SEATTLE — The Washington State Patrol has agreed to pay $105,000 to settle a civil-rights lawsuit filed by a man who claimed he was wrongly accused of assaulting a state trooper during a 2017 protest against President Donald Trump.
Kieran Moulton Shell claimed in a federal lawsuit filed last year that he was the “victim of a blatantly false pretextual” arrest during pro- and anti-Trump rallies March 4, 2017, in Olympia.
Shell says he was falsely accused of being one of a small group of protesters who assaulted a state trooper. He spent two days in jail and months under the shadow of felony assault charges before the case was dropped because Shell proved he already was in custody — for vandalizing police “do not cross” tape — when the trooper was attacked.
The lawsuit said the pro-Trump demonstrators were “given unrestricted access to the park and law enforcement support” while the anti-Trump protesters “were restricted to a small area, roped in with police tape, and surrounded and interspersed with patrol troopers in riot gear.”
