$25M claim filed over deputy's tackle
06:22 PM PDT on Tuesday, August 25, 2009
JENNIFER CABALA / KING 5 News
Video: $25M claim filed over King Co. deputy's tackle
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SEATTLE - The family of an innocent man left in a coma after a deputy harsh tackled him has filed a $25 million claim against King County.
In the early morning hours of Mother's Day, there was a beating and stabbing at Second and Bell. A witness wrongly identified 29-year-old Christopher Harris as a suspect.
Harris ran, and deputies followed. Harris then stopped a few blocks away at the Cinerama Theater, and Deputy Mathew Paul tackled him, knocking him into a wall.
Harris suffered a severe brain injury and was taken to Harborview Medical Center. He's been in a coma ever since.
The sheriff's department has since cleared Paul, but the family's attorney says the department is responsible for what they are calling an appalling act.
Harris' family says his medical bills are approaching $1 million, and they want the Sheriff's Department to cover his lifelong medical costs and the emotional distress his brain injury has caused his wife, Sarah.
She says her husband will likely never wake up. She has left her job and spends all day with him at the long-term care facility where he lives now.
Christopher Harris
As she sat rubbing her husband's wedding ring on a chain around her neck she explained the money could mean her husband could be home with her.
"Whatever we need to be able to bring him home," she said. "I'll be there to take care of him but of course I'm going to need help with that,' she said.
The claim is just the first step toward a lawsuit. The attorney says that if the department doesn't settle within the 60 day holding period, then they plan to sue.
$25M claim filed over deputy's tackle | Northwest News | KREM.com | News for Spokane, Washington