A defamation suit against a Seattle City Council member can continue following a federal appellate court’s determination that comments made against two Seattle police officers following a fatal shooting were “of and concerning them.”
“At most, however, the district court has identified one reasonable interpretation of [Seattle City Council member Kshama] Sawant’s words, not the only reasonable interpretation,” U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote in the opinion. “Where a communication is capable of two meanings, one defamatory and one not, it is for a jury, not a judge, to determine which meaning controls.”
