OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington’s Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated a $250,000 verdict against the Tacoma Police Department after officers broke open the door of the wrong apartment during a drug investigation.
Nurse Kathleen Mancini was sleeping in her Federal Way apartment after working a night shift in 2011 when eight Tacoma officers busted in, handcuffed her and searched the place.
They were looking for a suspected drug dealer who lived in a nearby unit and failed to verify his address before mistakenly obtaining a search warrant for Mancini’s apartment.
A jury awarded Mancini $250,000, but an appeals court threw it out, saying claims for “negligent investigation” are not recognized under Washington law. The justices said in an 8-1 decision Thursday the police were liable under a theory of general negligence because they failed to exercise reasonable care in executing the search warrant.
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