Murray\u2019s other accusers \u2014 four men with criminal pasts and drug histories \u2014 all claim Murray abused them decades ago, when each was a troubled teenager.<\/p>\n
Jeff Simpson says he was 13 when Murray began abusing him, after Murray was his counselor at a Portland children\u2019s center. The abuse continued, Simpson said, when he lived with Murray as his foster son for about a year, with Murray sometimes paying him for sex.<\/p>\n
Simpson, 49, reported the alleged abuse in 1984, after being removed from Murray\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
Murray was not criminally charged, but an Oregon Child Protective Services\u2019 investigator found Murray had sexually abused Simpson<\/a>. That prompted Oregon child-welfare officials to conclude Murray should never again be a foster parent.<\/p>\n Lloyd Anderson, 52, another man who met Murray in Portland as a boy, has backed Simpson\u2019s allegations, and said Murray also paid him for sex when Anderson was a teenager.<\/p>\n Their allegations surfaced in April, when Delvonn Heckard, 46, of Kent, filed a lawsuit <\/a>saying Murray \u201craped and molested\u201d him in the 1980s when Heckard was a drug-addicted teen. He later withdrew the lawsuit but has filed a claim for damages against the city of Seattle<\/a>.<\/p>\n A friend of Heckard\u2019s, Maurice Lavon Jones, 44, of Seattle, also claimed Murray paid him for sex when he was a crack-addicted teenage prostitute living on the streets in the 1980s.<\/p>\n Murray has denied all of their accusations.<\/p>\n Unlike the other men, Dyer \u2014 now studying to be a nurse \u2014 doesn\u2019t appear to have any criminal record and says he has never used drugs. Murray has used other accusers\u2019 pasts to attempt to discredit them.<\/p>\n Dyer\u2019s mother, Sottile, is Murray\u2019s first cousin (her mother and Murray\u2019s mother, Anna Murray, were sisters). In a separate interview, Sottile, a retired postal worker living in North Carolina, corroborated her son\u2019s account of how he told her what had happened to him in their New York home.<\/p>\n Over the years, Sottile said, she heard bits and pieces about Murray\u2019s political career, from his days as a Washington state legislator to his election in 2013 as Seattle\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n But she said she didn\u2019t know about the recent allegations until a few weeks ago, when her sister contacted her after coming across news reports online. Sottile, in turn, contacted Dyer, who started reading the stories, too.<\/p>\n Dyer said he got angry watching video of Murray appearing before the media to deny some of the other men\u2019s allegations. Dyer said that led him to contact Seattle lawyer Lincoln Beauregard<\/a>, who was listed in the news accounts as representing Heckard.<\/p>\n Dyer provided a signed declaration <\/a>detailing his allegation against Murray to Beauregard.<\/p>\n The primary motivation for coming forward, Dyer said, is closure.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know about any of these other people. I didn\u2019t know about this other gentleman that Mr. Beauregard is representing. I knew about none of that,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cBecause I saw \u2026 clips of (Murray) denying what he did, that pissed me off to the point where I am like, \u2018That\u2019s it. I have had enough.\u2019 I have been carrying this around for 40-some years. Something has got to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Murray and his siblings went to live with relatives in New York in 1975 after their mother died, Dyer and Sottile said.<\/p>\n A newspaper obituary<\/a> from the time shows 53-year-old Anna M. Murray died in Olympia in October 1974. It lists seven children, including son Edward, then living in Belfast, Northern Ireland, among her survivors.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt bad for the whole family because their mother had died,\u201d recalled Sottile, whose mother, Helen, is named in the obituary as Anna Murray\u2019s sister. \u201cAnd one by one, they came and stayed with us for a while, every one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Once in New York, the Murray siblings went to live with various relatives.<\/p>\n Murray lived at Sottile\u2019s house, a three-bedroom rental on Redpine Drive, in Medford, she recalled. Sottile, then a divorced mother of four, said she took the smallest bedroom, while her three daughters shared the master bedroom.<\/p>\n Murray, in his early 20s, shared the third bedroom with Dyer, then 13. Dyer said he and Murray slept in a trundle bed \u2014 a bed with a second mattress stored under it that can be pulled out.<\/p>\n Murray worked for a while at a tire store, Dyer recalled, before getting a job at the Diocese of Brooklyn\u2019s Little Flower group home for children in Wading River, about 16 miles away from their house.<\/p>\n Sottile said she drove Murray to work every day, and Dyer said Murray sometimes brought him along.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember at one point he had a group of small children that was called the \u2018Angel Cottage,\u2019\u2009\u201d Dyer said. \u201c \u2026 I would help him with the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Dyer said his father had abandoned the family and he was looking for a father figure. Murray befriended him, Dyer said, talking about their shared Irish heritage, even showing him a rubber bullet he\u2019d picked up in Northern Ireland, where Murray had lived while working for a Catholic group helping children.<\/p>\n Dyer\u2019s mother ran a strict household, he said; his bedtime was 8\u2009p.m. Murray typically went to bed an hour later. On some nights, Dyer said, Murray forced him to have oral sex.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt it was wrong and I felt dirty,\u201d Dyer said, but, \u201che told me it would be OK and it would be our secret and not to tell anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Dyer said it went on until Murray was accused of abusing a boy at the Little Flower group home.<\/p>\n Dyer and Sottile said they didn\u2019t know details of the accusations at the group home. At the time, Sottile said she and other family members thought Murray was innocent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all believed people didn\u2019t do that,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is 40-some years ago, and you know, \u2018Edward wouldn\u2019t do that\u2019 \u2026 There must be a problem with this child \u2026 He must not like Edward or something.\u201d<\/p>\n Several months later, after Murray had moved out, Dyer told his mother he had been abused, they said.<\/p>\n \u201cI immediately got a hold of a doctor, and we sent him to somebody to talk to,\u201d Sottile recalled.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do. You know, I\u2019m a single parent,\u201d she added. \u201cI did what I thought was right. I didn\u2019t know you could press charges or anything like that. I wish I had.\u201d<\/p>\n Dyer said he resisted therapy, and mostly suppressed memories of abuse. Over the years, his sisters and other relatives became aware of what happened but kept it within the family, he said.<\/p>\n After that, Sottile said she and her children largely severed ties with the Murray family.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to have anything to do with them anymore,\u201d Sottile said.<\/p>\n Murray said the bad blood is rooted in a common-law marriage between his sister and Sottile\u2019s brother.<\/p>\n He questioned the timing of the accusation and The Seattle Times\u2019 continuing coverage.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve never been willing to portray anything but one side of the story,\u201d he said. \u201cBut on this one, this is bizarre beyond belief.\u201d<\/p>\n Aileen Policros, Murray\u2019s younger sister, said her cousins for years have made up stories about members of her own family due to deep-seated jealousy and anger dating back decades.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re liars, they\u2019re liars,\u201d said Policros, 57, who lives in Pennsylvania. \u201cMy brother is not a pedophile \u2026 Edward takes care of children, he does not abuse them.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharon Murray Sottile, 68, Murray\u2019s oldest sister, also of Pennsylvania, compared the accusations against her brother to The Inquisition.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is my cousin Maryellen jumping on board with a blood hatred,\u201d she said. \u201cEverything he [Murray] has ever worked for has been taken away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n A report written in 1983 <\/a>by an Oregon social worker \u2014 obtained by The Times in July<\/a> \u2014 details Murray\u2019s early work history with children.<\/p>\n The report noted Murray worked with children in a Catholic-sponsored program in Ireland for a year, before returning home after his mother died in 1974.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the funeral, he went to work again for the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn and was certified by New York State as a children\u2019s counselor,\u201d the social worker wrote, based on an interview with Murray.<\/p>\n Murray counseled \u201cstreet kids, minority children, both Black and Puerto Rican,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n The report didn\u2019t specify where Murray worked, noting, \u201che enjoyed it but burned out and felt that \u2026 he needed a change of pace,\u201d so returned to the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n A spokeswoman for Little Flower, which was founded in 1930 and has since expanded to provide multiple services for children and families, confirmed that an Edward Murray worked at the Long Island group home from June 4, 1975, to Aug. 29, 1976. The spokeswoman said she found no records explaining why Murray left the job.<\/p>\n Until a few weeks ago, when Dyer said he learned of the other men\u2019s accusations, he says he\u2019d mostly tried to forget about Murray.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were long periods of time where I never thought about him or it,\u201d Dyer said. \u201cI was living my life.\u201d<\/p>\n But after giving the signed declaration about the alleged abuse to Beauregard, Dyer said, \u201cit just hit me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat night, basically it all came back to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI had shivers. I was feeling nauseous. My wife \u2014 I was basically crying and I was in a ball \u2014 she was cuddling me. And I couldn\u2019t sleep. I had the shakes. I don\u2019t want to do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n News reports of sexual-assault allegations could be a trigger for victims and survivors of abuse.<\/p>\n Here are some resources:<\/p>\n \u2022 The King County Sexual Assault Resource Center offers a 24-hour resource line (888-998-6423). Additionally, KCSARC can help connect people with therapy, legal advocates and family services (kcsarc.org\/gethelp<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u2022 UW Medicine\u2019s Center for Sexual Assault & Traumatic Stress (depts.washington.edu\/hcsats<\/a>) offers resources, including counseling and medical care. For immediate help, call 206-744-1600.<\/p>\n \u2022 For readers outside King County, the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs lists 38 Washington state providers that offer free services. (wcsap.org\/find-help<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2022 RAINN: Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network provides a free, confidential hotline (800-656-4673) and online chat (hotline.rainn.org<\/a>) with trained staff members.<\/p>\nNighttime secret<\/h2>\n
\u201cIt all came back\u201d<\/h2>\n
If you need help<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n