Follow the money Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson paid to prosecute three Tacoma police officers for the death of Manuel Ellis , and you’ll find a high-profile attorney, pricey jury consultants, kebab lunches, prominent experts and a lot of coffee.
More than $4 million was spent on legal services, expert witnesses, consultants, a private investigator and trial expenses from February 2021 through December last year, according to invoices and receipts released to The News Tribune through a public records request.
That figure is just a piece of the financial costs for various government agencies that stem from the March 3, 2020, death of Ellis in police custody and the subsequent criminal case — one of the most notable to come out of Tacoma in recent memory.
It doesn’t factor in how much the Attorney General’s Office paid its own employees for time spent working on the case. That includes assistant attorney generals Kent Liu and Lori Nicolavo, who helped lead prosecutors’ trial team with special prosecutor Patty Eakes, who was hired as a contractor.