Photo: boonchai wedmakawand / Moment / Getty Images
A Black Seattle man will receive a $225,000 settlement after a white veteran detective made what a judge described as "reckless" false statements to obtain a search warrant. King County will pay to settle a civil rights lawsuit with Gizachew Wondie, who was arrested on drug charges in 2018, according to KOMO.
Detective Kathleen Decker, who retired from the King County Sheriff's Office in 2020, reportedly asked a judge for a warrant to search Wondie's car and apartment for a gun. On her search warrant application, Decker wrote that Wondie's weapon was the same one used to kill a 22-year-old woman a few months prior, reporters said.
Wondie was not a suspect in the murder, and Decker allegedly omitted information that suggested he no longer owned the firearm. On top of that, more testing was needed to determine if the gun was the murder weapon, the news station reported.
The detective falsely identified a Black man holding a gun in an Instagram photo as Wondie, saying he has a "propensity" for violence, according to reports. The Seattle man has never been accused of a violent crime, but federal agents were investigating him for possible drug dealing at the time.
Two days after a state judge signed off on the search warrant, and a SWAT team arrested Wondie near Seattle Central College while on his way to class. Authorities found drugs on him and learned about a second apartment. Officials obtained another search warrant and found 11,000 Xanax pills, 171 grams of cocaine, a pill press, and other evidence in the residence.
Wondie's defense attorneys argued authorities didn't have probable cause to arrest Wondie since the first search warrant was based on Decker's false statements. A federal judge ruled in the Black man's favor and threw out the evidence in the case. Prosecutors later dropped the drug charges against Wondie.
"Detectives need to be truthful, complete, and transparent in their testimony to judges reviewing search warrant applications," Dan Fiorito, Wondie's attorney, said in a statement sent to KOMO on Tuesday (December 12). "Incorrectly portraying Mr. Wondie as a violent gang member based on an inept cross-racial identification, and exaggerating ballistics evidence to tie him to a crime he was not involved in, was reckless and a complete violation of his rights."
As part of the settlement, King County didn't have to admit any liability.
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