SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Was Ombuds Office break-in a cover-up for Dow Constantine?

Oct 25, 2019, 6:10 PM

Constantine, Dow...

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

(KIRO Radio, Hanna Scott)

We have been telling you for a long time about the abject sleazy behavior of King County Executive Dow Constantine.

This is a guy who, for years, has used the King County Sheriff’s Office Executive Protection Unit to drive him to bars after work in the evenings. I suspect the need for him to be driven around like that is because he wants to run for governor, and a DUI would not be helpful in that pursuit. And so the taxpayers have to pay for his transportation on evenings out.

His policies seem to place illegal immigrants above the lives of good, hardworking citizens. He told private contractors at Boeing Field that if they serviced planes used by ICE in deportations of illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, the county would terminate business with those small companies. And the King County Sheriff’s Office, likely under his orders, for a while got rid of a database that is vital to cops’ investigations and very safety because the county feared ICE could access it. He has, in a thuggish manner, imposed his worldview on innocent people.

Source: King County Exec. Constantine retaliated against sheriff’s detective

And we told you the story a few months ago about how David Meinert, the former Capitol Hill nightclub owner who has been accused by several women of everything from inappropriate sexual touching to outright sexual assault, has been a good friend — and major campaign contributor — to Dow Constantine. And so a lot of eyebrows were raised when Dow Constantine, according to reports, pressured King County Parks to give a lucrative, multi-million-dollar concessions contract to Meinert. But the King County Office of the Ombuds gave it a whitewash.

I’m telling you, this new story that KIRO 7 TV has is shocking. Apparently, while the Office of the Ombuds was investigating the funneling of concessions contracts to Meinert, three laptops containing information related to the investigation were stolen in the still of night.

This was not some random crime by heroin addicts wanting to sell electronics for their next fix. They knew exactly which laptops to go after, and left all the others untouched.

I’m certain that they targeted the three laptops that had information about Constantine funneling millions of dollars to his accused sexual assailant friend to try to stifle the investigation. Give me any other plausible explanation. Seattle police are now looking into this possibility.

The plot thickens. Mere weeks after the Ombuds Office break-in, the Ombuds Office concluded its investigation. It reportedly had “insufficient evidence” to find Dow guilty of any ethics violations.

Let me get this straight. Meinert effectively buys Dow Constantine with all of his campaign donations. Meinert’s credibility is destroyed because of the multiple sexual assault and sexual harassment accusations. Dow Constantine breaks a contract with the previous concessionaire and gives multi-millions to his buddy David Meinert in concessions contracts. And then some of the key data in that investigation suddenly goes missing from the Ombuds Office.

This stinks to high heaven. It sounds so much like Watergate to me.

Dow Constantine gets re-elected overwhelmingly each time because he is a Democrat. At what point do Democrats say, “Hmm, maybe this isn’t our guy?” Or is Dow Constantine really so untouchable because he thinks like you politically?

The sleaze in King County is very, very real. Trust me on that.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Dori: Was Ombuds Office break-in a cover-up for Dow Constantine?