On July 28, 2021, the state Attorney General’s Office said that it does not have the authority to investigate Tesfatsion’s death and that it was up to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office to pursue the case. This was the first in-custody death at Lynnwood Jail since its opening in 1994. The death of Tesfatsion, lead to an outside investigation and protest by a defund the police movement. WCIA is an organization of 165 public entities in Washington state that assess liability risk and protect the fiscal assets of its members. In 2022, the Estate of Tirhas Berhand Tesfatsion filed a claim for $30,000,000 against the city of Lynnwood which was denied by the Washington Cities Insurance Authority in July of that year. Tirhas Berhand TesfatsionĪccording to the agreed offer of judgement by the Estate of Tirhas Berhand Tesfatsion which lists her son, Jonathan Yohannes as its personal representative, the settlement is to “amicably resolve this matter” and is not an admission that the city of Lynnwood, nor any of the five staff members named in the suit, are “liable” or “committed any unlawful act.” The city agreed to pay “reasonable attorney fees and costs” to the family and committed to provide Lynnwood Police annual training in the areas of suicide prevention, mental illness, addiction, and other related topics. On September 4, the city submitted an offer of judgement which was accepted by the family on September 7, resulting in the case being dismissed with prejudice on September 11, formally ending the litigation. The family filed a wrongful death suit against the city of Lynnwood and five staff members on July 12, 2023, in United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleging jail staff negligence contributed to the suicide of Tesfatsion. The agreement to additional training is to make sure that those that working the jail are up to date on doing what is needed to protect life.” “This was not the city of Lynnwood’s best moment, but we are hopeful that from this point forward, that the city of Lynnwood will be better than that tragic day.”īible added, “Our system of justice demands that we treat people humanely and that includes those who are incarcerated. “The Family will continue to do everything in their power to ensure this doesn’t happen again and this sort of tragedy will not occur in the future,” attorney James Bible of James Bible Law Groupwho represented the Estate of Tirhas Berhand Tesfatsion told the Lynnwood Times.
LYNNWOOD, Wash., September 17, 2023-The family of Tirhas Berhand Tesfatsion, a 47-year-old woman who committed suicide in the Lynnwood Jail on July 13, 2021, accepted a settlement offer, with conditions, by the city of Lynnwood in the amount of $1,750,001.
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