Seattle Times: Kent Man Files Lawsuit Accusing Mayor Ed Murray of Raping Him as a Teenager

The mayor denies the allegations. Kelly O

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A Kent man filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court saying Mayor Ed Murray sexually abused him as a teenager in the 1980s, reports the Seattle Times. Separately, two other men who accused Murray of sexual abuse a decade ago repeated their claims to the Times.

The man who filed the lawsuit under his initials, D.H., claims Murray “raped and molested” him beginning in 1986 when the man was 15, a high school drop out, and addicted to crack cocaine, the Times reports. Two other men, Jeff Simpson and Lloyd Anderson, made startlingly similar allegations a decade ago in more recent interviews with the Times.

In his lawsuit, D.H. said he first met Murray on a Metro bus on Capitol Hill, and that Murray invited him back to his apartment, propositioning him for sex. The two haggled over the price — $10 or $15, D.H. said in an interview this week, adding that Murray continued to pay him for the next four to five years, at least 50 times. “And there’s times he would be doing certain things and I would tell him to stop and he wouldn’t stop, and I let it happen because I wanted that money so I can go get those drugs,” D.H. said in the interview. The lawsuit gives details about Murray’s 1980s Capitol Hill apartment, accurately recalls Murray’s phone number from the time, and offers a description of his genitals.

Murray denies the allegations, telling the Times through a spokesperson that they are "intended to damage a prominent elected official who has been a defender of vulnerable populations for decades." The earlier allegations, Murray's spokesperson said, "were promoted by extreme right-wing antigay activists in the midst of the marriage equality campaign, and were thoroughly investigated and dismissed by both law enforcement authorities and the media."

Read the full report here.

UPDATE: Here's the complaint filed today with several pieces of potentially identifying information about the accuser redacted.

This post has been updated to accurately reflect when the two men not included in the lawsuit made their allegations to the Times.