Category: Women

City Council, Courts, criminal justice, King County, Women

County Prosecutors Give Lurid Presentation on Sex Work Featuring Unredacted Images of Brutalized Women to Seattle Council Committee

The point of the prurient presentation: “You can’t make sex work safe,” one senior deputy prosecutor said.

By Erica C. Barnett

King County prosecutors gave an astonishingly graphic presentation about sex work and human trafficking to Seattle City Councilmember Bob Kettle’s public safety committee on Tuesday, showing unredacted images of brutalized women with bloodied and battered faces and bleeding bodies. (Content warning: Although I’ve redacted all identifiable images from the presentation as it appeared yesterday, the graphic language remains).

The carousel of images included a photo of a identifiable weeping, partly nude woman in a bathtub who, according to prosecutors, had been urinated on by her pimp after her he bashed in her eye.

Prosecutors accompanied the images with pornographic commentary copy-pasted from online review sites that dehumanized and belittled sex workers. Reading out loud from one of the slides displayed in council chambers, King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Alexandra Voorhees intoned, “Find them, fuck them, forget them. … Stupid fucking whore. Spread your legs, and that’s it. That’s it. That’s all you’re worth. A cum dumpster.'”

Later in the presentation, Voorhees read a list of objects a victim of sex trafficking said men had inserted into her by force, and read quotes from women who described vomiting and bleeding from forcible sex acts. Sex work, Voorhees claimed, often leads to dangerous physical conditions such as “vaginal prolapse, anal prolapse… fecal incontinence, forced abortion.” The presentation continued in pornographic detail: “Girls in dog cages, girls being waterboarded… stunned with stun guns… burned and strangled.”

During public comment, Emi Koyama—a longtime advocate for sex workers and founder of Aileen’s, a peer-led community space for women working along the Pac Highway in South King County—said the prosecutors “selectively quote and weaponize survivor testimonies that are useful in ceding further power to the law enforcement, while neglecting how the law enforcement itself is also a source of violence in the lives of many women.”

“Policy making should not be adversarial, and efforts should be made together with those who are impacted by any given issue, whether they align with law enforcement or not,” Koyama said.

The two prosecutors argued repeatedly that the public is misinformed about the inherently exploitative nature of all sex work—”this is not ‘Pretty Woman,'” Voorhees said—and said the graphic, exploitative images were necessary for people to understand that pimps and sex buyers need to be punished.

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After other council members, including Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Eddie Lin, expressed concerns about the lurid presentation, King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion sent a letter to the council saying that although “the goal of the presentation was to make clear to Council the violence that survivors experience at the hands of buyers and traffickers,” the prosecutor’s office will “do a better job of protecting victim’s [sic] privacy” in the future.”

The presentation has been removed from the committee agenda but is still available in the full agenda packet and viewable on the Seattle Channel recording of the meeting. UPDATE: As of noon on Jan. 28, he agenda packet has been removed as well.

Douglas Wagoner, the public affairs director for Manion’s office, stood by the intent of the presentation when he spoke with PubliCola on Tuesday evening. “The goal of the presentation was to make clear to City Councilmembers the violence that survivors experience in the hands of buyers and traffickers,” Wagoner said. “Their trauma is incredibly difficult to watch and learn about, but it’s also real and most people don’t know how bad the experiences are of the survivors who are going through it every day in King County.”

“Maybe in the future, we’d make a different choice in terms of the exact images and language in the presentation,” Wagoner added.

Whatever their intent, the images and words had the effect of re-brutalizing the women on the screen, who did not consent to be used as examples by prosecutors pushing further criminalization of sex work. Although the prosecutor’s office denied any political agenda, they noted during the presentation that they’re hoping to drum up support for state legislation that would elevate paying for sex, currently a misdemeanor, to a felony, punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to $10,000.

The bill would take the question of whether to prosecute sex buyers out of the City Attorney’s Office, where progressive Erika Evans just took over from Republican Ann Davison, and put it into the county prosecutors’ hands. Sex trafficking is already a felony.

Kettle, along with his fellow committee members Maritza Rivera and Debora Juarez, used the presentation as an opportunity to express disbelief that people in Seattle, including advocates for sex workers and sex workers, have the gall to oppose the city’s recent crackdowns on sex buyers, including a law reinstating “SOAP” banishment zones and “john letters” sent to the homes of men identified as possible sex buyers through their license plates.

“There’s so many women in our city who make two points that really not should be made together— ‘Oh, Epstein, this, that whatever,’ but then… they decry the letters by SPD to those johns or potential johns,” Kettle said.

“These people come in here and yell at us when we’re trying to go after the men. … We as a city, need to stop, take a deep breath and think about that. When I read something online by the chattering classes in the city that talk about these pieces, they need to stop and look at themselves.”

Rivera, too, said she couldn’t understand why anyone would participate in “this whole movement of defunding things and ‘We’re not going about it the right way’—No.” The solutions—SOAP zones, “john letters,” and imprisoning sex buyers—”are so clear,” Rivera continued, and the fact “that people can’t see that you all really are helping victims is beyond me.”

Later, Voorhees yes-anded Rivera’s outrage that anyone would question the decisions the council has made in recent years to further criminalize sex work. “You were asking some questions about people who are who are opposed or somehow think that this is consensual, so it’s okay,” Voorhees said. “The problem is, you can’t make sex work safe. It is inherently dangerous. It is inherently a power imbalance.”

The idea that sex work is inherently so dangerous that it must be abolished is far from a consensus view in Seattle or the United States. Juries don’t tend to buy the notion that men who pay for sex are inherently abusive or dangerous, which is one reason they rarely go to trial—it’s harder for prosecutors to sustain a prurient image of monster predators when faced with a real man (in Seattle, typically an immigrant) who got caught trying to pay for sex.

While no one would express sympathy or support for men who beat, rape, or kidnap and traffic women, those crimes are separate from patronizing a sex worker (formally “commercial sexual exploitation” in Seattle law), and can be prosecuted on their own. Treating all men who pay for sex as monolithically evil does not stand up to reality as sex workers themselves describe it. No sex workers were invited to attend the presentation, which allowed prosecutors to paint them as childlike, helpless victims with no agency in their own lives.

Also, the approaches the two prosecutors described as “innovative” — increased penalties, “john letters,” and banishment zones—aren’t new, don’t work, and can put women at risk.

Near the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Saka asked the prosecutors what warning signs parents should watch out for to make sure their daughters aren’t being recruited by pimps..

“When I was a kid, it used to be called ‘fast’— don’t be a ‘fast little girl,’ ‘she’s a fast girl,’ whatever,” deputy prosecutor Braelah McGinnis said. “Kids who come home and have unaccounted-for money. They have their nails done all of a sudden, and things like that. And so, you know, those can be red flags of, like, ‘Well, who took you to get your nails done?’ …We also find kids, lots of times, may have a second phone, and it’s because it’s used to communicate with their pimp or their trafficker. Those are some of my tips.”

I called Kettle to find out why he approved the prurient presentation and whether he would invite advocates and sex workers who disagree with the prosecutor’s approach to present their own views and experiences in his committee. I hadn’t heard back by press time, but will update this post if I do.

Police, Women

In 2025, 90 Percent of New SPD Hires Were Men
Social media image for SPD’s ongoing “Come As You Are” recruitment campaign.

“We acknowledge we must do better to meet the 30×30 commitment but as we move into 2026, we will continue our work to resemble the community we serve,” a department spokesperson said.

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle Police Department hired just 17 women in 2025, according to figures provided by the Seattle Police Department—just 10 percent of 165 new hires last year. That’s a significant dip from SPD’s already dismal numbers in 2024, when just 14 percent of the 84 people SPD hired were women. It’s also less than half the average for police departments across the US, according to stats from the 30X30 Initiative—a pledge, which SPD has signed, to work toward a recruit class that’s 30 percent women by 2030.

The 17-woman total was bolstered by relatively strong hiring of women—six total—in the fourth quarter of 2025; in the two quarters encompassing April through September, SPD hired just 6 women, and the total percentage of female hires dipped to less than six percent in the second quarter of the year.

SPD, in other words, not only isn’t improving its lopsided gender balance—it’s backsliding. To achieve the goal of 30X30, SPD would have needed to hire an additional 33 women last year. Put another way, they’re currently two-thirds shy of their hiring goals.

It’s unclear how many women are leaving the department, which is currently the subject of several simultaneous gender discrimination lawsuits and allegations. In the past, SPD has provided a breakdown, by gender, of the number of men and women who left the department on numerous occasions in the past—an important data point that shows how many women are leaving the department compared to men. The department did not provide this information when PubliCola requested it, citing unspecified data issues.

However, they did provide the total number of people who left this year—69, down from 83 in 2024. We also know that as of April, 21 percent of the people leaving SPD were women. If that departure trend stayed consistent for the remaining eight months of the year, it would translate to about 14 women leaving SPD in 2025, for a net gain of just three women. We’re hoping SPD will eventually provide these numbers, which would give a clearer picture of SPD’s gender makeup.

Former Mayor Bruce Harrell said that he chose Barnes, in part, because he “brings proven experience advancing the Madison Police Department’s inclusive workforce initiative that has resulted in 28% of officers being women.” But Seattle’s new recruit classes have only become more overwhelmingly male since Barnes took over at the department.

In a statement to PubliCola, a spokesperson for SPD said, “The Seattle Police Department remains committed to increasing the hiring rate of women. We acknowledge we must do better to meet the 30×30 commitment but as we move into 2026, we will continue our work to resemble the community we serve.”

City Council, homelessness, Women

The More We Love Launches Six-Month “High Accountability” Out-of-Town Shelter for Commercially Exploited Women
The More We Love founder Kristine Moreland at a panel hosted by former city councilmember Cathy Moore’s committee last month.

By Erica C. Barnett

The More We Love, a group that began as a private homeless encampment sweep contractor, just finalized its contract with the city to provide 10 shelter beds for the rest of the year, at a cost of around $600,000, to women seeking to leave the sex trade on Aurora Ave. N. The organization already operates a 20-bed shelter for sexually exploited women and their children in Renton, and plans to add 10 new “non-congregate” shelter spots, which appear to consist of rooms at a hotel that also serves the general public.

During a Seattle City council meeting last month, the group’s founder, Kristine Moreland, brought several of her clients to provide sometimes graphic testimony about their experiences as victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Stories like theirs appear to have swayed former (as of today) city councilmember Cathy Moore to direct up to $1 million in city funding to the group earlier this year, forestalling a competitive bidding process that was already underway.

The contract contains a number of provisions and deliverables that are unusual for a city human services contract.

For example, it says The More We Love’s program is “intentionally low barrier to enter and has high accountability to stay.” What this means, according to the contract, is that women with substance use disorders “are asked to commit to a pathway towards recovery to stay in the shelter unit” after what the contract calls a 72-hour “recharge” phase. The maximum stay is 30 days.

“TMWL’s pathway to recovery is connecting the survivor to the appropriate detox/treatment facility, supporting them in the programming that will best fit their needs, and supporting with after care such as TMWL’s recovery housing units,” the contract says. “If survivors are not able to commit to the program, TMWL will work with them to find next steps after exiting the emergency shelter.”

 

Requiring commercial sexual exploitation (CSE) survivors to commit to sobriety as a condition of shelter for themselves and their children is not considered a best practice by experts on gender-based violence. “This approach has already been asked and answered as not effective to the realities of substance use and healing from long term trauma,” Amarinthia Torres, the co-director of the Coalition Ending Gender-Based Violence, said.

The city’s contract with the only other organization it funds to provide shelter beds to women leaving sex work, Real Escape from the Sex Trade, describes REST’s program as low-barrier and does not include any “accountability” requirements for participants.

Peter Anderson, The More We Love’s chief operating officer, told PubliCola the term “high accountability” means that “we walk alongside women to support their goals, address behaviors that jeopardize their safety or the safety of others, and create environments conducive to recovery and transformation. No woman is ever ‘kicked out’ for relapse. We meet each individual where they are, while ensuring that program safety standards are upheld for all participants.”

The contract goals include 180 referrals to The More We Love’s shelter and 105 successful enrollments over six months, which works out to 30 referrals and 17 placements in The More We Love’s 10 new beds every month—a swift turnover rate, even with the 30-day maximum stay.

A third and final goal is for all 105 of those women to “report increased safety, agency, dignity, belonging.” It’s unclear whether or how the city plans to verify that The More We Love has achieved this vague program goal.

In the contract, The More We Love says the group’s “ability to merge the public and private sectors to meet the full scope of need makes its program unique. TMWL works closely with the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and regional service partners, like Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS), to receive referrals to the emergency shelter, while leveraging a strong network of community volunteers and faith-based supporters to provide relational care beyond what most programs can offer.”

A representative from OPS said that contrary to what the contract implies, the group has no formal partnership with The More We Love, although they have occasionally referred women to their shelter on a one-off, strictly “informal” basis.

It’s unclear how The More We Love recruits its “community volunteers and faith-based supporters” or how these individuals are trained to provide “relational care.” The city requires all volunteers for contractors that work with CSE survivors to complete 20 hours of training prior to volunteering.

The six-month contract includes $23,000 in “automotive” expenses, on top of $5,782 for “client transportation.” Asked if The More We Love is using the $23,000 to buy a car, Anderson said, “The automotive budget line covers transportation-related expenses, which may include maintenance, mileage reimbursements, other transportation arrangements, or the acquisition of an additional program vehicle to safely transport women and their children to critical appointments and services.”

In comparison, REST’s contract for 2025 includes transportation costs of $786.

The More We Love’s six-month contract also includes $272,000 for salaries and benefits, along with $10,000 for “consultant services.” Client assistance—flexible funds that can be used to help women and their children with expenses, including rent assistance, clothing, job training, child care, and anything else that helps promote self-determination—amounts to $20,000 over the life of the contract. “24/7 onsite security” will cost another $34,000.

homelessness, King County, Women

Reagan Dunn Joins Chorus Calling for Resignation of Assessor Accused of Stalking; Advocates Appeal Ruling Upholding Burien’s Sleeping Ban

1.  King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, who was the only council member absent from last week’s 8-0 vote demanding the resignation of King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson, took a “point of personal privilege” at Tuesday’s council meeting to say that he, too, believed that Wilson should resign over allegations that he stalked and harassed his ex-fiancée, Lee Keller.

The no-confidence motion notes that the claims against Wilson include allegations that he “improperly used county resources to engage in the stalking,” potentially including the use of private information he’s able to access through his job as the county’s tax assessor.

“Assessor Wilson has been accused of extremely serious allegations in a domestic dispute, including stalking, harassment and improper use of county resources for the purposes of stalking,” Dunn said. “While all of this is disturbing, the real linchpin for me is the allegation of improper use of county resources. … I find that all of these allegations are extremely disturbing, and Mr. Wilson’s public behavior to be inconsistent with the professionalism expected of an elected official. Had I been able to vote for Resolution 16829, I would have voted yes.”

In text messages to Keller, Wilson repeatedly claimed to have Dunn’s support.

Keller has obtained multiple restraining orders and filed several petitions for dissolution of her partnership with Wilson over the past two years, providing documentation of Wilson’s actions, which include calling and texting her incessantly, tracking her movements and the location of her car, and calling the workplace of a man she dated to falsely accuse him of sexual assault in an attempt to get him fired. Last Friday, a judge denied Wilson’s request to have the latest restraining order lifted.

Wilson has not denied Keller’s allegations, many of which are documented in text messages that are part of the public court record. However, he has claimed that his behavior “never posed a threat to” Keller, and has weaponized a photo the two of them took during a brief reconciliation in May to claim that Keller is being irrational and blackmailing him for rent money. (A text message in the court record shows that she asked if he could help with rent on one occasion during the period when they were speaking to each other; previously, they had lived together).

In the post, Wilson noted when and where the photo was purportedly taken—”after I bought her lunch,” he adds—and says an unnamed local reporter agreed with him that Keller looks happy and unafraid of Wilson in the image.

“I have never posed a stalking threat or harassed Ms. Lee Keller, my former fiancé. I have posed no danger to her whatsoever,” Wilson wrote, adding later, “Ms. Keller was never at any danger from me.” Wilson is still trying to get a judge to lift Keller’s protection order against him “[b]ecause of the looming August primary,” he wrote. Wilson is running for county executive.

Wilson also thanked the Seattle Times for its editorial opposing the county council’s unanimous vote of no-confidence in him, which grudgingly allowed that, “to be sure, such accusations are disturbing” before arguing that “due process” should require independently elected officials to keep quiet about his behavior.

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2. The Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness has appealed a King County Superior Court ruling that upheld the city of Burien’s total ban on sleeping in public, a law that effectively banishes unsheltered people from the city. As PubliCola reported, the Coalition and three plaintiffs who’ve lived unsheltered in Burien argued that the total ban on sleeping in public constituted cruel punishment under the Washington State Constitution, among other claims, because it bans people from engaging in a biological necessity—sleep—if they have nowhere to live except outdoors.

Elizabeth Hale, one of the three homeless plaintiffs in the lawsuit, died on May 30, about three weeks after the ruling that she and her co-plaintiffs could be arrested for falling asleep in public.

In a statement, Coalition director Alison Eisinger said, “Beth’s untimely death reminds us that real human beings bear the brutal costs of collective failure to respond to homelessness with urgency and enough resources. The Coalition on Homelessness joined this lawsuit because any law that excludes people from their community must be challenged. Washington state’s constitution must apply to all who live here, regardless of how much money we have in our pockets, or whether we have a place to lay our heads and call home.”

King County, Women

UPDATED: Judge Declines to Lift Protection Order Against County Assessor Accused of Stalking

By Erica C. Barnett

On Friday June 13, a judge denied King County Assessor’s John Arthur Wilson’s motion to terminate his former partner Lee Keller’s protection order against him.

In response to Wilson’s attempt to have the order dismissed, Keller filed a declaration calling Wilson’s motion a “frivolous motion based on half-truths and outright lies.”

She acknowledged meeting with Wilson twice while the restraining order was in effect, and said she briefly agreed to sign off on a statement his campaign staff wrote that said she would drop the restraining order. Text messages show that Keller did briefly agree to drop the restraining order after Wilson had to leave an event honoring the late state Sen. Bill Ramos because Keller was there.

However, Keller added that she “immediately” regretted agreeing to drop the restraining order after Wilson “came to my house that evening and began berating me about speaking with a male friend of mine who was being contacted by the media. He then proceeded to text me until 2:30 a.m. with abusive statements such as ‘You are a two-bit whore,'” Keller wrote. Wilson doesn’t use that precise phrase in any of the texts in the court record, but Keller and Wilson did argue by text over his use of the phrase during a verbal argument.

The “male friend” was a man Keller was briefly involved with, who contacted KUOW in late May, according to text messages between Keller and Wilson. In the texts, Wilson acknowledged contacting the man’s employer and accusing him falsely of sexual assault in order to get him fired; several Wilson’s texts include graphic, lurid details.

After the court hearing, Wilson posted a photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington, with the text, “Today, thanks to a court ruling, we started to bend the arc towards justice. It moves slow, but it is headed in the right direction. So we will continue fighting for justice for all the residents of King County, and for my own personal journey.”

When the King County Council voted to call on Wilson to resign from his position as county assessor, the only member absent was Republican Councilmember Reagan Dunn. The text messages reveal that Wilson contacted Dunn seeking support in May. “You should hear what Reagan Dunn has to say about you,” Wilson wrote on May 24.

Original story follows:

King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson, who was the subject of a no-confidence vote by the King County Council earlier this week, has filed a motion to dismiss his domestic partner Lee Keller’s temporary restraining order against him, arguing that she is emotionally unstable and is trying to harm him politically.

PubliCola broke the news about the new stalking and harassment allegations against Wilson in May. The Seattle Times covered earlier allegations against Wilson in January.

Wilson, who is running for King County Executive, has never publicly denied Keller’s allegations, including several dating back to 2024, that he texted and called her incessantly, showed up at her home uninvited, followed her movements using tracking apps, and called the workplace of a man she had been seeing to accuse him of sexual assault in an attempt to get him fired. These actions, among others, were the basis for the county council’s call for Wilson to resign as county assessor, a position that affords him access to personal data about King County taxpayers.

Many of Keller’s allegations, including one in which Wilson said the man he’s alleged to have falsely accused of sexual assault “deserves my wrath,” are documented in text messages and phone records. Keller’s latest filing includes a text exchange in which she told Wilson, “LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!” and he responded, “Never,” following up with several more unanswered texts.

Wilson posted a link to his declaration on Facebook, writing:

“As King County Assessor, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the State of Washington – including those cherished principles of the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, and due process.

The King County Council, by voting 8 to 0 to demand my resignation, has shown utter contempt for these principals. They want to deny your choices at the polls and rig the election. Yesterday’s hearing was nothing more than a kangaroo court.

I will NOT resign. I will NOT give up my campaign fighting for the everyday people of King County. But the craven behavior of Councilmembers Balducci and Zahilay show they are unfit to serve the people of King County—let alone as Executive.”

King County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay are the frontrunners in the race for county executive; Wilson has consistently trailed both in fundraising and endorsements.

In a statement, Keller’s attorney, Paula Kurtz-Kreshel, said Wilson’s “media campaign against my client continues and is troubling not only for its obvious attempt to disparage, intimidate, and otherwise strong-arm a protected party into dropping a restraining order—but also for the fact that his efforts are taking place during hours of employment when one would think he should be working for the people of King County.”

In his new motion, Wilson claimed that he, rather than Keller, was the victim of abuse, pointing to an incident in April 2024 in which he claims Keller “shoved me and nearly made me fall down a flight of stairs.” He called the police, Wilson wrote, because he “felt I had been threatened and was personally at risk.”

A police report by an officer responding to Wilson’s call in 2024 tells a different story. According to the 2024 report, Wilson told the officer that he and Keller “got into a verbal argument” after Wilson went into Keller’s text messages and discovered she had been communicating with an ex. In his telling, Wilson calmly “talked to Keller about not being transparent” and she became “enraged.” Wilson claimed Keller pushed him “in the chest,” which “caught [him] off guard”; he did not mention anything about stairs.

Keller also called police about the incident, meeting with the same officer who had interviewed Wilson at the hotel she was staying in after she fled the home she and Wilson shared. She told the officer that Wilson “hacked” into her messages without her permission and told her they needed to talk, saying he had “proof” that she had been lying to him.

Keller told the officer she and Wilson got into a shouting match while she was standing in the entry to their home and Wilson was standing on the stairs, and said she “never laid a hand on him.” Keller told officers Wilson had tried to push his way into the laundry room where she was feeding her dog before she left for a hotel, and that she broke a ceramic dog bowl while trying to shut the door.

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While the officer was interviewing Keller, he noted in the report, Wilson “called her approximately 15 times and sent roughly 10 text messages saying that there was an emergency and that she needed to call him.” Wilson continued trying to reach Keller, the officer noted, even after the officer picked up one of Wilson’s calls and asked him to stop calling and texting her. Wilson has not publicly disputed any of this; in fact, he included Keller’s police report in the exhibits attached to his filing.

Kurtz-Kreshel said the police reports filed at the time refuted Wilson’s claim that Keller pushed him. “These reports are filed with Mr. Wilson’s motion and ironically spotlight his stalking and harassment of my client.”

Along with the statement, Kurtz-Kreshel provided a copy of an email Wilson sent to the King County Sheriff’s Office two weeks after the April 2024 altercation, in which Wilson said he had “exaggerated the incident as far more serious than it was. Ms. Keller never hurt or injured me when in the heat of our argument she moved me back from standing in front of her. In addition, I never felt in fear of Ms. Keller, or thought for an instant she might want to hurt or injure me.”

In his new motion to dismiss Keller’s restraining order against him, Wilson claimed that Keller’s “instability” and “volatility,” not Wilson’s documented behavior, is the problem. “Unfortunately, as much as I love Lee, her volatility and instability has become a real issue for me both personally and professionally,” Wilson wrote, adding that “once Lee calms down, she wants to see me.”

There are many different reasons that women return to men who are abusive or drop restraining orders against their partners, and the decision to drop a restraining order is not proof that a woman filed the order frivolously or that the relationship is not abusive.

Wilson said the two met in a public place on May 23, 11 days after Keller for the restraining order, and “Lee seemed genuinely happy to see me,” but said things turned sour after Wilson refused to help pay her rent.

“I firmly believe that victims of domestic violence should be protected. However, restraining orders should be a shield for victims and not a sword because someone is mad at you and is lashing out, especially when that someone has a long history of volatility and instability as it is evidenced by the number of times Lee has filed a Petition and then dismissed it,” Wilson wrote.

On June 3, Keller said in a statement that the “restraining order against John Wilson remains in place. I will not be changing my mind, despite his repeated efforts to coerce me to dismiss it. A hearing on the restraining order will be held on June 30, 2025. I welcome the opportunity to address John’s reference to a signed agreement at that time, and inform the court of John’s continuing violations of the very active restraining order.”

Wilson responded to my request for comment by saying, “Your reporting has been so horrendously biased, inaccurate and loaded that I really have no interest in talking to you” and encouraging me to “start by reporting on” his filing.

Also on Thursday, Jayson Morris, a longtime local Democratic Party activist and Wilson ally, filed a complaint with the King County Democrats, alleging that they had violated their own rules by dual-endorsing Balducci and Zahilay in the county executive race.

Morris’ complaint also claims that the Democrats violated their commitment to Democratic Party values by endorsing candidates whose “conduct”—voting for the resolution calling on Wilson to resign—”has created ethical issues that reflect poorly on the party.”

King County Democrats chair Beth Bazley said that while the Democratic committee itself can’t propose dual endorsements, members themselves can propose multiple endorsements, and added that the vote for each endorsement was “overwhelming.”

Elections, King County, Women

In Motion to Dismiss Restraining Order, County Assessor Calls His Ex-Partner Unstable and Vengeful

By Erica C. Barnett

King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson, who was the subject of a no-confidence vote by the King County Council earlier this week, has filed a motion to dismiss his domestic partner Lee Keller’s temporary restraining order against him, arguing that she is emotionally unstable and is trying to harm him politically.

PubliCola broke the news about the new stalking and harassment allegations against Wilson in May. The Seattle Times covered earlier allegations against Wilson in January.

Wilson, who is running for King County Executive, has never publicly denied Keller’s allegations, including several dating back to 2024, that he texted and called her incessantly, showed up at her home uninvited, followed her movements using tracking apps, and called the workplace of a man she had been seeing to accuse him of sexual assault in an attempt to get him fired. These actions, among others, were the basis for the county council’s call for Wilson to resign as county assessor, a position that affords him access to personal data about King County taxpayers.

Many of Keller’s allegations, including one in which Wilson said the man he’s alleged to have falsely accused of sexual assault “deserves my wrath,” are documented in text messages and phone records. Keller’s latest filing includes a text exchange in which she told Wilson, “LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!” and he responded, “Never,” following up with several more unanswered texts.

Wilson posted a link to his declaration on Facebook, writing:

“As King County Assessor, I took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the State of Washington – including those cherished principles of the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, and due process.

The King County Council, by voting 8 to 0 to demand my resignation, has shown utter contempt for these principals. They want to deny your choices at the polls and rig the election. Yesterday’s hearing was nothing more than a kangaroo court.

I will NOT resign. I will NOT give up my campaign fighting for the everyday people of King County. But the craven behavior of Councilmembers Balducci and Zahilay show they are unfit to serve the people of King County—let alone as Executive.”

King County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay are the frontrunners in the race for county executive; Wilson has consistently trailed both in fundraising and endorsements.

In a statement, Keller’s attorney, Paula Kurtz-Kreshel, said Wilson’s “media campaign against my client continues and is troubling not only for its obvious attempt to disparage, intimidate, and otherwise strong-arm a protected party into dropping a restraining order—but also for the fact that his efforts are taking place during hours of employment when one would think he should be working for the people of King County.”

In his new motion, Wilson claimed that he, rather than Keller, was the victim of abuse, pointing to an incident in April 2024 in which he claims Keller “shoved me and nearly made me fall down a flight of stairs.” He called the police, Wilson wrote, because he “felt I had been threatened and was personally at risk.”

A police report by an officer responding to Wilson’s call in 2024 tells a different story. According to the 2024 report, Wilson told the officer that he and Keller “got into a verbal argument” after Wilson went into Keller’s text messages and discovered she had been communicating with an ex. In his telling, Wilson calmly “talked to Keller about not being transparent” and she became “enraged.” Wilson claimed Keller pushed him “in the chest,” which “caught [him] off guard”; he did not mention anything about stairs.

Keller also called police about the incident, meeting with the same officer who had interviewed Wilson at the hotel she was staying in after she fled the home she and Wilson shared. She told the officer that Wilson “hacked” into her messages without her permission and told her they needed to talk, saying he had “proof” that she had been lying to him.

Keller told the officer she and Wilson got into a shouting match while she was standing in the entry to their home and Wilson was standing on the stairs, and said she “never laid a hand on him.” Keller told officers Wilson had tried to push his way into the laundry room where she was feeding her dog before she left for a hotel, and that she broke a ceramic dog bowl while trying to shut the door.

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While the officer was interviewing Keller, he noted in the report, Wilson “called her approximately 15 times and sent roughly 10 text messages saying that there was an emergency and that she needed to call him.” Wilson continued trying to reach Keller, the officer noted, even after the officer picked up one of Wilson’s calls and asked him to stop calling and texting her. Wilson has not publicly disputed any of this; in fact, he included Keller’s police report in the exhibits attached to his filing.

Kurtz-Kreshel said the police reports filed at the time refuted Wilson’s claim that Keller pushed him. “These reports are filed with Mr. Wilson’s motion and ironically spotlight his stalking and harassment of my client.”

Along with the statement, Kurtz-Kreshel provided a copy of an email Wilson sent to the King County Sheriff’s Office two weeks after the April 2024 altercation, in which Wilson said he had “exaggerated the incident as far more serious than it was. Ms. Keller never hurt or injured me when in the heat of our argument she moved me back from standing in front of her. In addition, I never felt in fear of Ms. Keller, or thought for an instant she might want to hurt or injure me.”

In his new motion to dismiss Keller’s restraining order against him, Wilson claimed that Keller’s “instability” and “volatility,” not Wilson’s documented behavior, is the problem. “Unfortunately, as much as I love Lee, her volatility and instability has become a real issue for me both personally and professionally,” Wilson wrote, adding that “once Lee calms down, she wants to see me.”

There are many different reasons that women return to men who are abusive or drop restraining orders against their partners, and the decision to drop a restraining order is not proof that a woman filed the order frivolously or that the relationship is not abusive.

Wilson said the two met in a public place on May 23, 11 days after Keller for the restraining order, and “Lee seemed genuinely happy to see me,” but said things turned sour after Wilson refused to help pay her rent.

“I firmly believe that victims of domestic violence should be protected. However, restraining orders should be a shield for victims and not a sword because someone is mad at you and is lashing out, especially when that someone has a long history of volatility and instability as it is evidenced by the number of times Lee has filed a Petition and then dismissed it,” Wilson wrote.

On June 3, Keller said in a statement that the “restraining order against John Wilson remains in place. I will not be changing my mind, despite his repeated efforts to coerce me to dismiss it. A hearing on the restraining order will be held on June 30, 2025. I welcome the opportunity to address John’s reference to a signed agreement at that time, and inform the court of John’s continuing violations of the very active restraining order.”

Wilson responded to my request for comment by saying, “Your reporting has been so horrendously biased, inaccurate and loaded that I really have no interest in talking to you” and encouraging me to “start by reporting on” his filing.

Also on Thursday, Jayson Morris, a longtime local Democratic Party activist and Wilson ally, filed a complaint with the King County Democrats, alleging that they had violated their own rules by dual-endorsing Balducci and Zahilay in the county executive race.

Morris’ complaint also claims that the Democrats violated their commitment to Democratic Party values by endorsing candidates whose “conduct”—voting for the resolution calling on Wilson to resign—”has created ethical issues that reflect poorly on the party.”

King County Democrats chair Beth Bazley said that while the Democratic committee itself can’t propose dual endorsements, members themselves can propose multiple endorsements, and added that the vote for each endorsement was “overwhelming.”