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City of Seattle's High Priced Attorneys Appeal Wrongful Arrest Verdict

By David Packman

As predicted, the private attorneys that cost the city of Seattle over a million dollars a year in no-bid contracts to defend officers against misconduct charges have appealed a verdict against the city in the wrongful arrest federal civil rights lawsuit concerning Romelle Bradford.

Per the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the city's expensive lawyers proclaimed:

"...the jury issued an inconsistent verdict. For example, jurors decided Briskey had a right that night to stop Bradford for questioning but not to arrest him. The city's private attorneys, Moses Garcia and Anne Bremner, also argued that police officers have "qualified immunity" against such lawsuits if they are doing their jobs and have reason to believe they aren't violating anyone's rights."

Bradford's lawyer, Lem Howell, says in reply:

"the city is "full of prunes" and is wasting taxpayers' money pursuing the appeal.

Because of the verdict, the city is also on the hook for Bradford's attorneys fees as well as its own. The total cost of the case including fees -- already more than $500,000 -- will rise considerably if the city doesn't prevail in its appeal, Howell said."

The the hubris of the city and it's high-priced lawyers knows no bounds and their egos find it impossible to ever admit mistakes or wrongdoing, let alone sufficiently enough to make things right when mistakes or intentional abuses do occur in a way that wouldn't end up costing taxpayers over twice as much as it would have to just sit down with the people they wrong and offer reasonable restitution help for harms done.

We'll let you know when the city's total cost for this folly blows up to over a million, which shouldn't take long at all. Prior to appeals, the city's legal costs alone were approaching the cost of the judgment (estimated at $190,000), if appeals continue they'll eclipse the amount of the judgment itself... so much for the notion that the city is appealing the verdict to save money. It's all about saving face and covering up for the failed half-hearted attempts to reign in police misconduct.

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on June 02, 2008 (boomark / email).