Seattle Settles Lawsuit Over Beating, Tasing of Mentally Disabled Man for $34,000

The going rate for civil rights violations is in the five figures

The city of Seattle has paid $34,000 to settle a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by a mentally disturbed man who was beaten with fists, batons, flashlights and shocked with a Taser by Seattle police after he had been mistakenly released from jail.

The videotaped arrest of Daniel Macio Saunders in the foyer of the Police Department's evidence room in Georgetown in June 2009 was among the incidents cited by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington in requesting a Department of Justice civil-rights investigation. The investigation determined that officers routinely used excessive force.