Rice v. City of Roy: $3.26 Million Federal Verdict for Two Men Shot by Police on a Snow Day

On February 9, 2019, David Rice and his nephew Seth Donahue were out on a Polaris RZR side-by-side, riding through 10 to 12 inches of fresh snow on trails, rail tracks, and the streets of Roy, a small town in south Pierce County, Washington. They had been drinking beer that day. City of Roy police officer Christopher Johnson moved to stop the vehicle. The two men say they never knew an officer was behind them.

Johnson fired four rounds into the side-by-side, two through the front windshield and two through the passenger window. Rice, who was driving, was hit in the groin and the shoulder, wounds his attorneys described as life threatening. Donahue, riding beside him, was shot in the wrist. Both men survived. Johnson was not seriously hurt.

The officer told a different story than the men he shot. Johnson said the RZR struck him after he got out of his patrol car to stop it following a pursuit through the storm. Rice and Donahue said there was no pursuit they could see. They described being ambushed at an intersection, blinded by a spotlight an instant before the gunfire.

The case went to trial in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, in Tacoma. Chris Dolan of the Dolan Law Firm stepped in as trial counsel four days before jury selection. Over 13 days, the plaintiffs' team built its case on surveillance video from a nearby business and on expert testimony. The footage showed that Johnson had no emergency lights on as he closed in, and that he pointed a spotlight into the cab of the RZR, which Rice said blinded him, right before he opened fire.

On September 23, 2021, the federal jury was unanimous. It found that Johnson violated the Fourth Amendment rights of both men by using excessive force, and it awarded $3,257,000 in damages: $2,208,000 to Rice and $1,049,000 to Donahue.

The award was not cut. The city first moved to challenge the result, then dropped that effort. As part of a settlement, Roy agreed to pay an additional $793,000 in attorneys' fees and costs, bringing the total to about $4.05 million, and the original verdict was formally vacated in exchange.