Seattle Police owe four protesters $680,000 after a federal jury decided Friday evening that the cops violated their First Amendment rights.
The incident occured on New Year’s Day 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The four protesters had written “F**k the Police” and “peaceful protests” in chalk and charcoal on portable barriers near a police precinct, according to the Seattle Times.
At the time, however, Seattle and King County had put a moratorium on all misdemeanor bookings due to the COVID pandemic. Despite this, the four protesters, Derek Tucson, Robin Snyder, Monsieree de Castro and Erik Moy-Delgado, were booked and spent a night in jail, the Times reported.
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The officers said that the booking ban had a exception where the “assistant chief or higher” could override the ban, according to the lawsuit. The suit says that the override was used “based upon political participation and viewpoint.”
The plaintiffs also alleged that the anti-graffiti ordinance they were charged under was unconstitutional. Though the court initially agreed with the plaintiffs, that ruling was reversed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, according to KING-TV.
While the plaintiffs lost that fight, the jury found that the arrest and booking had indeed violated their First Amendment rights, as it was directly linked to the content of the speech.
Plaintiffs cited a tweet in the suit by the official Seattle Police account that read, “So, we can’t provide legal advice, but we can say the use of sidewalk chalk doesn’t constitute graffiti.” The suit also features photographs of pro-police statements written in chalk that the police were fine with.
Four officers were identified in court pleadings as Alexander Patton, Dylan Nelson, Ryan Kannard and Michele Letizia. The plaintiffs’ attorneys’ investigation into the officers discovered that the precinct breakroom had both a Trump flag and a fake tombstone mocking the death of a 19-year-old man killed by police, the Times reported.
“Based on the evidence presented at trial, the jury found the defendants arrested and booked the plaintiffs because of the content or viewpoint of their speech,” attorney Braden Pence said in a prepared statement.
Each of the four protesters will be paid $20,000 in compensatory damages by the city of Seattle, and $60,000 in punitive damages by the individual officers, according to the Times.