Bad Apples

Office of Police Accountability (OPA) Director Gino Betts resigned last week as head of the city’s police watchdog department following an unrelenting anti-Betts campaign from the Seattle Police Union, Interim Chief of Police Sue Rahr, and certain right-wing radio hosts. For those who don’t know, almost anyone you’ve ever read about in Bad Apples, Betts investigated and recommended their discipline —or lack thereof.

During his two-and-a-half years investigating the Seattle Police Department (SPD), Betts recommended termination for officers like former Seattle cops’ union Vice President Daniel Auderer, who laughed after SPD Officer Kevin Dave hit and killed 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula, as well as Officer Burton Hill, who called his neighbor a racial slur. As part of that investigation, Betts required Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (SPOG) Chairman Mike Solan to attend a second clarifying interview. In reaction, Solan threw a fit calling it inappropriate, according to the Seattle Times. Earlier this year, Betts also opened probes into a deputy and an assistant chief at SPD. Both of whom Rahr allowed to continue working.

Despite all this bellyaching from SPOG and Rahr, Betts acted fairly typically for an OPA director, at least according to the numbers. Under former OPA Director Andrew Meyerberg in 2020, OPA classified about 430 cases for investigation resulting in about the same number of oral reprimands, written reprimands, suspensions without pay, and OPA recommended firings as under Betts in 2023 when the office classified about 550 investigations. Still, he couldn’t hold onto his position for a full four-year term. I’ll remember him most notably for changing the OPA reports so his recommendations for discipline could be compared to whatever the Seattle Police Chief ultimately imposed, a transparency measure I hope whoever takes over for him maintains. Betts, we hardly knew ya. Now, let’s take a look at some of the latest cases OPA investigated under his leadership.

Drunk domestic violence in Boston

Case #2023OPA-0145

On April 1, 2023, Boston Police Officers arrested Seattle West Precinct Officer Brady O’Keefe for assaulting his partner. Witnesses told officers they saw O’Keefe allegedly grab his partner by her hair, push her down, and cause her to fall and hit her head on the concrete. One of the witnesses tried to intervene and speak with O’Keefe, he allegedly grabbed the witness by the throat and yelled, “Who do you think you are?”

O’Keefe told officers he and his partner had traveled to Boston for a Red Sox game, admitting that his partner had gotten drunk and he might also have been intoxicated as well. When officers interviewed the woman, she denied O’Keefe had hurt her and kept telling the officers he was good at his job and “received an award.” Prosecutors ultimately dismissed the charges against O’Keefe.

O’Keefe told OPA investigators that the woman had tripped and fallen on her own. OPA found the witness’s account of what happened more credible. However, OPA did not sustain a policy violation for O’Keefe for failing to follow the law due to the high standard of evidence imposed by the SPOG contract for serious offenses. However, OPA did sustain a policy violation against O’Keefe for his lack of professionalism. Betts recommended anywhere from a written reprimand to a five day suspension for O’Keefe. Chief of Police Sue Rahr went with a two day suspension.

O’Keefe made more than $100,000 in 2023.

Shifting the overtime window

Case #2023OPA-0024

Next up is North Precinct Officer Ron Willis, who both DivestSPD, Publicola, and the Seattle Times have covered in the past for his massive overtime pay and failure to respond to a call about domestic violence despite the caller reporting that the attack left the victim bloody and injured. Most recently Rahr disciplined Willis for supposedly working 19 hour days back-to-back. Rahr doubled the discipline recommended by the SPD disciplinary committee to a 90-hour suspension, as her way of underscoring the point that Willis can’t violate the department’s overtime policies which prevent officers from working more than 90 hours in a week. Willis apparently failed to learn that lesson back in 2021 when the OPA suspended him for previously violating SPD’s overtime policies. I bring Willis up because he consistently appeals OPA disciplinary findings as “excessive.” 

Willis is a great example of how cops simply disagree they should be held accountable or disciplined for violating SPD policies, even the ones such as Willis who made $329,000 in 2023 and in back pay alone from the new policy union contract will make $131,000.

Bullying kids

Case #2024OPA-0069

Finally, Officer Christian Lara, who I mentioned in last month’s Bad Apples and who no longer works for SPD. On November 13, 2023, Lara and another officer responded to a call about an assault. They stopped two people who the officers believed were involved in or witnessed the assault. Lara told the two people they were detained and that the officers were going to question them. One of the individuals was under the age of 18, which Lara knew, according to what he later told OPA investigators. At one point the kid told Lara he was just trying to get home. Lara responded by stating that the kid matched the description of someone involved in the assault and then said, “So you’re being detained, right? Damn, I can’t believe your homies ditched you like that. Your other two homies that were with you?” The kid never referred to his friends as “homies.” 

Lara asked the kid a lot of leading questions to try to force him to implicate himself and his friend in an alleged assault, all without an attorney present, despite SPD policy requiring officers to provide access to an attorney before this kind of questioning can take place. Class act Lara, sorry to hear you’re off the force, but hopefully you can take comfort in the fact that you made $168,000 in 2023.