Herald staff
TUKWILA — The city of Tukwila has agreed to pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit with a man who was roughed up by one of the city’s police officers during last year’s World Trade Organization protests in Seattle.
The city also agreed to pay $1,062.50 for mediation costs and to send a letter of apology to Jon Knapp from police Chief Keith Haines.
Knapp, of Seattle, agreed to release the city from all claims.
Widely broadcast television footage showed Knapp being kicked in the groin on Dec. 1, 1999, by a police officer. The officer also shot him in the chest with a nonlethal beanbag round.
The officer was on a SWAT team that assisted Seattle police during the violent WTO protests.
The officer, who has not been publicly identified, was suspended for two days.
Group visits Vietnam to encourage trade: Government and business representatives are visiting Haiphong, Vietnam, to foster a partnership that could benefit from warming trade relations between Vietnam and the United States. City Council member Jan Drago is leading the group, which left Wednesday. Last year, Mayor Paul Schell was approached by James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, to expand a sister-city relationship that arose from a trade mission in 1996. The meeting led to formation of the Hai Phong-Seattle Partnership, intended to provide cultural exchanges, technical expertise and aid to the Vietnamese city in urban planning, tourism and economic development.
Donor kicks in cash for water slide: The Grays Harbor YMCA in Hoquiam has received an anonymous $100,000 donation to build a water slide that was scrapped from plans after the building went over its budget. Original plans would have had the water slide built at an auxiliary recreational pool. But costs exceeded the facility’s $10 million budget, and $1 million for the slide and other improvements were cut from the plans.
Connecticut fugitive arrested: A fugitive wanted in a Connecticut sexual-assault case was arrested Saturday morning in Kirkland, authorities said. Mario Anthony Marro, 34, was apprehended after police received an anonymous tip about his whereabouts. Officers staked out his parked car — a Mercedes with British Columbia license plates — until a man got in and drove it onto southbound Interstate 405. The car was stopped and Marro was arrested. He had been on the run since April and was featured last month on "America’s Most Wanted" show. Kirkland police said Marro was en route to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and intended to leave the state when he was arrested.
Return to sender: The Kelso office of the United Parcel Service has been fined $22,000 by the state Department of Ecology for violating state regulations for handling hazardous waste. At issue was a leaking package left by a UPS driver at a Longview computer store on a Friday in August. It generated fumes over the weekend that prompted an emergency response from the Longview Fire Department. The driver put the package, which contained two one-gallon cans of a volatile, solvent-based stain, in a plastic bag and told the clerk he would have somebody pick it up later. But the package wasn’t picked up and stayed in the store over the weekend, where it continued to release fumes. By Monday, the fumes were causing headaches and nausea.
