Anti-police protesters awarded $680K after SPD arrests labeled 'retaliatory'

A federal jury has awarded four protesters $680,000 and concluded that Seattle police “acted with malice, reckless disregard, or oppression” when they arrested them for writing anti-police graffiti in chalk outside of the East Precinct in 2021.

After the officers arrested and booked the protesters, they were held overnight in jail despite a ban on booking suspects of misdemeanor offenses during the pandemic.

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“We hope this verdict will be a warning and a lesson to police officers and other government officials across the country who violate the First Amendment — that they are and will be held accountable when they arrest and jail people for protected speech,” lawyers for the protesters said in a statement.

The four protesters — Monsieree de Castro, Erik Moya-Delgado, Robin Snyder, and Derek Tuscon — were arrested Jan. 1, 2021, for writing anti-police statements in chalk on portable concrete barriers outside the police department’s East Precinct on Capitol Hill.

Six months earlier, the precinct building was the center of Seattle protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. The Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or CHOP, was a self-declared autonomous zone that centered around the East Precinct building, which was abandoned by police during the protests during the summer of 2020.

Lawyers for the protesters in the graffiti case said they hoped Friday's verdict would lead to other decisions in favor of people who protest police violence.

"This is one step toward victory not just for us but for everyone who has fought and is still fighting to end police violence against marginalized communities, for Black Lives, and to return the lands of Indigenous Peoples," the lawyers said.

The arrested protesters were booked into King County Jail for violating Seattle’s graffiti law under what officers called a “protester exception” to the pandemic-era booking ban. But the protesters' attorneys said the jury's findings show the police decision to book the protesters and hold them in jail was based on what they wrote, and therefore violated their free speech.

“The jury found for all plaintiffs and against all defendants on all claims, including that both the initial arrest decision, and the booking decision, were retaliatory,” the statement from the protesters’ lawyers said. “The jury also found the defendants acted with malice, oppression, or reckless disregard for the plaintiffs' rights, and awarded punitive damages.”

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A short response from the Seattle City Attorney’s Office thanked the jury for their service, but did not say whether the city or the officers involved would appeal the decision.

“We are evaluating next steps and will make decisions in the time provided by court rules,” said Tim Robinson, communications manager for the city's Attorney’s Office.

The officers involved in the arrest were identified in the verdict as Ryan Kennard, Michele Letizia, Dylan Nelson, and Alexander Patton.