The city of Torrance, 15 miles southwest of Los Angeles, has paid a man $750,000 after he accused two of its police officers of spray-painting a swastika on his car seat in 2020. The payout settles a federal lawsuit filed by Kiley Swaine last year. In his complaint, Swaine said that his car had been towed after he’d been arrested on suspicion of mail fraud. When he’d gone to collect it two days later, he found the seats covered in protein powder and cereal. A white spray-paint smiley face had been drawn on the front seat, according to the suit, while a white swastika covered the back seat.
Swaine, described by The Washington Post as “part Jewish,” accused the two officers who’d arrested him, Cody Weldin and Christopher Tomsic, of the vandalism. The pair were charged in connection with the case by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office in August 2021. Both have pleaded not guilty, and the case against them remains ongoing. ““I have been suing police officers for 39 years and I have never seen anything like this,” Swaine’s attorney, Jerry Steering, said in a news release. Read more at The Washington Post.
