The Mark Domino Lawsuit: How a Walmart Parking Lot Became the Site of a Civil Rights Battle

In Clarkston, Washington, it was a typical late June afternoon. Mark Domino had just left his job at Walmart. With his backpack slung over one shoulder, he crossed the parking lot on his way to his motorcycle. It was the kind of routine conclusion to a workday that millions of Americans go through every day without any problems.

For Domino, that walk marked the start of more than a year of legal hardship, public scrutiny, and a struggle for something that most people never have to fight for: the freedom to live without being viewed as a criminal.

Category	Details
Full Name	Mark A. Domino
Age at Time of Incident	52 years old
Ethnicity	Black / African American
Occupation	Walmart Employee, Clarkston, Washington
Location of Incident	Clarkston Walmart Parking Lot, Washington State
Date of Arrest	June 24, 2019
Charges Filed	Resisting Arrest, Obstruction of a Law Enforcement Officer
Charges Against Him Dismissed	Yes — fully dismissed
Settlement Amount	$25,000 from city’s insurance carrier
Original Tort Claim Filed	$5 million
City Attorney	Todd Richardson
Police Chief	Joel Hastings
Presiding Judge	Judge Tina Kernan
Community Supporter	Mary Minton, Clarkston
Internal Investigation Result	Officers cleared of wrongdoing
Case Duration	Over a year (June 2019 – September 2020)

A Black man in the Clarkston Walmart parking lot was reported by a 911 caller as possibly prowling cars. Domino had just gotten off work when the police arrived, and he opened the doors of his own car before making his way to his nearby motorcycle. Lansing State Journal The prowler wasn’t him. He was not the prowler, according to the evidence. However, he fit the description of a Black man with a backpack and a specific height, and that seemed to be sufficient on a warm summer’s evening in small-town Washington.

Domino refused to give up his identification when officers approached him and demanded to know why he was being held. After being shocked with a stun gun, he was placed on the ground and placed in handcuffs

Lansing State Journal It’s difficult to ignore the bitter logic at play here: a man who was aware of his rights, knew he was innocent, asked a perfectly reasonable question, and paid for it with a taser and the pavement. He was not prosecuted for car prowling. He was never prosecuted for car prowling. He was accused of pushing back.

In essence, Domino, a 52-year-old grandfather, was arrested for opening his own car door. Change.org His arrest video quickly went viral on social media, stopping users in their tracks. A certain unease arises when one watches it, not only because of the force employed but also because of how ordinary the scene was. A man completing his task. A parking area. A miscommunication that never truly existed.

Domino wanted the obstruction and resisting arrest charges to be completely dropped, even though he had been given a 90-day deferment early in the case. KLEW He represented himself for the majority of the proceedings, which is impressive in and of itself.

This was a man who worked in retail, read case law at night, filed motions, appeared in courtroom after courtroom, and insisted on something the system seemed hesitant to grant him: recognition that he had done nothing wrong.

He claimed that stress-related illnesses had prevented him from working for two months and that he had spent numerous hours studying the law, submitting motions, and accruing court expenses. Lansing State Journal Eventually, the city’s prosecutor acknowledged that the officers might have been a little “impatient” during the arrest; considering what the video showed, this word choice seemed almost purposefully minimal. Journal of Lansing State “Impatient.”

That word may have been carefully chosen as a legal softening of something much more difficult to say aloud. It seems that the city’s insurance carrier’s input, rather than the city’s own abrupt change of heart, was responsible for the abrupt shift toward settlement. Lansing State Journal The specifics are important. It implies that if there was a moral reckoning, there was a cost.

In the end, the city of Clarkston agreed to pay Mark Domino $25,000 in order to settle a case that had initially garnered media attention more than a year earlier and dropped all criminal charges against him. As part of the settlement, Lansing State Journal Domino agreed to drop his initial $5 million tort claim. Simply put, he expressed his relief that it was over.

“Now we can start getting our life back together,” he replied. Lansing State Journal The suggestion that his life had somewhat collapsed in the intervening months is a subtly heartbreaking aspect of that sentence.

Clarkston resident Mary Minton assisted in setting up events at the courthouse and a Facebook page in support of Domino. When the charges were dropped, she was present in the courtroom. Lansing State Journal It turns out that small-town unity is still possible.

The city’s initial faith in Domino’s case appeared to be undermined by the community’s outpouring of support. There’s a sense that this story would have ended very differently without the video, Mary Minton, and public pressure, with Domino potentially going to jail for a year for simply asking a question.

The Mark Domino lawsuit never attained the magnitude of cases that sparked legislative reactions or nationwide demonstrations. In many respects, it continued to be a local tale. However, local narratives often contain the most lucid representations of broader realities. Due in part to high-profile instances of excessive force, Washington State would later enact comprehensive legislation pertaining to police accountability.

Domino’s case, despite its quiet nature, had become part of the larger discourse in his community. Yahoo! As part of the agreement, Domino and the Clarkston Police Department met to talk about how similar circumstances might be handled in the future. This was a tiny but significant step.

Domino claimed that the money was not what he most desired. It was an apology. Whether he ever received one in its entirety is still unknown. The city lawyer spoke respectfully. The chief of police said he hoped for communication. The fact that neither party acknowledged misconduct is both standard legal language and, depending on your point of view, a statement in and of itself. A grandfather who went to work was tased in a parking lot. No one was in error. The case has been closed.