SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Dow Constantine allegedly gave county contracts to accused rapist

Jul 18, 2019, 4:00 PM

Constantine, Dow...

King County Executive Dow Constantine. (KIRO Radio, Hanna Scott)

(KIRO Radio, Hanna Scott)

We have been covering Dow Constantine for the last couple of months rather extensively and exclusively along with reporter Carolyn Ossorio.

We had multiple stories about Dow Constantine allegedly using the King County Sheriff’s Office Executive Protection Unit as his own private taxi service, making them ferry him around after business hours so he could go out drinking nearly every night.

As we mentioned before on the show, Dow Constantine has suspected one of his protection deputies of being the source of our stories. This deputy was actually not the source. However, because of Dow’s suspicions, every time the deputy is assigned to protect Dow Constantine, he allegedly gets removed from the Executive Protection Detail, losing out on some nice overtime.

This has happened even though King County Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht said in a memo that there would be no retaliation for anybody who spoke to KIRO Radio, and even though the guy was not actually our source in the first place.

Is Dow Constantine’s affair our business? Dori weighs in

This is the kind of person that Dow Constantine has shown himself to be. These events also reveal that, apparently, Mitzi Johanknecht lied when she promised us on-air that she would always come on our show to address concerns. We have soft-pedaled that for about three months, and I will soft-pedal it no more. She lied to me and she lied to you. And when the head of your county law enforcement agency lies, that is a pretty critical issue for the public.

Now we are learning even more about our county executive. In Thursday’s edition of The Seattle Times, according to a complaint made by the former head of the King County Parks Division, Dow Constantine got the division to give a concessions deal to Seattle restaurant and nightclub owner David Meinert. Meinert is currently facing sexual assault and misconduct allegations from 11 women. What he allegedly did to these women, according to KUOW’s extensive reporting, is pretty horrific.

The fact that Dow Constantine allegedly funneled multi-million-dollar food and beverage contracts for Marymoor Park events — including the Marymoor Park concert series and Cirque du Soleil performances — to this alleged rapist because Meinert donated quite a bit to his campaign is more than a little troubling, but it’s in-line with everything we have come to learn about our county executive.

Dow, you are welcome to come on the show and refute the things that we say because of our sources. Our sources are rock-solid, but you always have the chance to come on-air and dispute them.

The corruption in King County is as bad as we have ever seen. We will keep following this because we are getting tips on a daily basis. The more we talk about it, the more that people who work for the county are coming forward with very credible information about how bad this system is.

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Dori: Dow Constantine allegedly gave county contracts to accused rapist