OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington’s Supreme Court has reinstated a $250,000 verdict against the Tacoma Police Department after officers broke open the door of the wrong apartment during a drug investigation. Nurse Kathleen Mancini was sleeping in her Federal Way apartment after working a night shift in 2011 when eight Tacoma officers busted in and handcuffed her. They were looking for a suspected drug dealer who lived in a nearby unit and failed to verify his address before mistakenly obtaining a search warrant for Mancini’s apartment. A jury awarded Mancini $250,000, but an appeals court threw it out. The justices said in an 8-1 decision Thursday the police failed to exercise reasonable care in executing the search warrant.
Justices: Tacoma police liable for search of wrong apartment
