Seattle mayor calls it ‘mistake’ to clear officer of misconduct

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray on Monday called it a mistake to reverse the finding of misconduct against a police officer who got into an argument with a newspaper editor last summer.

The admission comes after days of back-and-forth about what an appropriate punishment for Officer John Marion should be.

Officer Marion had been ordered to serve a one-day suspension for an incident involving The Stranger’s Dominic Holden, during which he was caught on tape telling Holden he would come to his place of work to bother him. The discipline came with a finding of misconduct that would have gone on Marion’s personnel file.

Last week, the department came under fire after it was reported that newly-appointed Interim Police Chief Harry Bailey had reversed the finding of misconduct against Marion, instead ordering him to undergo additional training to help change his behavior.

During a press conference on Friday, Mayor Ed Murray defended Chief Bailey’s decision, despite pointed questions from the City Council.

“While this could be perceived as a lesser punishment under the current legal framework, Chief Bailey believes, and I support him, that the framework for this process is reflective of what is most constructive – training and changing behavior.”

The mayor, however, changed course over the weekend.
In a statement, Mayor Murray announced that the department would reinstate the finding of misconduct against Marion:

After hearing the public’s concerns about Chief Bailey’s decision to change the discipline in the Marion case, I have directed Chief Bailey to reinstate the original finding.

Chief Bailey and I have had extensive discussions about this case. We both agree: this was a mistake.

The decision to change the discipline was the call of the Chief. But I stood with the Chief and publicly supported that decision. And I am Mayor: the buck stops with me. So, this mistake was mine. And today I am fixing that mistake.

The Seattle Police Guild Monday also issued a statement about the decision to reinstate the finding of misconduct against Marion, an eight-year veteran of the department.

In consultation with both SPOG President Rich O’Neill and incoming SPOG President Ron Smith, Officer Marion has now decided to accept the original OPA sustained finding on the professionalism/courtesy violation and to continue to participate with the training program. SPOG will void the settlement offer and withdraw our appeal on this matter. This is being done to allow Officer Marion to move on with his career and to put this unfortunate incident behind him.

In July 2013, Holden claimed Officer Marion engaged in inappropriate behavior while he was trying to take pictures of police activity in downtown Seattle.

Holden told KIRO Radio he approached Officer Marion and several other officers asking who was in charge. Officer Marion reportedly refused to answer.

“He asked what I was doing. I said, ‘Well I’m a reporter,’ and he asked where I worked. I said, ‘The Stranger,’ and he said, quote: ‘I’m going to come into The Stranger and bother you while you’re at work,'” Holden said.

“So in other words I stopped and asked a matter-of-fact question in a normal tone and he chose to escalate that situation without any sort of prompt or any sort of segue by threatening to bother me at my job.”

Bernard K. Melekian, a law-enforcement expert who serves on Mayor Ed Murray’s transition team, suggested at a press conference Monday morning that the case was only given attention because Holden was the complainant.

“It’s interesting that only one case actually made it to the public arena,” he said. “I’ll leave it for others to decide whether that was an accident or not.”

Melekian said the focus should not be on a single case, but rather on how to make the complaint process more effective.