King County jury awards almost $11M to woman abused under guardianship

By Claire Withycombe Seattle Times staff reporter OLYMPIA — A King County jury this week awarded nearly $11 million in damages to a woman who was abused as a child while under the care of a legal guardian who had earlier been denied from becoming a licensed foster parent. The woman, identified in the lawsuit by her initials, C.G., sued the … Read More

King County pays $12M to settle lawsuit over deadly eviction

By Mike Carter   |  Originally published in the Seattle Times King County has agreed to pay $12 million to settle a lawsuit alleging sheriff’s deputies failed to follow through on the eviction of a dangerous Seattle resident who went on to kill a maintenance worker and injure the apartment manager. The lawsuit alleged four sheriff’s deputies, led by Detective David … Read More

Ex-deputy prosecutor gets more than $4M in wrongful-firing case against Pierce County

By Peter Talbot   |  Originally published in the News Tribune Pierce County has paid more than $4 million as part of a lawsuit for the wrongful termination of a former deputy prosecutor, according to his attorneys, nearly a year after jurors in the case found his firing violated public policy. Doug Vanscoy worked for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office … Read More

King County to pay $3.5 million to settle suit alleging deputies left teen at massage parlor, where she was forced into prostitution decades ago

By Lewis Kamb   |  Originally published in Seattle Times King County has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle the lawsuit of a 45-year-old woman who claims that when she was a teenage runaway 28 years ago, sheriff’s deputies left her at a Federal Way massage parlor where she was forced into prostitution. Under the settlement terms, the woman — who has … Read More

The hidden hand that uses money to reform troubled police departments

Across the nation, insurers have had surprising success “policing the police,” ending risky behavior, ousting chiefs, even closing troubled departments. By Kit Ramgopal and Brenda Breslauer for NBC NEWS The city of Niota, Tennessee, population 700, has a police department with just three officers. So when two of them wound up in court in 2011 accused of beating up a … Read More

An Interview with Jack Connelly

May 2020 |  Originally published on Post-Prison Education Program Attorney John R. (Jack) Connelly believes in fighting for the individual above all. In being a voice for the voiceless. He’s consistently been named one of the top lawyers in Washington State, where he’s practiced for 28 years, always for the plaintiff. At Connelly Law where he currently practices, he has … Read More

Seattle police officer assigned to clean up homeless camps files $10 million claim, alleges polluted site made him sick

By Lewis Kamb   |  Originally published in Seattle Times A Seattle police officer filed a $10 million claim against the city on Wednesday, alleging it negligently exposed him to “an extremely dangerous man-made toxin” by assigning him and dozens of other city workers to clean up a homeless encampment in the Sodo neighborhood this year. Officer Timothy Gifford, a … Read More