Davison announced this week she is joining a group of city attorneys in locations including Tacoma, Anchorage, and San Diego as well as California’s state attorney asking the the U.S. Supreme Court to review a key court decision limiting sweeps and overturn “the Grants Pass decision” by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The decision established sweeps are a violation of the Eighth Amendment and punish people for sleeping in public when there is not adequate shelter available. Under the ruling, cities can restrict how people camp but it cannot execute a blanket ban on camping without adequate shelter resources. Continue reading →

No charges over Durkan, Best deleted texts from 2020 protests

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No charges will be filed against former Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Police Chief Carmen Best over deleted text messages from the time of the 2020 protests, saying a King County Sheriff investigation did not find evidence of criminal intent to destroy public records.

King County Prosecutor Lisa Manion’s announcement ends the investigation launched in 2022 after a whistle-blower revealed thousands of texts exchanged between Durkan, Best, current Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins and more officials during the 2020 Black Lives Matter and anti-police protests had been deleted from city-owned devices.

The deleted texts became the centerpiece of a lawsuit brought against the city by Capitol Hill property owners and developers with claims of “Spoliation of Evidence” and intentional subterfuge.

The city has claimed the deletions were caused by factory resets, 30-day auto deletions, and manual deletions.

But some of the explanations bordered on the comical including a Durkan oceanic mishap: Continue reading →

Judge deals a blow to restaurant’s CHOP lawsuit

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A federal judge has dealt a blow to the legal case of a 11th Ave restaurant suing the City of Seattle over what it says was neglect and rights violations as it allowed the Capitol Hill protest zone to grow around the business.

The judge’s decisions this week tossed one of the four complaints brought by Korean fast casual joint Oma Bap and threw another two up for possible appeal in the case. Continue reading →

Driver in I-5 collision that killed Capitol Hill Black Lives Matter demonstrator pleads guilty

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Taylor

The driver in the July 2020 I-5 crash that killed a Capitol Hill Black Lives Matter protester and severely injured another demonstrator has pleaded guilty.

CHS reported here on the impending trial for Dawit Kelete, now 30, after repeated delays. Kelete’s attorney’s reached a plea agreement with King County Prosecutor in which the defendant admitted guilt to one count of vehicular homicide, a count of vehicular assault, and a count of reckless driving. The sides also reached an agreement on a sentencing recommendation for six years in prison and another year and a half probation. The sentencing is scheduled for September.

Summer Taylor died in the crash and Diaz Love was sent to the hospital with serious injuries in the collision that was captured on video and further inflamed the volatile situation in the city in the wake of the forceful clearance of the CHOP protest camp on Capitol Hill in July 2020. Continue reading →

Broadway stabbing murder suspect pleads not guilty

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(Image: KING 5)

The suspect in the deadly July 4th stabbing that left a man dead on a Broadway sidewalk has pleaded not guilty.

Sana Ceesay, 53, entered his plea Thursday, according to court records. He is charged with first degree murder.

Prosecutors say Ceesay stabbed his victim 13 times in the back, neck, and chest in the early morning assault. Fontaine Jackson, 45, suffered multiple stab wounds and died outside the gas station at Broadway and Pike. Continue reading →

Broadway stabbing suspect charged with first degree murder

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The accused assailant in the deadly July 4th knife attack that left a 45-year-old man dead on the sidewalk outside the Broadway and Pike service station has been charged with first degree murder.

Prosecutors say evidence shows Sana Ceesay, 53, stabbed his victim 13 times in the back, neck, and chest in the early morning assault.

Fontaine Jackson, 45, suffered multiple stab wounds and died at the scene. According to the police report on the incident, witnesses tried to stop the attack, pelting Ceesay with a rock and finally using pepper spray to send him fleeing from the scene. He was detained by private security near Pine and Boylston where police took him into custody. Ceesay was treated at Harborview before being booked into King County Jail. Continue reading →