SEATTLE (AP) - King County has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle a civil-rights lawsuit filed by a man who spent two years in jail awaiting trial on homicide charges, only to be acquitted by a jury.
The Seattle Tmes reports the judge found evidence detectives cherry-picked evidence and included “false and misleading” statements in court documents.
Rodney Wheeler, in a federal lawsuit filed in 2019, insisted he was targeted and prosecuted for a homicide “he did not commit and had no involvement with whatsoever.”
The lawsuit alleged King County sheriff’s detectives “made false statements and omitted important facts that would have undermined their allegations” that he shot a man outside a Motel 6 in SeaTac following an argument in August 2016.
Wheeler was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault and for being a felon in possession of a handgun. Wheeler was booked into jail on $1 million bail, where he remained until his acquittal at trial in January 2019, when a King County jury found him not guilty.
The settlement came last week, three weeks after U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Theiler found there was evidence to support Wheeler’s claims of malicious prosecution, violation of his due process and “judicial deception,” stemming from allegations the detectives filed misleading or incomplete sworn statements to obtain a search warrant and, later, criminal charges against Wheeler.
Sgt. Tim Meyer, a spokesperson for Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht, said the magistrate’s decision “does not represent a finding that either party has proven any of the disputed facts,” adding that the trial judge sent it to a jury instead of dismissing the case.
“This sequence does not mean that Mr. Wheeler was unfairly subjected to a criminal trial,” he said.
Tiffany Cartwright, Wheeler’s lawyer, said her client had no comment on the settlement.
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