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.
