Seattle to pay Black delivery driver after police held him at gunpoint

By Mike Carter, Seattle Times

The city of Seattle will pay $319,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a Black delivery driver over a five-minute downtown traffic stop in 2020, in which officers pointed their guns at him and illegally searched his car.

The settlement and subsequent dismissal of the federal civil-rights lawsuit filed in 2022 by Anthony Sims followed a unanimous decision by a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refusing to overturn the trial judge’s denial of qualified immunity for several officers involved. The trial judge, in refusing to dismiss the lawsuit, found evidence the stop was racially motivated and a search of Sims’ trunk unconstitutional.

The order of dismissal states the settlement does not repudiate or repeal findings by U.S. District Judge Tana Lin and a subsequent memorandum from the 9th Circuit appeals panel regarding the questionable nature of the stop and the aggressive tactics used by officers who mistakenly thought Sims’ vehicle might have been stolen, according to the court docket.

“These results underscore the importance of the basic constitutional right to go about life without arbitrary intrusion or racial targeting by police,” said Sims’ attorney, Nathaniel Flack.

Get details about the lawsuit.

Unfortunately, racial profiling is all too common.

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