King County deputy found not guilty of assault after allegedly punching handcuffed suspect

A jury has found a King County deputy not guilty of assault.

King County Sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Good was accused of punching a suspect while handcuffing and buckling him into his seat in the back of a patrol car after the suspect kicked Good and other officers.

A panel of five men and one woman deliberated for just over an hour Friday.

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The incident involving Deputy Good happened during a domestic violence call in SeaTac on March 7, 2023. According to Good, the SeaTac suspect has already assaulted a woman and police officers after he had consumed a THC product.

“Every one of the witnesses testified that he stepped in there in the middle of an act of assault,” Good’s defense attorney, Nick Gross, told KIRO Newsradio. “The other officer who was getting kicked clearly wasn’t ready for that to happen and got kicked several times and hadn’t been able to defend themselves.”

The jury also returned a special verdict requiring the state to reimburse all of Deputy Good’s legal fees related to the case.

“The facts that were initially reported are not what came out at trial,” Gross added.

Good’s initial assault charge

Good was charged with assault in the fourth degree last year after court documents stated he stepped in and “punched Teson (the suspect arrested) six to eight times in the chest.”

Previous reporting on Good: King County Sheriff’s deputy charged with assault after March incident

Other deputies present reportedly intervened and separated Good from Teson while a sergeant on the scene said Good’s use of force was “neither necessary nor proportional for the situation.”

After the report was submitted to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review, they retained a use-of-force expert to review Good’s use of force. The expert concluded Good’s use of force “was not necessary and was unreasonable,” and later added “gratuitous force” was used.

Good “engaged in a series of poor police tactics and use of force that created an officer and citizen safety hazard and increased the risk of injury to the involved parties,” the expert said toward the end of the report, according to the charging documents.

Good was subsequently placed on administrative leave, according to KIRO 7.

Contributing: Steve Coogan, MyNorthwest

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.