Activist group says Sheriff Urquhart wants to silence accusers

An activist group says they can confirm at least one of the allegations levied against King County Sheriff John Urquhart is true. They say Urquhart’s campaign offered to share the medical records of the woman accusing him of rape.

The Seattle Times reported in June 2016 Urquhart was accused of raping a woman 14 years earlier. The woman later accused him of sharing her medical records as a way to discredit her.

More recently, a Renton Police officer accused Urquhart of sexually assaulting him in 2014.

Monisha Harrell is the chair of Equal Rights Washington, an LGBTQ advocacy group. Harrell told 770 KTTH’s Jason Rantz the Urquhart campaign contacted her in May hoping to secure her endorsement, but she raised concerns about the allegations against the sheriff.

“During that conversation, as proof that those concerns were unfounded, I was offered the medical files for the first victim,” Harrell said.

Urquhart adamantly denied this accusation during an interview with 770 KTTH’s Todd Herman.

“She’s claimed that we offered her 300 pages of medical records,” Urquhart said. “There never were 300 pages, we never had access to them if there were any. That conversation never happened, nor have they produced any medical records they say we could have produced because we didn’t produce any because there weren’t any.”

Harrell said she immediately rejected the offer because she thought it was inappropriate, so that’s why she can’t produce the medical records. She maintains Urquhart’s Chief of Staff Chris Barringer used the phrase “medical records” during their conversation, but it’s possible Barringer was using the phrase to describe court documents relating to the accuser’s mental health.

“I don’t know if they came from divorce documentation that could’ve been made via public records,” Harrell said. “Quite honestly, I don’t care. That’s not information that was appropriate to release to the public in response to a sexual assault allegation.”

Urquhart’s campaign has said repeatedly the Renton police officer allegations and the medical records accusation are entirely politically motivated. Harrell’s organization has endorsed Urquhart’s opponent, Mitzi Johanknecht, but she says they would still be criticizing Urquhart even if he were running unopposed.

“We want people to be able to speak out,” Harrell said. “If we’re saying we’re going to tolerate this now, then what we’ve essentially done is shut down our entire community’s ability to come forward.”

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