FLINT, MI - The city of Flint is paying to settle a lawsuit after police allegedly confiscated a Genesee County woman's vehicle for a murder investigation and then accidentally sold it in an auction.

On Monday, July 10, Flint City Council signed off on the settlement agreement to award Jamie Thompson $7,500 in damages after she argued that her constitutional rights were violated when Flint Police Sgt. Ronald Dixon confiscated her 2004 Chevy Tahoe for a murder investigation and then sold it at an auction.

According to Thompson's complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in April 2017, Dixon seized her car on August, 10 2015 for a murder investigation in which Thompson was a witness but never charged with a crime.

Three days later, on August 13, Thompson was surprised to receive an "Abandoned Vehicle - Bill of Sale" notice from the police department, the complaint said.

When Thompson called the police sergeant to inquire why her vehicle was being sold when it wasn't abandoned, Dixon reassured her that the mailing was an error and that the vehicle would not be sold, according to the complaint.

While the Flint Police Department's vehicle impoundment and inventory record sheet for Thompson's car said "hold," on March 3, 2016, the police department sold the Chevy Tahoe at an auction, according to the complaint. Thompson was never notified of the vehicle's sale.

Thompson's attorney, Andrew L. Campbell, declined to comment on the case.

City spokesperson Kristin Moore said Flint's legal and police departments did not provide a response when asked for comment on the settlement.

Court records show that the city neither admitted nor denied Thompson's allegations, writing that the case lacked "sufficient information so as to form a belief as to the truth of the matter asserted."

According to court records, the case is scheduled to be back in court before Bay City U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington on September 20 for a joint motion to dismiss the case.