Judge: Officials Withheld Deputy's Troubling Record

King County slammed with $300,000 sanction, and possibility of huge lawsuit

A judge on Friday sharply rebuked King County for deliberately withholding information on a sheriff's deputy's troubling behavior from the attorneys of a man left permanently brain-damaged when tackled by the deputy in 2009.

Calling the county's failure to produce three key documents "reprehensible," Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend issued a $300,000 sanction against the county and left the door open for the family of Christopher Sean Harris to possibly receive millions more in compensatory damages.