On December 27, 2013, a Latino individual filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court in the Western District of Washington. He sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act against the United States of America, specifically the United States Border Patrol (USBP) and the Anacortes Police Department (APD) in Anacortes, WA. The plaintiff, represented by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, asked the court for compensatory damages and attorney fees on the basis of five claims: false arrest, false imprisonment, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and abuse of process. Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that that the APD improperly took him into custody during a routine traffic stop when they suspected that he was not in the country legally.

On March 23, 2015, Judge James L. Robart granted summary judgment partially in favor of the plaintiff and partially in favor of the government. On the counts of false arrest and false imprisonment, Judge Robart determined that the police acted outside their authority when they initially took the plaintiff into custody, but that later, after the plaintiff admitted that he was in the country illegally, it was proper to place him in a detention center. On the other three counts, Judge Robart granted summary judgment to the government.

Shortly after, the parties reached a settlement agreement of $10,000. The plaintiff further recovered $8,500 from the Anacortes Police Department in a separate complaint. As a result, on March 31, 2015, the court dismissed the remaining claims and closed the case.

Allison Hight - 10/05/2015


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