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Three Seattle police officers have been cleared of wrongdoing for using their fists, batons, a flashlight and a Taser to subdue a wanted man during a videotaped arrest last June in the lobby of the department's Georgetown evidence room.

Department spokeswoman Renee Witt, speaking for Acting Deputy Chief Nick Metz, said the three officers were "exonerated" by the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), meaning that a preponderance of the evidence showed their conduct was "justified, lawful and proper," according to the OPA definition.

Daniel Macio Saunders, a 47-year-old felon, had been mistakenly released from the King County Jail on June 10, four days after he had allegedly broken into a Rainier Valley church, naked and covered with blood. According to court and jail records, Saunders has hepatitis C, a contagious and dangerous blood-borne illness, and the church had to be treated as a hazardous-waste site during cleanup.