Man arrested in Washington state after detective made false statements gets $225,000 settlement

By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — King County has agreed to pay $225,000 to settle a lawsuit by a Black man who was arrested after a veteran detective made false statements under oath in obtaining a search warrant against him. Now-retired sheriff’s Detective Kathleen Decker 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. Decker said a gun he owned was the same weapon that had been used to kill a 22-year-old woman. In reality, the gun was only a potential match, and Decker claimed that a different Black man pictured in a photo holding a gun was Wondie.