NOAH JAMES PETERSON - 4 months (2007) - Arlington WA

A woman who claimed police in Arlington and Lake Stevens rushed to
judgment when they arrested her after her baby's death in 2007 has
settled a civil-rights lawsuit against the cities for $2,000, an amount
the officers' lawyers described as "a minimum-value nuisance
settlement."

Bonnie Peterson, also known as Bobbie Desmond, filed the federal
lawsuit last year against the departments, four officers involved in the
investigation, and the Snohomish County Prosecutor's Office after the
charges were dropped in the death of her 4-month-old son, Noah. The baby
was found with a pacifier taped in his mouth on June 18, 2007.

Peterson spent 10 days in jail, missing her child's funeral.

She was released and the charges dropped when an autopsy found no
connection between the taped-in pacifier and the child's death, which
was officially listed as undetermined. The medical examiner's report
wasn't released until that September.

"My clients were certain they'd done absolutely nothing wrong and
that the plaintiff was very fortunate to avoid prosecution and
conviction for contributing to the death of her baby," the officers'
attorney, Richard Jolley, said in an e-mail on the settlement, which was
reached last month.

"It was a case we were confident in winning, but felt we couldn't
justify the expense and time to defend the case all the way through the
process when we could settle it for a small sum," he wrote.

The amount, he said, likely didn't cover the expenses of filing the
lawsuit.

Telephone messages left for comment with Peterson's attorney, Thomas
Olmstead, of Poulsbo, were not returned. Efforts to contact Peterson
were not successful.

When Noah James Peterson was found dead, the case caused a brief
media frenzy.

Peterson, who at the time was not yet married and was named Bonnie
Desmond, told police she woke up around 11 a.m. and found the child
dead. She called her fiancé, then 911.

Paramedics estimated the baby had been dead for several hours. And
they learned Peterson had used a strip of clear tape to hold a pacifier
in his mouth.

Peterson told police she had done so before because it helped Noah
sleep.That evening, police served a search warrant on the Peterson home,
then arrested her.

Snohomish County prosecutors filed a first-degree-manslaughter charge
against her in District Court, which was meant to hold her in jail
while they prepared a felony case for Superior Court.

Bail was set at $500,000. Ten days later, a judge reduced it to
$150,000 and Peterson's family helped her post a $15,000 bond to get out
of jail.

Snohomish County had earlier been dropped as a defendant in the suit.