Associated Press in Seattle, London, Sunday 16 July, 2017<\/p>\n
-Seattle Times reports findings from records previously thought lost<\/p>\n
-Mayor who will not seek re-election says he was not informed<\/p>\n
Three decades before Ed Murray was elected as mayor of Seattle<\/a>, an Oregon child-welfare investigator found that he had sexually abused his foster son, prompting state officials to conclude that \u201cunder no circumstances\u201d should Murray serve as a foster parent in the future.<\/p>\n The findings were reported on Sunday by the Seattle Times<\/a>, three months after Oregon\u2019s Department of Human Services unearthed old records, previously thought to have been destroyed, at the newspaper\u2019s request.<\/p>\n The agency initially withheld many of the documents but it released them to the Times this month after it appealed, agreeing it was in the public interest to do so.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 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,\u201d Child Protective Services caseworker Judy Butler wrote in the May 1984 assessment.<\/p>\n Murray\u2019s former foster son, Jeff Simpson, is one of four men who publicly accused<\/a>\u00a0him this spring of sexually abusing them long ago. Murray adamantly denies the allegations, but has declined to seek re-election<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a written response on Sunday, Murray said the child welfare investigator never interviewed him and that neither he nor his attorney was informed of the findings at the time. He said the allegations were fully investigated and prosecutors never brought charges.<\/p>\n \u201cThat she believed Jeff\u2019s claims at the time and advocated on his behalf is painful to see, but does not change the fact that, based on the totality of the evidence that was collected, the district attorney declined to file charges,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n Still, the Times reported, the newly disclosed records reveal that a Multnomah County prosecutor declined to pursue charges because of Simpson\u2019s troubled personality, not because she thought he was lying.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was Jeff\u2019s emotional instability, history of manipulative behavior and the fact that he has again run away and made himself unavailable that forced my decision,\u201d Deputy District Attorney Mary Tomlinson wrote.<\/p>\n She added: \u201cWe could not be sure of meeting the high burden of proof in a criminal case \u2013 of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty. However, this in no way means that the District Attorney\u2019s Office has decided Jeff\u2019s allegations are not true.\u201d<\/p>\n Simpson, now 49, was abandoned as an infant. He lived under Murray\u2019s care for nearly a year and a half as a teenager, after meeting him when Murray counseled him at a Portland center for troubled teens in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s care at age 16, he said. At times, Murray paid Simpson $10 or gave him drugs for sex, he said.<\/p>\n