She called Tacoma police to enforce court order against ex. Then she was stabbed to death

TACOMA – A domestic-violence victim twice sought help from Tacoma police in the days before she was repeatedly and fatally stabbed by her ex-boyfriend, but officers neglected their duties to protect her, according to a recently filed wrongful-death lawsuit.

Pierce County prosecutors had said that Gaylee Valente-Curcio, 44, was stabbed 45 times by her former partner, Tony Rico Sanders, in November 2021 after he tracked her to a new residence, the News Tribune previously reported. Sanders, now 42, was later sentenced to life in prison for the deadly attack and also for stabbing and seriously injuring a bystander.

Gilbert Valente, as the personal representative of his daughter’s estate, sued the Tacoma Police Department through the city of Tacoma on Dec. 23, court records show. He accused police of failing to enforce a domestic-violence protective order that his daughter had obtained against Sanders shortly before her death, court records show.

Instead of arresting him for repeated threats and other actions, police allowed Sanders to violate the no-contact order “with impunity” in the days preceding Valente-Curcio’s murder, according to the lawsuit filed in Pierce County Superior Court.

“Notwithstanding the clear, emergent, and escalating nature of Gaylee’s situation and calls for help,” the suit said, “Tacoma Police Department officers failed to adequately investigate the violations of the No-Contact Order or carry out a mandatory arrest in accordance with Washington law, leaving Gaylee vulnerable and allowing Sanders to take her life.”

The city declined to comment on the allegations, citing its practice of not publicly addressing pending litigation.

Attorney Samuel Daheim, who’s representing the victim’s father, said in a statement that Valente-Curcio had done everything to seek help from the system.

“She was failed by TPD’s refusal to respond to her calls for help,” he said. “The family hopes that a civil lawsuit can hold law enforcement accountable for these failures and provide a measure of justice.”

The suit is seeking unspecified damages to be proven at trial, legal fees and other relief.

Lawsuit alleges negligence, wrongful death

Before Valente-Curcio was killed, she had been the victim of domestic violence, according to the lawsuit.

A few weeks prior to mid-October 2021, Sanders purportedly choked Valente-Curcio to the point of losing consciousness, the suit said. A subsequent dispute at her home on Oct. 15, 2021, prompted her to flee and neighbors to call 911 several times.

Officers arrived but ultimately left after they couldn’t find her, according to the legal complaint, which said that Sanders had been uncooperative and threatened to shoot the officers if they walked onto the property.

When officers ultimately made contact with Valente-Curcio elsewhere, her face was swollen in several areas, and she alleged that Sanders had repeatedly pushed her to the ground, choked her and dragged her by the hair, the court filing said.

Sanders wasn’t taken into custody despite an officer stating that there was probable cause to arrest him for fourth-degree domestic violence assault, according to the suit. With Valente-Curcio in a safe environment at a hospital, officers returned to the home but decided it was safer to again leave due to Sanders’ continued hostility and threats to shoot police, the complaint said.

Sanders was arrested the next day for driving under the influence by a different police agency and released to Tacoma authorities to be booked for the domestic-violence assault, according to the suit. Two days later, Valente-Curcio obtained a court order prohibiting him from contacting or coming within 1,000 feet of her, among other restrictions.

Sanders began violating the order’s conditions immediately upon his release from jail on Oct. 25, 2021, according to the lawsuit, which alleged that he called and messaged Valente-Curcio from an unknown number.

Valente-Curcio left her home on Trafton Street and moved to another residence in Central Tacoma, the News Tribune previously reported. She twice called police – on Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, 2021 – to report multiple violations of the court order, the suit said.

Valente-Curcio reported that Sanders had been staying at the Trafton Street home and making threatening statements in calls or texts, according to the lawsuit. She also reported that her vehicle’s windows were broken out and that she witnessed Sanders at the new unit she was renting shortly after its electrical lines were cut.

The complaint alleges that officers made no reported efforts to contact or arrest Sanders despite there being clear evidence of court-order violations. One officer documented that there wasn’t “exact proof” that Sanders had been the one who cut the rented unit’s power or broke the vehicle’s windows, the suit said.

Valente-Curcio was stabbed on Nov. 5, 2021, two days after her last call to police, when Sanders tracked her to her new residence in the 3100 block of South 9th Street, according to prosecutors. She was found inside her vehicle in an alley, taken to a hospital and died from her injuries on Nov. 13, the News Tribune previously reported.

The lawsuit stated she was stabbed approximately 31 times – 14 fewer times than prosecutors had alleged, according to previous reporting.

“What happened to Gaylee was preventable,” Daheim said. “She should still be alive.”