黑料福利社

A jury found that the city of Yakima and two former city officials were responsible for maliciously prosecuting a critic of a proposed downtown plaza.

The six-member panel found the city, former City Manager Tony O鈥橰ourke and former Deputy Fire Chief Mark Soptich responsible and awarded former H&H Furniture owner Mark Peterson聽$480,000 in damages. The verdict came Tuesday聽in Yakima County Superior Court after a five-day trial and a day of jury deliberations.

Jurors found that former fire inspector Tony Doan was not liable for Peterson鈥檚 claim of malicious prosecution.

The verdict closes a chapter in the dispute between Peterson and the city that dates back to 2013, when Peterson joined others in publicly objecting to a proposal to convert a downtown parking lot into a community plaza.

Peterson had no comment after the hearing, deferring to his attorneys.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a long road,鈥� said Matt Crotty, one of Peterson鈥檚 attorneys. But he said he was pleased with the jury鈥檚 decision.

City spokesman Randy Beehler said the city is reviewing the verdict and will be responding after that.

Peterson first filed suit in Superior Court in 2017 alleging that he was cited for failing to allow a fire inspector on his property to check a previously noted fire code violation in his store in 2013 after he and other business owners criticized the city鈥檚 plans to build a plaza replacing the parking lot by Millennium Plaza.

Voters and the Yakima City Council rejected the plaza plan in 2018.

The city argued that Doan, the inspector, was told by store staff that he was not allowed to conduct a follow-up inspection unless Peterson was there, and that Peterson refused to make himself available, and Doan turned the matter over to the city鈥檚 code enforcement department, which filed a permitting fire hazard charge against Peterson.

The charge was subsequently dismissed with prejudice in Yakima Municipal Court in November 2014.

Doan and Soptich, his superior, testified that they were never directed to pursue the charges, nor did they discuss the matter with O鈥橰ourke.

O鈥橰ourke, who left his position in 2015, died in 2023. Soptich has since retired and Doan no longer works for the city. H&H Furniture at 213 W. Yakima Ave.聽closed in 2023, for reasons unrelated to the case.

The city argued that the fire code citation was not based on Peterson鈥檚 criticism of the downtown plaza plan.聽

Years in court

The case was transferred to U.S. District Court, where a jury dismissed the case in 2022, finding that Peterson failed to provide clear and convincing evidence that the officials conspired to maliciously prosecute him for speaking out on the plaza, and rejected Peterson鈥檚 free-speech claims.

In 2023, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the jury verdict, finding that District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice incorrectly told jurors that, under Washington state law, a malicious prosecution began when a complaint was filed.

Under state law, the act of maliciously prosecuting someone can happen before a complaint is filed.

The appeals court ordered the case sent back for further proceedings on the malicious prosecution question.

Peterson鈥檚 case was sent back to the federal district, which in turn found no federal issues in the case and remanded it to Superior Court.

Jury verdict

The jury ordered the defendants to pay Peterson for the $4,000 in wages he said he lost fighting the misdemeanor charge, $189,000 in lost profits from his business as a result of the prosecution, $12,000 in attorney fees from the criminal prosecution and $275,000 in general damages.

Peterson can collect the money from all three defendants, or from one who could then sue the others for their share of the judgment.

The parties will be back before Judge James Elliott in May to discuss attorneys鈥� fees.

This story has been updated to include the city's response.