King County will pay $225,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by a Black man who was arrested on drug charges after a veteran detective made false statements to obtain a search warrant, including misidentifying him in a photo.
Detective Kathleen Decker, a now-retired 33-year veteran of the King County Sheriff’s Office, was looking for a murder weapon when she asked a Washington state judge for a warrant to search the car and apartment of Seattle resident Gizachew Wondie in 2018. At the time, federal agents were separately looking into Wondie’s possible involvement in selling drugs.
