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Seattle ordered to pay $82,000 to Black Lives Matter lawyers

Published 6:16 am Friday, January 29, 2021

FILE - In this July 25, 2020, file photo, police pepper spray protesters, near Seattle Central College in Seattle, during a march and protest in support of Black Lives Matter. Washington state lawmakers and activists are setting an ambitious agenda for police reform in the upcoming legislative session. They say they hope to make it easier to decertify officers for misconduct, to bar the use of police dogs to make arrests, and to create an independent statewide agency to investigate police killings. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
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FILE - In this July 25, 2020, file photo, police pepper spray protesters, near Seattle Central College in Seattle, during a march and protest in support of Black Lives Matter. Washington state lawmakers and activists are setting an ambitious agenda for police reform in the upcoming legislative session. They say they hope to make it easier to decertify officers for misconduct, to bar the use of police dogs to make arrests, and to create an independent statewide agency to investigate police killings. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
In this July 25, 2020 photo, police pepper spray protesters, near Seattle Central College in Seattle, during a march and protest in support of Black Lives Matter. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Associated Press

SEATTLE — The city of Seattle has been ordered to pay nearly $82,000 to attorneys for Black Lives Matter to cover their fees and costs in pursuing contempt-of-court violations against the Seattle Police Department.

The contempt violations were for the improper use of pepper spray and blast balls by police against peaceful protesters after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, The Seattle Times reported.

The amount by U.S. District Judge Richard Jones ordered was much less than the nearly $264,000 in fees and costs sought by lawyers for BLM-Seattle and King County after Jones found police had violated his injunction prohibiting unnecessary force.

Jones did not place “coercive sanctions” against the city, sought by BLM, which would have required Seattle officers to provide BLM with use-of-force reports within days of every incident in which an officer uses force against a protester. The judge found those kinds of sanctions were not appropriate in this case.

The judge also rejected the city’s efforts to have him reconsider his contempt finding.

“We are pleased that the Court rejected the City’s misguided attempt to reverse the Court’s contempt finding, and that the Court issued sanctions against the City,” said David Perez, one of the lawyers representing Black Lives Matter. “Our goal is to ensure greater safety for protesters through compliance with the Court’s orders, and this decision will help in that regard.”

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