SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — A Spokane County jury has awarded more than $700,000 to a police detective who contended he was wrongly fired by Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.
Detective Jay Mehring was fired after a jury acquitted him in October 2008 of allegations he’d threatened to kill his wife during a messy divorce. He’d been placed on unpaid layoff status in March 2007 after charges were filed.
Jurors on Friday ruled that the city violated Mehring’s rights to due process, and that the city of Spokane and Kirkpatrick intentionally or recklessly inflicted distress.
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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesman.com