Seattle Mayor Accused of Sexually Molesting Young Boys

Seattle Mayor and Former lobbyist for Gay rights In Hot Water

SEATTLE – Seattle openly Gay Mayor, 61 year-old Ed Murray, has been accused of sexual abuse by three men when they were children.

An unnamed man filed a child sex abuse lawsuit against the mayor on April 6, alleging Murray “repeatedly criminally raped and molested” him when he was 15 years-old and living on the streets back in the 1980s.

The unnamed plaintiff and two other men subsequently reached out to the Seattle Times in hopes of getting major press coverage of the lawsuit by doing interviews. All three young men told similar stories about a man who was in politics in his late 20s and 30s, who befriended street kids and allegedly paid them for sexual favors.

“I don’t necessarily think that he destroyed my life,” Plaintiff Jeff Simpson told the Seattle Times…after describing years of molestation at the hands of the now mayor of Seattle when he was only 13 years old. “But I believe a lot of the problems I have stemmed from this.” said Simpson.

Mayor Murray who is know to be a gay rights pioneer who turned to becoming a leading opponent of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, decided to withdraw his participation in a planned event after the story went nationwide and forcing Mayor Murray to address the scandal in a press conference held Friday.

The 61 year-old mayor did not take any questions from the press and all but dismissed the lawsuit as accusations from a “troubled” man.

“These allegations, dating back to a period of more than 30 years, are simply not true,” said Mayor Murray. The mayor also stated that he intends to fight the lawsuit and is still on schedule to file for reelection later this year.

Mayor Murray who was raised in Seattle, previously held the reigns as a campaign manager for Washington’s first openly gay state senator back in the 80s.

According to the lawsuit, towards the end of the decade, Murray met a homeless, drug-addicted 15-year-old on a bus. “Young and curious, D.H. encountered Ed Murray upon the bus and developed a friendly interaction,” reads the lawsuit. “This quickly turned into a regular negotiation, the suit continues…”Contact with the teen was ongoing and he was “willing to do whatever Mr. Murray asked for as little as $10 to $20.”.

The plaintiff, Jeff Simpson, now 46, (pictured right), was named only by initials in the lawsuit. But he gave an interview to the Seattle Times, recalling: “He’d be doing certain things, and I’d tell him to stop, and he wouldn’t stop.” said Simpson.

The lawsuit was filed because the statute of limitations precludes criminal charges after so many years. However if it were still in sight of criminal prosecution, Mayor Murray would truly be in serious trouble. The lawsuit goes into explicit detail about the alleged sexual encounters between the two.

In fact, the lawsuit describes Murray’s former apartment’s floor plan. It also describes intimate physical descriptions of Murray that match the account of another accuser who did not file a suit against Murray – victim no. 2 – Lloyd Anderson.

Anderson told the Times that he met the future mayor as a teen in the early 1980s – when he and Simpson were both living in a boys home home in Portland. According to Anderson, “Murray invited me to his home and gave me $30 and some marijuana and in return he asked for oral sex.” Anderson told the Seattle Times.

Simpson went on to state the history of their relationship by telling the Seattle Times that he and Murray lived off-and-on for years while at the same time having sex regularly. In fact Simpson stated that once they had an arguement that was so bad that he decided to get revenge and reported the sexual molestation to his group home’s manager. However nothing came from the reported incident.

The Special Victim’s Unit attmpted to pursue a sodomy investigation against Murray that same year but for some reason, decided to drop the case entirely.

Anderson and Simpson took their accusations to the media and Washington lawmakers back in 2008 when Murray was then a state senator. At that time Murray had already built up a reputation for championing same-sex marriage and other gay rights causes.

According to the the Seattle Times, they never printed the men’s story about Murray until last week when similar claims in the lawsuit prompted Times reporters to seek out the men for interviews in order to cover their tracks.

The Seattle Times released the following statement:
“Murray denied the accusations to the Times reporters and hired an attorney, who worked to discredit the men largely based on their criminal pasts,” the paper reported. “Neither the Seattle Times nor other media publicly reported the allegations, and Murray’s political career continued to rise.”

Murray won the Seattle mayor’s office in 2012 with support from liberal voters with a promise to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. This year, Murray became a leading voice in the West coast resistance to Trump’s political agenda in regards to undocumented immigrants.

I attempted to reach out to Mayor Murray’s office for comment on this story but was told that the Mayor is not making any further comments on this matter at this time.

According to plaintiff Jeff Simpson, filing his lawsuit was not about money but about healing especially after getting through a long drug addiction history.

Simpson told the Times …“You don’t do dirt to nobody and think you’re going to get away with it, you know,” said Simpson.