Ethics Newsline®

SEATTLE
A Seattle judge last week ruled that police are allowed to use deception and in some cases break the law when trying to obtain evidence, rejecting a lawsuit by a man tricked into supplying DNA evidence that ties him to an unsolved murder.

John Nicholas Athan, who has been charged with a 1982 rape-murder, sued the Seattle police after they pretended to be a law firm offering him money as part of a class-action case.

Athan agreed to take part in the bogus lawsuit, sending his agreement in an envelope that he sealed with saliva. Police received the envelope and used DNA from Athan’s saliva to link him to the unsolved 1982 case.

After being arrested in May, Athan sued on the ground that it is illegal for detectives to pose as lawyers, saying the fraud violated his rights, reported the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Judge Sharon Armstrong last week rejected Athan’s suit, saying police can skirt the law — buying drugs or paying for prostitutes, for instance — when trying to crack a case.

“The mere fact that the police violated the law in posing as lawyers does not require dismissal,” she wrote, according to the Post-Intelligencer report.

Athan’s lawyer said he would appeal the ruling, saying “the issues here are of great importance to the integrity of our legal system.”