 |
Police sued for doing too little, too much
Lawsuits pile up in wake of WTO chaos
Tuesday, January 25, 2000
By MIKE BARBER
Seattle Police are damned-if-they-do, damned-if-they-don't in the 27 damage claims tendered so far over their handling of last month's World Trade Organization demonstrations.
The wide array of claims range from the serious to the strange. Businesses, bystanders, protesters, a Metro bus driver and even a Seattle police officer want restitution for injuries or property damage.
Also see our WTO photo galleries.
The city attorney will review the claims and recommend action. Those denied payment have the option of filing a lawsuit.
One of the most serious claims involves the worst physical injury reported during the demonstrations. Jonathan Moore, a 49-year-old Seattle immigration rights activist, demands $100,000 for a broken arm he says he suffered in a scuffle while in police custody.
"I don't think they needed to break my arm," said Moore, who also alleges police misconduct.
Moore was arrested after the United Steelworkers union march on Dec. 1, the second day of the protests. He claims police broke his arm while trying to get him and other prisoners off a Metro bus at the police processing station at Sand Point.
Moore, in an interview, said he had gone limp -- refusing to either cooperate or resist police. He said a police officer painfully cranked his left arm in a circular motion, and bent his right hand backwards. After three days in jail, he went to Group Health's emergency room, where doctors discovered his arm was fractured.
But other claimants criticized police for showing restraint.
The owner of Citi Productions, a business in a building at 914 Virginia St., claims damages that could reach six figures. Anarchists and protesters broke into the building and camped out there from Nov. 28 to Dec. 3.
The packing and shipping business, owned by John Citoli, was shut down for six days as police shut off utilities and negotiated to remove squatters from other parts of the building rather than evict them.
"The city of Seattle preferred to negotiate with the protesters" who were criminal trespassers, while denying Citoli his rights to equal protection under the law, the claim says.
Several blocks away, Tower Realty Management Corp., which manages the Pike Tower at 520 Pike St., noted in its claim that 25 to 50 protesters caused $7,741.01 in damage to its marble, steel and glass building while police did nothing.
"This activity was in full view of police teams whose policy was to take no action," Tower claims.
Gregory Charles, however, who was a block away from Tower's building, wants a whopping $68 million for being gassed and peppered with rubber bullets, then herded by police batons into the crowd. Charles could not be reached for comment.
The oldest claimant is a 92-year-old man, Jesse Petrich, a master mariner who says he's out more than $35,000 in wages from the Alaska fishing season after his knee was damaged. He said he was on his way from a bus stop to a bank on Nov. 29, a day before the WTO meetings began and violence broke out, when some kind of confrontation with a police officer caused him to injure his knee.
The claims also reveal an embarrassing error by police, who parked a large Community Transit bus in the 723 Fourth Ave. building -- and broke a 10-by-2-foot hole in the concrete floor that rendered the whole structure unsafe. United Parking Service filed a $35,000 claim over the Dec. 2 incident. The company claims police didn't have permission to use the garage as a staging area.
The law firm of Selikoff & Shafer, meanwhile, seeks more than $150,000 for two clients who were let off a bus because of a police barricade, then given wrong information by police that sent them into an area where they were arrested. And the firm of Muenster & Koenig filed claims for three other people, including two photographers, who were arrested and knocked down although they had media credentials.
Six Pike Place Market merchants so far have filed claims approaching $12,000, mostly for damages from tear gas to produce, herbs and lost business or wages. Some merchants used claim forms to blast the city for bringing the WTO here with great expectations and little public say-so. Karen Swanson, of Old Duffers Stuff in the Market, wrote "instead of bringing business to Seattle on the busiest Christmas shopping week of the year, it backfired." Eric Pollard, of Tenzing Momo Inc., ended his letter "thanks Mayor Schell!" for the $6,000 in herbs lost.
And a woman who works as a baker at the market said she aggravated a back problem by running when concussion grenades and tear gas started going off around her.
Meanwhile, Scott Sundberg, a police officer working at Sand Point where protesters were processed, seeks $273.59 -- the cost of a new windshield for his personal car. The old one was shattered by a rock while parked there Dec. 2.
Another public servant, a Metro bus driver, Glenn Norris, is seeking $40,000 for damages to his health he says were incurred when his bus filled with tear gas at Third Avenue and Pine Street.
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or michaelbarber@seattle-pi.com
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
One Seattle man seeks $68 million for being tear gassed, peppered with rubber bullets and herded into a crowd of demonstrators on Nov. 30. The same thing happened to another claimant who's asking for only $150.
For more coverage, see our WTO index.
· Mall searched after fatal shooting, no gunman found
· Fire leaves two Arlington boys dead
· Shooting leaves three hurt, one dead in Skyway
more
101 Elliott Ave. W.
Seattle, WA 98119
(206) 448-8000
Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820
seattlepi.com serves about 1.7 million unique visitors
and 30 million page views each month.
Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com
©1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Terms of Use/Privacy Policy
