Seattle police release video of Murray’s home on mysterious night
May 15, 2017, 3:10 PM
New dash cam video of a 911 call to the home of Mayor Ed Murray in June 2016 offers insight into an incident clouded in mystery and insinuation.
What can be gleaned from the muffled audio is that what transpired the evening of June 24, 2016 isn’t exactly aligned with what Murray or Attorney Lincoln Beauregard have said. The dash cam video released by the Seattle Police Department Monday shows the journey of a patrol vehicle on Capitol Hill getting a call to respond to Murray’s home. The car speeds to the house. Some obscured voices can be made out, including Murray’s in the background.
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“Seattle police!” the officer yells as he knocks on the door.
“Hi sir,” he says as Murray opens the door.
“They went away,” Murray says. The mayor continued to chat, but it is difficult to tell what is said as his voice competes with road noise on the tape.
“Anything else? We’re good to go? Alright, have a good night,” the cop says to the mayor as the door closes.
“Complainant says everything is good. We can clear out,” the officers says into his radio.
The entire interaction lasted 30 seconds. The two cops spend the remainder of the recording chuckling about how overstated the call to the mayor’s home was.
What happened at Murray’s home
The dash cam video more closely aligns with an account from Mayor Murray, though, not exactly.
Beauregard – who represents a Kent man suing Murray for alleged sex abuses that happened in the 1980s — previously shopped a story around the media about the June 2016 incident. The attorney has implied that a shirtless man made a scene on the front lawn of the mayor’s home. The shirtless man reportedly only went away after receiving personal items from within the mayor’s home. The mayor’s version is that he and friends were celebrating pride month at his home when a couple – with their shirts on — knocked on the door and asked to use the bathroom and a phone. The couple were directed to a nearby restaurant and not allowed inside.
It could be understood that by saying “they,” Murray referenced more than one person on the recording. Also, there is no shirtless man in the video. But Murray’s version states that the unknown couple went away without incident. According to the conversation between cops at the scene, someone may have tried to force Murray’s door open.
“… push the door open,” a cop can be heard saying. “… I was like, ‘You need us to check the perimeter?’ He’s like, ‘Nah, we’re good.’”
What seems to be a constant through all stories is that, instead of calling 911, the mayor called Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole about the incident. It was the chief who called 911.
“He called the chief, the chief called dispatch; the chief called 911,” an officer says.
“This is not one of those calls we need to be quiet about,” he says. “You don’t have to broadcast the address, but yeah … do we need to write anything up?”
“Nah,” another officer responds. “He didn’t even want us to check around the backyard.”
