SEATTLE — Detectives with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and a King County Prosecutor are accused of fabricating evidence and not disclosing exculpatory evidence in a new lawsuit.
Sloan Stanley, a former Seattle resident now living in Idaho, was convicted of cyberstalking in 2015. He was again convicted in 2018 of making threats towards the women as well as the judge and others who were involved with his case. Stanley was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison, just before he was set to be released from custody on the prior conviction.
However, Stanley was released from custody in April 2023 after a Mason County Superior Court Judge ruled that prosecutors had not established probable cause to support the charges.
Stanley filed the lawsuit last week in federal court, saying the defendants "fabricated the probable cause upon which they falsely arrested and imprisoned Mr. Stanley for more than 2000 days during the prime of his life."
According to the lawsuit, the allegations came from a jailhouse informant, Randy Burleson, who had a criminal history and lied under oath during Stanley's first trial.
Burleson had said he had met Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, from his time behind bars. The lawsuit claims detectives had "hours of exculpatory audio" and prison records proved Burleson didn't ever meet Ridgway, yet they did not disclose to the court.
Due to the alleged threats being a year before they were reported, a second informant was placed in the prison to see if Stanley would repeat the threats. The second informant did not hear any threats, and a listening device hidden in Stanley's cell never caught any audio of any incriminating recordings.
One of the detectives wrote in a court document that Burleson had not asked for anything in exchange for his testimony against Stanley, but the lawsuit says Burleson sought a plea deal on a pending felony case for himself.
Stanley is suing King County, the City of Seattle as well as three individual detectives: Rande Christiansen, Nicholas Meyst and Jason Stolt. The King County prosecutor who handled the case, Gary Ernsdorff, is listed as a defendant.
