Associated Press
SEATTLE — The family and estate of Leonard Thomas and the Lakewood Police Department will be meeting with a mediator to see if the two parties can come up with a revised settlement amount after a jury awarded the family $15.1 million in July.
The Seattle Times reported Saturday that Judge Barbara Rothstein sent the case to a mediator pending her ruling after Lakewood’s lawyers asked her to reduce the total verdict by more than 80 percent. The lawyers say the verdict was excessive and the jury was influenced.
Thomas was fatally shot by authorities in 2013 after a misdemeanor domestic-violence assault escalated into a four-hour police standoff at his home, where he had retreated with his 4-year-old son.
The lawyers for Thomas’ family declined to comment on Rothstein’s mediation order.
