Washington will pay $250,000 settlement

SEATTLE – A black woman who accused a State Patrol trooper of race discrimination during a traffic stop in 2002 has agreed to a $250,000 settlement with the state.

In exchange for the deal, Shirley Lacy must drop the discrimination element of her civil-rights claim, therefore resolving the remaining allegation of police misconduct by Trooper Karen Villeneuve, who is white.

Jesse Wing, a lawyer for Lacy, said the settlement was “a pretty substantial victory and slam on the Washington State Patrol. They’re going to have to look at what happened that led them to paying this kind of money.”

Villeneuve’s behavior is being investigated by internal affairs, said Capt. Jeff DeVere, a patrol spokesman.

He added that the department continues to stand by the trooper. Lacy agreeing to drop her claim “tells me that maybe they agree that that claim was baseless,” DeVere said

The agreement was reached as U.S. District Judge James Robart was preparing to rule on the case that he heard without a jury last month.

Assistant Attorney General Paul Triesch said the state was motivated to settle after a post-trial meeting with Robart.

Villeneuve, 35, had earlier rejected settling the case, court papers show.

During trial, she said she pulled Lacy over June 11, 2002, on the Columbia Way onramp to northbound Interstate 5 in Seattle because she was driving in a restricted HOV lane.

Lacy, Villeneuve said, was “jittery” and “animated” and kept asking why she had been stopped, leading the trooper to believe the driver was under the influence.

Villeneuve also said she spotted what appeared to be rock cocaine in the console between the front seats of Lacy’s SUV, along with a razor blade. Lacy was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of drugs and possession of a controlled substance.

However, another trooper with expertise in drug detection determined Lacy was not impaired. And lab tests showed what Villeneuve saw was children’s cereal. Lacy had used the razor blade to scrape dried glue off her windshield so she could reattach the rearview mirror.

Lacy contends she was nervous because Villeneuve didn’t explain why she had been stopped. She said Villeneuve never said anything overtly racial, but testified the trooper issued “snappy orders,” used sarcasm and had a “rude tone.”

Lacy’s attorneys presented data from a Washington State University study of State Patrol traffic stops and had it analyzed by University of Washington sociology professor Avery Mason Guest.

He said data showed that among 33 troopers who patrol the same area and have 500 or more traffic stops, Villeneuve stopped the highest percentage of African Americans.

He said statistics indicated Villeneuve’s “disproportionate treatment of African Americans was not the product of chance but of design.”