How Could You? Hall of Shame-Jeff Simpson case UPDATED and Lawsuit now Bittersweet Justice

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Oregon, in 1984, “an Oregon child-welfare investigator concluded that Ed Murray sexually abused his foster son in the early 1980s, leading state officials to assert that “under no circumstances should Mr. Murray be certified” as a foster parent in the future, according to public records obtained by The Seattle Times.

The investigation by Oregon Child Protective Services (CPS) of Jeff Simpson’s allegations determined them to be valid — meaning the agency believed Murray sexually abused Simpson, the records show.

“In the professional judgement of this caseworker who has interviewed numerous children of all ages and of all levels of emotional disturbance regarding sexual abuse, Jeff Simpson has been sexually abused by … Edward Murray,” CPS caseworker Judy Butler wrote in the May 1984 assessment.

Murray, elected Seattle’s mayor in 2013, last week repeated in an interview with The Seattle Times that he never abused Simpson, and he underscored that prosecutors had decided decades ago not to charge him.

Still, the newly disclosed records reveal that a Multnomah County prosecutor withdrew a criminal case against Murray because of Simpson’s troubled personality, not because she thought he was lying.

“It was Jeff’s emotional instability, history of manipulative behavior and the fact that he has again run away and made himself unavailable that forced my decision,” Deputy District Attorney Mary Tomlinson wrote.

“We could not be sure of meeting the high burden of proof in a criminal case — of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty. However, this in no way means that the District Attorney’s Office has decided Jeff’s allegations are not true.”

Unlike a criminal case, CPS child-abuse investigations determine whether “reasonable cause” exists — a lower standard of proof than for criminal cases, but still meaning the abuse likely occurred. In Oregon, about 10 percent of child-abuse reports annually have in recent years been deemed to be founded.

The newly obtained records, previously thought destroyed, provide the clearest picture yet of the investigation of Murray, then a paralegal who had worked as a counselor to Simpson and other troubled children.

The documents, released to The Seattle Times this month by Oregon’s Department of Human Services, also contradict public statements in recent months by Murray and his lawyer contending investigators had debunked Simpson’s allegations at the time as false.

A letter to The Times sent Saturday night by Murray’s Portland lawyer, Katherine Heekin, stressed: “Oregon’s Child Protective Services is supposed to err on the side of believing a child’s accusations. The agency is not responsible for judging sex abuse cases. It merely investigates allegations of sex abuse. In contrast, law enforcement is responsible for determining whether or not a crime may have happened. Here, there was no indictment, no charges filed, no conviction, and no crime.”

Murray said last week he had never been told of the CPS finding and would have appealed had he known. The Seattle Times provided him copies of the newly released investigative records Tuesday.

In an interview Thursday, Murray and Heekin questioned why Oregon officials kept the records without informing Murray. They also disputed the importance of the documents.

“Other than the salacious nature of it, I don’t see what the story is,” said Murray. “The system vindicated me. They withdrew the case.”

Murray said his previous comments that Simpson’s allegations had been discredited were based on his lawyer’s impressions about the decision to drop the case. He said he learned from the documents that the case was withdrawn before a grand jury could vote whether to indict him.

“I feel even more strongly that my statement was correct because (the criminal case) was withdrawn,” Murray added. “ … That is unusual because we all know people get indicted and they get indicted pretty easily. As I said, one of the attorneys told me you can get a ham sandwich indicted in the grand jury.”

The withdrawn case included another foster parent Simpson had accused of abuse.

Murray pointed to statements his attorneys collected and submitted to investigators from people who had known him or Simpson. They included other foster parents who described the youth as sometimes violent and impossibly difficult to care for.

Oregon officials previously said records of the investigation had been purged, but located them in April under a newer computer-tracking system. In releasing the typically private information to The Times, that state cited, in part, a provision of public-records law that allows disclosure “to protect children from abuse and neglect.”

The finding by CPS supporting Simpson — who had been abandoned as an infant and later lived under Murray’s care for nearly a year and a half as a teenager — prompted Oregon child-welfare officials to decide that Murray should never again be a foster parent, a June 1984 report shows.

The abuse finding — the result of a required administrative investigation — remains in effect and could still prevent him from being a foster parent in Oregon, officials said.

“Thank you, Jesus”

Murray, 62, a longtime Democratic state lawmaker and gay civil-rights leader, has attacked the credibility of Simpson and other men who say he sexual abused them decades ago. Murray has suggested the claims are politically motivated.

The scandal led Murray to drop his re-election bid. The mayor has said he’ll serve out his term, which ends this year.

Simpson, 49, who abandoned an effort to sue Murray in 2008 due to statute-of-limitations issues, was happy when reporters told him last week that the CPS report backed his claims.

“Wow, wow. Thank you, Jesus,” he said.

Simpson added that he and his attorney had tried to find such documents, but were told none existed.

The Times first published details about Simpson’s claims in April when a Kent man, Delvonn Heckard, made similar accusations against Murray in a sexual-abuse lawsuit. Heckard withdrew his lawsuit in June, saying he intends to refile after Murray leaves office.

Shortly after Heckard sued, Murray’s attorney Robert Sulkin attacked the lawsuit and Simpson’s allegations, saying Simpson’s claims had been “completely debunked” and “found to be false by law enforcement.”

Janet Hoffman, the Portland attorney who defended Murray in 1984, said in an interview in May that Portland prosecutors were “very hard-nosed” and must have been “thoroughly convinced” the allegations were “totally false.”

The records released this month show otherwise. Along with the prosecutor’s letter and the CPS assessment, a state foster-care specialist wrote in a summary:

“Mr. Murray allegedly sexually abused the foster child in his home over a long period of time. Although he was not indicted, the Protective Services department feels that the allegations are true, as does the district attorney’s office.”

A police report shows two witnesses also told a detective they were aware of allegations that Murray had abused Simpson and were willing to testify before a grand jury. A high-school friend of Simpson and the friend’s mother told the detective Simpson had spoken to them about Murray’s alleged abuse before telling social workers and that they had overheard a three- to four-hour phone call between the two.

Two foster fathers accused

Simpson, who grew up in group and foster homes, met Murray at the Parry Center for Children in Portland where Murray worked as his counselor in the late 1970s. Murray remained close with Simpson after the boy left the center.

At the time, Simpson had extreme emotional problems. Child-welfare records described him as a “heavy street kid” and “one of the agency’s most difficult children.” Murray was considered a stabilizing presence whom Simpson called “Dad,” the records show.

In November 1982, a court designated Murray, then a 27-year-old paralegal for a public defender’s office, to become Simpson’s foster father. The teenager lived with Murray in two Portland apartments until March 1984, records show. Social workers noted some problems, but they called Murray the most successful foster parent Simpson had ever had.

Simpson first alleged sex abuse in April 1984, a few weeks after he’d been removed from Murray’s care due to drug abuse and behavioral problems. The upheaval in Simpson’s living situation weighed on him; two days after being moved to a group home he slashed his wrist, cutting a 4-inch gash in his left arm.

When a social worker interviewed Simpson, asking if he’d ever been sexually abused, Simpson told her a foster parent had abused him years earlier. When she asked if he’d been abused more recently, Simpson wanted assurances his answer would remain confidential, the records show.

“After being reassured … that it would, Jeff acknowledged that his foster father in his most recent placement also sexually abused him,” a social worker’s report on the alleged abuse states.

CPS assigned Butler to assess the allegations a few days later. Simpson was surprised and reluctant, saying he thought what he told the social worker would stay private. He eventually told Butler about the alleged abuse in an hourlong interview.

Simpson said the abuse began in 1980, when he was 13 and spending a weekend with Murray. The abuse continued after Murray became his foster father and lasted until he left Murray’s care at age 16, Simpson said. At times, Murray paid Simpson $10 or gave him drugs for sex.

“Jeff stared at the floor and appeared to be very depressed,” Butler wrote. “At times his voice would shake as he described his disappointment when Ed Murray, whom he had trusted and seen as the only consistent adult figure in his life, began a process of sexual abuse.”

Case withdrawn

Simpson gave a second interview a day later with Butler and Portland police Detective Dave Foesch. Simpson told the detective that Murray sometimes warned him that if he told anyone, he’d be removed from Murray’s home and sent to an institution.

When the detective asked if Simpson was willing to help prosecute Murray, Simpson responded, “No, he is my father,” Foesch, who has since died, wrote in a police report.

“It was then explained to Jeffrey that Mr. Murray is not his father and that a father would not do these things to his son,” Foesch wrote. “Jeffrey then thought about it for a while and agreed that he may possibly be able to save some other child from suffering the same indignations.”

The next day, Simpson, Butler and Foesch testified before a grand jury, Butler’s report states. Meantime, Murray, unaware of the allegations, called Simpson’s group home several times, demanding to speak with him and threatening to sue when he was denied contact, Butler’s report states.

After testifying to the grand jury, Foesch called Murray to inform him of Simpson’s allegations and set up an interview. A lawyer for Murray later told Foesch his client was “too emotionally upset at this time to be interviewed,” the detective’s report states.

Murray changed lawyers several times before settling on Hoffman, who soon provided statements to investigators from people who knew Simpson and Murray, and did not believe the allegations.

Murray also reportedly took a private polygraph, but “since the exact results were not released to the D.A. my assumption is that it was inconclusive,” Butler wrote in the assessment. She noted Hoffman described Murray as “coming out ‘Real good’” in the test.

Murray and Hoffman said last week they didn’t have records of the polygraph results.

Simpson, who state foster reports show was prone to lying, stealing, using drugs and running away, presented problems for the district attorney in proving the case. About a month after the allegations emerged, the prosecutor’s office withdrew the case against Murray and the other accused foster parent from the grand jury.

But in her CPS assessment, Butler found Simpson believable. She noted he’d expressed concern that his claims would ruin Murray’s career, and had “no motive to make something like this up” because Simpson knew he’d likely be placed in an institution and never allowed to live with Murray again.

“It is unfortunate that the criminal justice system chose not to act in this case simply because a conviction of … Mr. Murray would probably be the only way of mandating (him) in to treatment for … sexual deviancy,” Butler added.

A few months after the investigation ended, Murray left Portland and moved to Seattle.

Simpson said Friday he didn’t remember accusing the other foster parent of abuse when he spoke with reporters earlier this year, saying that was probably because it didn’t compare to what Murray allegedly did to him.

“It upsets me that I didn’t remember,” he said. “I’m not trying to be deceitful or anything like that. It hurts my validity.”

The other man was Simpson’s foster provider for about a month, the records show.

Simpson is one of four men who have publicly accused Murray of sexual abuse decades ago when they were teenagers. Heckard claimed Murray started paying him for sex in 1986, when Heckard was a drug-addicted 15-year-old. Lloyd Anderson and Lavon Jones also separately allege Murray paid them for sex as teenagers.

In May, Murray’s personal spokesman, Jeff Reading, provided The Times with copies of several statements from people who supported Murray when Simpson first made his allegations in 1984.

Reading said he was providing the information because “there is an existing body of evidence that rebuts and contradicts what Jeff has said.”

The statements were given by people who had counseled or taken in Simpson and described him as emotionally unstable and Murray as having tried hard to help.

One couple, who took Simpson on weekend outings, told a Murray defense investigator Simpson didn’t respond well to discipline and in his early teens “seemed to be very obsessed with the fear of being a homosexual.”

The couple believed the boy’s sex-abuse allegation “was nothing more (than) Jeff acting up” and “striking back” for “some form of rejection.”

Another statement, from a counselor who had worked with Simpson at Murray’s request, said the teenager previously had claimed sexual abuse.

The counselor said “he recalled a telephone call in which Jeff alleged that Ed had forced him into sex and paid for it,” he told Murray’s defense investigators.

The counselor dismissed Simpson’s claim, saying “he did not believe that allegation at the time, and found it to be completely irrational.”

Some of the same statements were included in the state foster records released to The Times this month. The CPS investigator considered them before making her finding.

Murray said the CPS report doesn’t accurately reflect what happened, noting other important records from Simpson’s foster file and the D.A. inquiry that no longer exist would illustrate Simpson’s destructive behavior.

“He got angry at every foster parent that he’d ever been involved with,” Murray said.

In interviews, Simpson has acknowledged his troubled youth, drug problems and lengthy criminal record, including a 10-year prison term.

He also has signed several waivers to allow authorities to release his private counseling and other records.

In June, after Heckard withdrew his lawsuit, Murray held a news conference at City Hall to declare he’d been vindicated. The mayor also told reporters the media hadn’t gone far enough in seeking information that would demonstrate his innocence in the Simpson case.

“All those records exist,” Murray said. “Also, that a prosecutor and grand jury investigated it and didn’t pursue it, all those facts exist.”

When reminded Thursday of his statements criticizing the press for not pursuing more records, Murray responded: “But you cherry-pick records. You cherry-pick records.”

In the Saturday night letter, Murray’s attorney Heekin also said, “The Seattle Times … seeks to reinvestigate the case, to take the place of law enforcement and the District Attorney’s Office, act as judge and jury without a full vetting and disclosure of the facts that were available to law enforcement in 1984, rewrite history, and mislead the public.”

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray sexually abused foster son, child-welfare investigator found in 1984

[Seattle Times 7/16/17 by Lewis Kamb and Jim Brunner]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “A man who said the former Seattle mayor sexually abused him as a teenager has been found dead of a suspected drug overdose.

Delvonn Heckard, the first of five men to accuse Ed Murray of sexual abuse, was found dead in a room of the Auburn Motel 30 miles south of Seattle at about 2.05am on Friday. He had turned 47 on Valentine’s Day.

Just two months ago, Heckard won a $150,000 taxpayer-funded settlement, after his lawsuit filed in April against Murray prompted four others to come forward.

The 62-year-old Democrat Murray, who resigned as Seattle’s mayor in September after his own cousin publicly accused him of child sexual abuse, continues to deny all the allegations.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Heckard’s death on Friday afternoon, and said the cause and manner of death are still pending, the Seattle Times reported.

Paramedics responded to a 911 call from the motel and found Heckard unresponsive, and were unable to resuscitate him.

A witness found ‘some type of medication in the room, as well as some illicit drug paraphernalia’, police said.

Heckard had been in recovery for addiction to cocaine and other illegal drugs.

In late December, the City of Seattle settled Heckard’s lawsuit. He recently received a $100,000 payment from the $150,000 settlement.

The parties agreed that other $50,000 would go to survivor resources: $25,000 to the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, $12,500 to the Harborview Sexual Assault & Trauma Unit, and $12,500 to the Silent Task Force.

Heckard’s lawyer Lincoln Beauregard told the Times that he had set up a trust account for Heckard’s payout so he wouldn’t spend the money too quickly.

In his bombshell lawsuit, Heckard said that Murray ‘raped and molested him’ over several years beginning in 1986, when Heckard was a 15-year-old crack cocaine addict and Murray was in his 30s.

Heckard declined anonymity and spoke out publicly about his claims in the case.

‘Once people hear me talk, they’ll be able to feel my spirit, and they’ll have no doubts that what I’m saying is true,’ Heckard said in an interview last spring.

In the subsequent months, four other men came forward with public accusations against Murray.

On September 12, Murray’s cousin, Joseph Dyer, gave an interview claiming Murray had molested him for over a year when he was 13 and Murray was in his early 20s.

Murray resigned from office just hours after the interview was published.

When news of the resignation came out, Heckard broke down in an emotional interview with the Times.

‘I mean, at least the public knows that everything I was saying was the truth, right,’ he said, sobbing.

‘I’m not just some crackhead, some criminal, some street kid. I was telling the truth.'”
Man who accused disgraced ex-mayor of Seattle of sexually abusing him as a teen is found dead of a suspected drug overdose at age 47

[Daily Mail 2/17/18 by Keith Griffith]

Update 2: “Ed Murray’s former foster son sued the city of Seattle and its ex-mayor on Friday, claiming Murray improperly used the city’s highest office to defame him and other men who separately accused Murray of decades-old child sexual abuse during a scandal last year that forced Murray to step down.

Jeff Simpson’s lawsuit also contends the City Council and other public officials negligently failed to investigate his and the other men’s allegations, and otherwise supported Murray, enabling him to stay in office for months to further slander his accusers and use city personnel and other resources to falsely deny their abuse claims.

“Both Mr. Murray, who absolutely knew these claims were true, and the City of Seattle leaders, who did absolutely nothing to determine whether the accusations were true, demonstrated a reckless disregard for the truth that may support punitive damages,” according to Simpson’s complaint, filed in King County Superior Court by his attorney, Cheryl Snow. “These actions, enabling and watching future leaders of the community accept Mr. Murray’s endorsement, caused added emotional distress and humiliation to Jeff Simpson and childhood sex abuse victims everywhere.”

Steve Fogg, Murray’s attorney, said in an emailed statement Friday that Murray is looking forward to a trial.

“For more than a decade, Mr. Simpson has been peddling these baseless claims, seeking to turn them into money,” Fogg’s email said. “My client never molested Mr. Simpson, and he will not be extorted. We look forward to a trial in open court to reveal the falseness of Mr. Simpson’s allegations once and for all.”

Dan Nolte, a spokesman for Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, said in an email Friday the office had not yet seen Simpson’s complaint. Once it did, “we’ll review it and consider our potential next steps,” Nolte said.

Murray, who turned 63 this week, has persistently denied all of his accusers’ allegations. He resigned in September, hours after The Seattle Times published allegations from his younger cousin — the fifth man to come forward last year with claims that Murray had raped and molested him as a teenager decades earlier.

Simpson, 50, now a married father and recovered addict who lives in Gladstone, Oregon, is the second accuser to sue Murray and the city for defamation and negligence related to the respective sexual-abuse claims.

Delvonn Heckard sued Murray and the city last year, ultimately receiving a $150,000 settlement. Heckard, 47, died in an Auburn motel about a month after he accidentally overdosed on heroin and drugs prescribed to him for anxiety and depression.

Simpson filed his lawsuit, as expected, after the city did not approve a tort claim he filed in February that sought more than $1 million in damages. Such claims against government agencies generally serve as precursors to lawsuits.

The suit cites several public statements made last year by Murray; his personal spokesman, Jeff Reading; his former attorney, Robert Sulkin; and his husband, city parks official Michael Shiosaki, as slanderous toward him and other victims.

According to the lawsuit, Murray and the others falsely claimed the accusers were part of an anti-gay conspiracy targeting the mayor for his politics.

The lawsuit specifically cites an opinion piece Murray published in the alternative weekly newspaper, The Stranger, in which he “suggested Jeff is homophobic or anti-gay,” and noted Simpson’s criminal history “proves he cannot be trusted.”

The suit also points to public statements in support of Murray during the scandal made by council members Sally Bagshaw and Bruce Harrell, and notes Bagshaw’s behind-the-scenes work to wrangle council support of Murray to extinguish a public call for him to resign.

The lawsuit also alleges that Murray, Sulkin and Reading repeatedly lied about Simpson being aligned with an anti-gay organization, and noted Sulkin falsely claimed Simpson’s allegations previously had been “debunked” by law enforcement and the media.

Simpson’s allegations that Murray raped and molested him while he knew and later lived with Murray as his foster son in Portland during the early 1980s are supported by an Oregon state administrative finding that Murray committed the alleged abuse.

Records initially believed destroyed, but discovered and released to The Times in July, show an Oregon Child Protective Services’ caseworker who investigated Simpson’s claims in 1984 found them “valid for oral and anal sodomy, molestation, sexual harassment, and intimidation and exploitation.”

The findings led child-welfare officials to informally determine that Murray should never again be certified as a foster provider in that state.

The Oregon records also show a Multnomah County prosecutor withdrew a criminal case against Murray the same year because of Simpson’s emotional troubles, not because she didn’t believe him. At the time, the teenager abused drugs and was prone to street crime and running away, the records show.

Both Simpson and another man, Lloyd Anderson, met Murray as children in the late-1970s, while they lived at a Portland group home where Murray worked as a counselor. Simpson contends Murray began raping and molesting him at age 13, and later paid him numerous times for sex throughout his teenage years.

Anderson, who claims Simpson told him about Murray’s alleged abuse while it was happening, contends Murray also later paid him for sex while he was a teen living on the streets of Portland.

Both men tried to pursue a lawsuit against Murray in 2007, when he was a Washington state senator. But the suit never came together, and their allegations were never publicized. The Portland attorney who represented Simpson said he dropped the case after concluding Oregon’s statute of limitations for filing a sex-abuse suit had lapsed.

Afterward, Simpson called several reporters and lawmakers, as well as Ken Hutcherson, an anti-gay pastor, during failed attempts to publicize his claims about Murray. The Times opted not to run a story at the time because it found scant records to corroborate Simpson’s claims.

Heckard, who said he didn’t know Simpson or Anderson, separately filed his initial lawsuit against Murray in April 2017, raising similar allegations. He claimed Murray paid him small amounts of cash for sexual activity in Murray’s Capitol Hill apartment over several years, beginning when Heckard was a 15-year-old drug addict.

After withdrawing, then later refiling his suit and adding the city as a defendant, Heckard’s attorney, Lincoln Beauregard, negotiated a settlement with Fogg and Holmes in December.

In exchange for the city’s payment, Heckard agreed to drop his legal complaint against Seattle and Murray.”

Former foster son sues ex-Mayor Ed Murray and Seattle; says he and others were defamed once they claimed child sex abuse

[Seattle Times 5/5/18 by Lewis Kamb]
Update 3:“The city of Seattle will pay $75,000 to settle a lawsuit by the former foster son of ex-Mayor Ed Murray, who had accused Murray of misusing his official position to defame the man while fighting accusations of decades-old sexual abuse that led to the mayor’s resignation last year.

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes said in a statement Monday the negotiated settlement with Jeff Simpson allows the city to avoid the uncertainty and expense of a trial, “which helps limit further financial exposure of the taxpayer. I wish Mr. Simpson nothing but the best, and I hope this settlement allows him to move forward.”

In an interview, Simpson said he sees the settlement as a vindication and a blessing.

“My gosh. I am so grateful. I didn’t think it would be possible. Everybody told us it would not be possible,” he said. “To me, as a survivor and a victim of a sexual predator who was a powerful person, God does answer prayers.”

It’s the second settlement — both covered exclusively by taxpayers — arising from the scandal that ended Murray’s political career. Last December, the city agreed to pay $150,000 to Delvonn Heckard, a Kent man who had sued claiming Murray raped and abused him decades ago. Heckard was found dead months later of an accidental drug overdose.

Simpson’s lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court in May, said Murray and his allies had wrongfully used public resources to defame, including by raising his past criminal record and claiming he was making false accusations as part of a right-wing conspiracy. It said Murray and other city leaders had negligently refused to investigate Simpson’s claims of abuse, as well as those of other men, allowing Murray to remain in office for months while continuing to denigrate his accusers.

Cheryl Snow, Simpson’s attorney, called the settlement “a victory on the defamation lawsuit that shows you can’t make comments, you can’t talk about a victim in this way.”

Steve Fogg, an attorney for Murray, said the relatively small settlement merely ended a baseless lawsuit.

“He [Murray] didn’t pay anything, and he didn’t admit to anything. He didn’t do anything wrong. He never defamed Mr. Simpson. He never harmed him in any way,” Fogg said. “75,000 dollars is 75,000 more than Mr. Simpson deserved, but [it was] less than the lawyer fees that would have been required to obtain dismissal.”

“My client is a former CEO of the city government, so he understands the business necessity of a nuisance settlement, which is exactly what this is,” Fogg said

Simpson initially had sought in excess of $1 million in damages when he filed a tort claim as a precursor to his lawsuit.

Snow acknowledged the case may have been difficult to prove at trial, but noted the settlement agreement covers only Murray’s conduct while mayor and does not relinquish Simpson’s legal right to sue over the underlying allegations of sexual abuse if statute of limitations laws are changed.

Simpson, a married father and recovering addict who lives in Gladstone, Oregon, said he intends to seek such changes to the law there. “If anybody has ever had a friend or a family member raped or sexually abused, they’ll know how ridiculous the statute of limitations is,” he said.

A decade ago, Simpson sought to pursue a lawsuit against Murray, then a state legislator, but his attorney at the time withdrew from the case, citing Oregon’s law barring lawsuits after so much time had elapsed.

It was unclear Monday exactly how much of the settlement money will go to Simpson. Both he and Snow, his attorney, said details were being worked out. But Snow said her firm wanted to see most of the money go to Simpson.

Simpson’s allegations that Murray raped and molested him in Portland during the early 1980s, including when Simpson lived with him as a foster son, were bolstered by an Oregon state administrative finding that Murray committed the alleged abuse.

Records once thought destroyed were released to The Seattle Times last July and showed an Oregon Child Protective Services’ caseworker who investigated Simpson’s claims in 1984 found “Jeff Simpson has been sexually abused by … Edward Murray.” The finding led authorities to state that Murray should never again be licensed as a foster parent in Oregon.

Murray was not charged with a crime; a Multnomah County prosecutor cited difficulties pressing the case, but wrote it wasn’t because authorities doubted Simpson’s story.

Murray, a former state senator who was elected mayor in 2013, has repeatedly denied the claims by Simpson and four other men who accused him of sexual abuse — including his cousin, whose allegations made public by The Seattle Times last September caused Murray to resign from office the same day.”

City of Seattle settles lawsuit by ex-mayor Ed Murray’s former foster son for $75,000

[Seattle Times 11/27/18 by Jim Brunner]