Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SEATTLE (AP) — A federal jury has found that a white former Seattle police officer who arrested a black man using a golf club as a cane engaged in racial discrimination.
The Seattle Times reports (https://goo.gl/iiqzfm ) jurors reached the unanimous verdict Tuesday against Cynthia Whitlatch after starting deliberations Monday in the civil-rights lawsuit. The eight-member jury awarded $325,000 in compensatory damages to William Wingate.
The lawsuit stemmed from Whitlatch's arrest of then 69-year-old Wingate while he was walking with the golf club in Seattle in July 2014.
Whitlatch, a 49-year-old longtime officer, was fired as a result of the incident.
In court, she denied race played a role in her decision to detain Wingate after she says he swung a golf club toward her patrol car as she drove by him.
Wingate maintained he never swung the club.
___
Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
