A Wrongful Arrest on Seattle's Streets
A British subject traveling through the Northwest sues the Seattle police chief for $8,000 following a baseless jail stay.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Chief of Police Thomas R. Delaney has been made defendant in an $8,000 damage action filed in the federal court by Mahesh Charan Sinha, who was arrested July 8. The plaintiff is a Hindu who is traveling through this country. He was arrested by Patrolman Kent on orders from the chief of police and locked up in the city jail, where he was kept all night. The charge against Sinha was that he had attempted to assault a young woman. When the case came to trial the young woman stated that Sinha had not laid hands on her, but had merely followed her. Sinha lived in the vicinity of her home, and the fact that he walked home near the young lady on several occasions was shown to be merely a coincidence. Judge George discharged the defendant. Sinha alleges that he was confined in a filthy and loathsome cell in the city jail, and that he was greatly humiliated. He says that he was not allowed to consult with the British vice consul, notwithstanding the fact that he asked permission to communicate with that official, stating that he was a British subject.
“Sinha alleges that he was confined in a filthy and loathsome cell in the city jail, and that he was greatly humiliated.”
This 1904 report details the profiling and incarceration of a traveler based on prejudice, a stark reminder of the era's exclusionary practices and the struggle for rights by people of color in Pacific Northwest cities.
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