56 Arrested At Seattle Mardi Gras Celebration

Police blanketed the Pioneer Square neighborhood during Mardi Gras Tuesday night and made 56 arrests, KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reported.

Spokesman Rich Pruitt said the arrests were for domestic violence, assault, outstanding warrants and one indecent exposure.

There were no injuries.

Last week, Jerell Thomas, 22, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the beating death of 20-year-old Kristopher Kime during a 2001 Mardi Gras disturbance.

A jury convicted Thomas in 2001 of second-degree murder, finding that he killed Kime with a blind-side punch as Kime was trying to help a woman who had been attacked.

Later, the state Supreme Court ruled that assault causing an unintentional death could not be the basis for a second-degree murder charge, and Thomas' conviction was overturned. Prosecutors then filed a manslaughter charge.