A fired Seattle police officer is suing the city for wrongful termination and damages, claiming he was fired over body camera footage that showed him appearing to joke and laugh after a woman was assaulted and killed. Police car.
Former Seattle police officer Daniel Oderer has filed a lawsuit against the city of Seattle seeking $20 million in damages, just weeks after he was fired for his actions following the death of Janavi Kandula, a 23-year-old Northeastern University student.
Oderer is suing for defamation, wrongful termination and emotional distress, as well as $200,000 a year in lost wages.
Seattle Police patrol vehicle strikes and kills 23-year-old woman
Seattle Police Department patch. (Jenna Martin/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Following his comments and his firing following a recent investigation, Oderer claimed his comments were quoted out of context.
“The Seattle Police Department leaked false information and my personal information regarding disciplinary proceedings that were wrongfully initiated,” Oderer said in the lawsuit.
Seattle police officers laughing after woman’s death in crash reported out of context
He also claimed he was wrongfully fired because of his leadership role in the Seattle police officers’ union.
“Then the SPD unfairly fired me, which, at least in the eyes of my union leadership, was an act of retaliation.”
In a statement To FOX 13 Interim Seattle Police Chief Sue Lahr defended the decision to fire Oderer.
“At the heart of this case is a very difficult balancing act between intent and effect,” Lahr said. [of] This individual officer has brought shame on the Seattle Police Department and our entire profession, making the jobs of all police officers much more difficult.”
A Seattle police officer has been fired for making an insensitive remark about an Indian graduate student who was hit and killed by another officer’s car in a crosswalk last year. (Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times via The Associated Press, File)
A 23-year-old woman was killed when she was struck by a Seattle police vehicle driven by another officer.
In body camera footage previously released by Seattle police, Oderer can be heard calling Kandura a “normal person” and saying, “Write me a check. It’s for $11,000. She’s only 26 years old and has limited value.”
Click here to get the FOX News app
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Seattle Police Department and the City of Seattle for comment.
