On July 21, 2026, the en banc panel of Seattle Municipal Court (SMC) Judges Catherine McDowall, Andrea Chin and Damon Shadid issued their ruling on the Delta-9 THC cases.   The defendants in these consolidated cases moved to suppress all Delta-9 THC results by the Washington State Tox Lab under Frye and ER 702.  They also moved to dismiss or suppress based on allegations that the Washington State Patrol (WSP) Lab (and by extension, the Seattle City Attorney’s Office) violated Brady, CrRLJ 4.7 and CrRLJ 8.3 by failing to alert the public about increased detection of a Delta-8 interferent in blood samples when they first began noticing the increase in 2020. 

In a unanimous decision, SMC judges denied the motions to suppress and to dismiss.  Judge Shadid filed a concurring opinion.  In that opinion, he found the Brady, CrRLJ 4.7 and CrRLJ 8.3 violations had occurred, but denied the motion to dismiss on the grounds that no prejudice was shown based on a retrospective analysis conducted by the WSP Lab that confirmed the validity of the results they reported out. 

For more information, please visit https://www.seattle.gov/courts/for-attorneys/en-banc-rulings.