Is the Case Against Ed Murray Politically Motivated? Here’s What the Lawyer for His Accuser Says

Mayor Ed Murray and his husband in 2016. The mayor denies accusations that he sexually abused three teenagers in the 1980s. City of Seattle

Yesterday, I reported on what we know about the law firm representing the man who claims Mayor Ed Murray sexually abused him in the 80s, when he was 15 years old and Murray was in his 30s. The founder of that firm has opposed gay marriage and donated to an anti-trans ballot measure campaign. The primary lawyer working on the case, Lincoln Beauregard, told The Stranger he disagrees with his partner’s politics and described himself in an email as “SUPER pro gay rights.”

The politics of that law firm’s founder, Jack Connelly, are relevant because Murray’s team has suggested their lawsuit is politically motivated.

“It is not a coincidence that this shakedown effort comes within weeks of the campaign filing deadline,” Murray’s personal spokesperson Jeff Reading said in a statement.

Two other men who are not involved in the lawsuit but say they were also victims of Murray’s “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,” Reading said.

In the comments section of my post yesterday, someone with the username “LincolnLawyer” claimed to be “THE lawyer handling the case” and wrote that none of the lawyers’ personal views have “anything to do with” the lawsuit.

“The allegation that this is politically driven is true to the extent that my (gay) client doesn’t think that the public should reelect the Mayor without being aware of this,” LincolnLawyer wrote.

I doubt most lawyers suing high profile elected officials are going around creating Slog commenter accounts to discuss the motivations for their lawsuits, but Beauregard seems a little unorthodox. So, I asked him whether he wrote that comment.

“It may or may not be,” he wrote in an email, “that’s a public forum.”

OK.

Beauregard did respond to the broader accusations that the lawsuit may be politically motivated, though.

“The complaint says the exact same thing as does the comment: that my client wants to public to know what the Mayor did so that they can judge the merits and whether or not he should be their Mayor,” Beauregard wrote. “That said, my client’s intentions are not connected to any other political agenda, other than winning this lawsuit. I talked with him this morning, and told him about this spin on the anti-LGBT angle, and he said, ‘No, I don’t know nothing about that sort of stuff.’ He is angry to watch the Mayor making public denials.”

We’ve asked Beauregard to arrange for us to speak directly with D.H. about his motivations for bringing the case. He instead offered to forward our questions on to D.H.

Beauregard then pointed to page 4 of the complaint against Murray, which acknowledges that “natural speculation would lead some people to believe that D.H.’s actions are politically motived—which is not exactly true.”

“In this regard,” the complaint reads, “D.H. is disturbed that Mr. Murray maintains a position of trust and authority, and believes that the public has a right to full information when a trusted official exploits a child. To the extent that D.H. has any political motivations for outing Mr. Murray, they stop there.”