Man acquitted in boy's death sues King County sheriff, medical examiner
An Auburn man who spent more than five years in jail before being acquitted in the death of his girlfriend's 2-year-old son has sued the King County sheriff's office and medical examiner, alleging a malicious prosecution based in racism.
The lawsuit filed by D'Andre Glaspy alleges the sheriff's office and medical examiner conspired to deprive him of his constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial during their investigation into the death of the child, identified in court as Moses" or by the initials "MHA."
The complaint alleges police immediately assumed the child was a victim of abuse because Glaspy was a large Black man. It goes on to argue the medical examiner's office, taking a cue from police inquiries, failed to identify that the child was suffering from a severe viral infection and pneumonia. Outside medical experts opined that injuries suffered by the child - including broken ribs and internal injuries - likely occurred when Glaspy attempted to perform CPR on the child, relying on improper instructions from a 911 dispatcher.
"The defendant officers did not and were not conducting an honest investigation and, instead, rushed to accuse a poor, single Black man of violence and killing a baby because of their assumptions about his race," according to the complaint.
"Together, the medical examiner defendants and defendant officers wrote a series of documents that were exemplary of racial bias … to falsely accuse (Glaspy) of homicide despite evidence - and common sense - to the contrary."
The county pathologists "agreed to write a report claiming MHA's death was a 'homicide' even though they knew, or should have known, that this claim was untrue, ran contrary to medical evidence, and was obviously unreliable," according to the complaint.
Glaspy was babysitting the child on Dec. 3, 2017. MHA had been fussy and a week earlier had been taken to Seattle Children's for a rash. While there, the child was seen by members of the hospital's "Suspected Child Abuse and Neglect" team, who found no evidence of either.
Glaspy said he left the child in the bathroom and returned to find the toddler unconscious and not breathing. The lawsuit alleges a dispatcher instructed him to perform CPR and included instructions that Glaspy - a large man - "push hard on (Moses') chest."
"These injuries were obviously consistent with CPR" and "were not there before the fact and that were not - in any way - from abuse," the lawsuit argues.
Glaspy was charged with second-degree murder on Dec. 8, 2017, and faced up to life in prison. He was jailed with bail set at $1 million.
Over the ensuing years, his public defense attorneys Anna Samuel and Michael Schueler rounded up a group of medical experts who challenged the medical examiner's findings, arguing that apparent bruising on the boy's body resulted from virus-induced blood clots, not blows, and that blood samples - untested by the medical examiner's office - showed signs of a severe viral infection that included swelling of the brain.
The lawsuit alleges detectives used "abusive tactics" while questioning Glaspy and "falsely mischaracterized" statements he made at the scene while he was in shock and grieving "in a manner they knew or should have known would yield unreliable evidence.
Glaspy was acquitted by a 12-member jury in March following a 14-week trial.
The lawsuit alleges violations of Glaspy's 14th Amendment rights to a fair trial and equal protection and his Fourth Amendment guarantee against improper seizure. It also alleges failure to intervene, conspiracy, malicious prosecution, outrage and negligence.
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