TACOMA, Wash. — Tuesday evening, the Tacoma City Council approved a payout to one of the officers acquitted in the death of Manuel Ellis.
Timothy Rankine will receive an additional $600,000 from the city after filing a $47,000,000 tort claim last year.
Rankine was late to the scene where Manuel Ellis was violently arrested in 2020.
He was charged with lesser crimes than former officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, but all three were found not guilty during their 2023 trial.
Rankine filed the tort claim, claiming, among many things, defamation by the city.
This marks what could be the end of an expensive five years for the city, in this case.
Each officer was paid $500,000 to resign.
Tuesday’s decision bumps Rankine over $1,000,000 in total payouts.
The other officers have been fairly quiet since the trial.
Burbank was hired, then almost immediately resigned from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department after community backlash.
The City of Tacoma also paid out $6,000,000 to the Ellis family. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit. The county also paid the Ellis family. They made one of the first settlements, totaling $4,000,000.
That brings the total payouts in this case to more than $12,000,000. That figure excludes all the time and money dedicated by investigative teams, prosecutors, and defense attorneys in the more than three years this was an active case and during the trial.
Last week, KIRO 7 reported -- the U.S. Attorney’s Office ended its federal inquiry into the Ellis case. That means no federal charges or lawsuits will be filed against the officers.
©2025 Cox Media Group
