By Erica C. Barnett

Seattle interim police chief Andre Sayles filed a complaint with the Office of Police Accountability against a veteran detective (and onetime leader of of SPD’s hate crimes unit) over a three-minute speech she gave at a No Hate in WA State rally last November, when Sayles was deputy chief. Sayles accused detective Beth Wareing of failing to follow a lawful order and dishonesty— fireable offenses that could have cost the 29-year police veteran her job, her law enforcement certification, and her ability to testify in court as a police officer.

“In her speech, Det. Wareing made several comments that lacked credible facts related to the potential exposure to sexual assault by adults on youth, especially females and persons who identify as LGBTQ+,” Sayles wrote. “In the attachments, I’ve attached an email along with the video of Det. Wareing speaking.”

The links Sayles provided included two videos by right-wing commentator Brandi Kruse, who attacked Wareing at length on her show on December 11 and December 15, calling her comments “genuinely disgusting.” On the December 11 segment, Kruse said she had contacted SPD about Wareing’s comments and “prayed to God” they would take action against her. Addressing Wareing, Kruse said, “do you really think there is going to be no ramifications for just lying through your teeth as a Seattle police detective?”

Sayles filed his complaint on December 15, the day the second segment ran. The complaint broadly parroted Kruse’s talking points, alleging that Wareing “was insubordinate, violating the guidelines he set out for her, and that she was dishonest in saying inaccurate and untrue things during the press conference,” according to OPA’s summary.

Kruse says she didn’t personally file a complaint against Wareing or talk to Sayles directly. “I made it clear how I felt about her comments on my show,” she said. “A police detective should not be abusing their position to fear monger parents about a topic as serious as sexual abuse. That’s grotesque. I am not surprised there are complaints against her—there should be.”

Investigators who looked into Sayles’ complaint disagreed—and swiftly. On January 8, OPA let the city’s Office of Inspector General, a separate police oversight body, know that they were expediting and dismissing the complaint, finding that Sayles’ claims were unsubstantiated and may have violated Wareing’s right to free speech.

In a memo proposing the dismissal language, OPA noted pointedly that political statements  “are protected free speech and political activity” under state law, legal case law, guidance from the Seattle Ethics and  Elections Commission, and SPD’s own police manual. Wareing, the dismissal continued, “was also not insubordinate as she did in fact follow the guidance she was given” when she sought, and received, explicit permission from Sayles to speak at the rally.

“Any further investigation of [Wareing] would violate her constitutional rights and open the city to a lawsuit,” the memo concluded.

For Wareing, who was on sabbatical pursuing a PhD when she spoke at the rally, the complaint was a shocking attempt to curtail her free speech and smear her after a long career as a hostage negotiator, bias crimes expert, and clinical counselor. As the direct result of the complaint, she said, she decided to retire from SPD and pursue a different career.

“Chief Sayles’s complaint was poorly considered, unprofessional, and an attempted violation of my First Amendment rights,” Wareing told PubliCola. “It was a decisive factor in my decision to retire rather than remain at SPD after sabbatical, ending a career that was my passion for 29 years. This conduct should concern every officer at SPD.”

PubliCola has confirmed that Mayor Katie Wilson knew about Sayles’ complaint against Wareing, and its dismissal, before she chose him as interim chief three weeks ago.

Wareing’s comments at the No Hate rally were a personalized version of the basic talking points against the two anti-LGBTQ initiatives, funded by right-wing billionaire Brian Heywood through his group Let’s Go Washington. No Hate In WA State, known last year as Washington Families for Freedom, argues both initiatives would put children at risk. The first initiative would give parents access to all their child’s school records, including confidential counseling notes, with no exceptions for parents with histories of abuse. The second would require girls to submit to genital inspections to prove they have vaginas as a condition of participating in sports.

Wareing had written authorization from SPD, including direct permission from Sayles, to speak at the event in her own personal capacity, as long as she didn’t say she was representing or worked for SPD, which she did not. In her remarks, Wareing said the two initiatives “serve to stigmatize LGBTQ+ children and put them at greater risk of harassment, assault, abuse at home, homelessness, and death by suicide.”

The anti-trans initiative, Wareing said, “would increase the risk of sexual abuse for girls participating in sports” and “is not something I would put my child through.”

The second initiative, eliminating students’ ability to speak privately with school counselors and staff about sensitive topics, such as gender, abortion, and sexualitym would make abused children especially vulnerable, Wareing continued, “I recall many times teachers and school counselors have been a primary support person for a child at risk, and my heart would be broken for them if they were forced by an unjust law to report a child’s private information, even if it puts a child at risk of injury.”

In an interview with OPA investigators, Sayles admitted that he did not read either of the initiatives he accused his own detective of lying about before filing his complaint, according to OPA’s investigation file.

PubliCola sent SPD a list of detailed questions on Wednesday, including why she did not consider Sayles’ unfounded complaint against Wareing disqualifying, what Sayles told Wilson when she asked about the complaint, and whether Wilson believed Wareing’s comments were inappropriate

A staffer responded, “We have discussed the investigation with Interim Chief Sayles. He will continue being an inclusive leader, protecting all Seattle residents, workers, and visitors, especially those furthest from social justice, including the trans community. Seattle is a place where everyone should feel safe.”

In response to detailed questions, SPD provided a similar statement, emphasizing that “the employee [Wareing] was cleared of all wrongdoing” without mentioning the finding that Sayles may have Wareing’s right to free speech and opened the city up to a lawsuit.

“Since his arrival, Chief Sayles has been a part of the SPD LGBTQ+ committee and remains focused on creating a safe city for all who live, visit, and work in Seattle. He has committed to building community connections to help develop a sense of welcomeness that fosters this safety,” an SPD spokesperson said.

Under Barnes, SPD made a series of unforced errors that alienated many in the city’s LGBTQ community and led to multiple discrimination lawsuits (including one that quotes Barnes’ chief of staff, Alex Ricketts, as saying, “We’re not here for the gays.” SPD has also struggled to hire women under Barnes and is unlikely, at the current rate, to come close to its adopted goal of having a 30 percent female recruit class in the next three years. Wareing, who worked on the 30 x 30 initiative, just became one more female SPD officer on her way out the door.