Seattle police officer admits writing damaging letter about 2 colleagues

After months of growing scrutiny, a Seattle police officer has admitted he sent an anonymous letter to the Police Department containing baseless allegations against two fellow officers who had helped get him disciplined.

The letter by James Arata accused the two sergeants of covering up domestic violence by a King County sheriff's deputy, allegations that proved to be false after a five-month internal investigation.

Investigators determined Arata wrote the letter. But their finding was kept secret because of department rules that protect people who file complaints against officers.

No action was taken against Arata because the department allows complaints to be filed anonymously.

But what happened next privately outraged some in the department: Arata was promoted from sergeant to acting lieutenant.

The promotion was a remarkable turnaround for Arata, who was nearly demoted from sergeant to officer in 2005 for suggesting another officer was a "rat" during an FBI investigation of Seattle officers. He also was reprimanded in 2006 for improperly giving a female acquaintance a police report about her estranged husband.

Arata, 46, wouldn't discuss the anonymous letter with The Seattle Times. "You know I can't make any comment in any" internal investigation, "whether I was involved or not," the 20-year veteran said.

The letter, sent in March, contended Sgts. Mike Hay and Jake Magan discouraged a woman from reporting the deputy's alleged violence. It also alleged Hay wanted to protect himself because he was having an on-duty affair with the woman.

The woman contradicted all the allegations, telling internal investigators that neither sergeant tried to discourage her from contacting police, according to a summary report of her statements.

In fact, she said she did not even know Hay and "knows nothing about him," the report said.

Hay and Magan were cleared of wrongdoing, but never were officially told by the department who wrote the letter.

Arata, after being contacted by The Times, only recently wrote to both men admitting he wrote the letter. He explained he initially believed the allegations, but apologized for the "cowardly" way he had reported them.

Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, who has come under fire in recent years for softening disciplinary decisions, declined to comment on the letter or Arata's promotion, saying through a spokesman the department doesn't discuss personnel matters or internal investigations when the allegations aren't sustained.

The department released two summary reports on the case, which outlined the contents of the anonymous letter and the outcome. But the department declined to disclose the letter and most of the case file.

Three years earlier

The roots of the letter go back to 2005, when Hay and Magan figured prominently in Arata's discipline over the rat comment.

Hay, then working in the Internal Investigations Section, helped uncover evidence that Arata had asked another officer if he was a rat. Arata had seen the officer talking to an FBI investigator who was looking into allegations of illegal drug use and other misconduct by Seattle officers working around Belltown nightclubs.

Although the question had been made in a joking fashion, the captain in charge of the investigation deemed Arata's conduct "witness intimidation" and a misuse of power because Arata was a sergeant, records show. Arata was suspended for 30 days without pay.

Magan had backed the officer targeted by Arata's question. In a recent interview with The Times, Magan recalled he told the officer it was correct to report Arata's remark.

The anonymous accusations directed at Hay and Magan came after a series of strange incidents involving the woman — who has had multiple addresses and could not be reached by The Times.

Hay told The Times the woman randomly approached him in late 2007 in a coffee shop while he was dressed in tactical gear.

In his statement to internal investigators, Hay said the woman expressed frustration about the sheriff's handling of a domestic-violence complaint she had filed.

Hay said he gave her his business card and the phone number for Seattle police internal investigations. Sometime later, she called him and he offered her the same advice, Hay told investigators.

Magan told The Times his sole contact with her occurred in February. In a phone conversation, she provided only her first name and asked what could be done about domestic violence by the deputy, Magan said.

Magan said he told her he would take a statement and that the Sheriff's Office would be notified. She became fixated on alerting the sheriff and didn't provide further details, Magan said.

Soon after the call, Magan said, he told his lieutenant about it and alerted the department's internal-investigations unit, urging investigators to contact the Sheriff's Office.

"Not a clue"

Magan said he has "not a clue" how his conversation with her led to the allegation he had discouraged her.

"It has been a tremendously upsetting event in my life," Magan said. "It really has."

On March 3, two Seattle police officers responded to a domestic dispute in downtown Seattle involving the woman and the sheriff's deputy.

The woman reported the deputy rolled up her arm in a car window, a sheriff's spokesman said. The deputy was suspended for two days for allowing the woman to ride in his patrol car without authorization. But prosecutors declined to bring assault charges, citing the woman's lack of cooperation and insufficient evidence.

Between March 3 and 13, the anonymous letter arrived at the Police Department. The letter referred to the March 3 incident, records show.

Around the same time, The Times received an anonymous letter containing the same allegations.

As internal investigators looked into the allegations, they noticed handwriting on the envelope sent to them looked like Arata's from previous dealings with him, according to a department commander who spoke on condition of anonymity. The letter itself had been typed.

Efforts to match the handwriting were inconclusive, the commander said.

But the department had received an anonymous, follow-up e-mail regarding the allegations. Sgt. Bill Edwards, the internal investigator assigned to the case, traced the e-mail to an Internet provider in Hawaii, the commander said.

Arata was in Hawaii at the time the e-mail was sent, the commander said.

Investigators questioned Arata, who privately admitted he wrote the letter and insisted he had acted properly by reporting possible misconduct, the commander said.

Investigation closed

The investigation was closed Aug. 14 and classified "administratively unfounded" — a fast-track method for dismissing cases that lack any merit.

"None of the available facts lent any credence to the anonymous complaint," the department concluded.

In the end, Kerlikowske determined Arata had not broken rules, two department sources said.

Supervisors are required to report serious misconduct by officers, but they also are allowed to make anonymous allegations. Arata was promoted to acting lieutenant Aug. 20, with Kerlikowske's approval.

Two months earlier, Arata had filed a grievance alleging he had been wrongly passed over for promotion. Granting the promotion averted a labor dispute.

The promotion put Arata in field command of sergeants and officers in North Seattle, boosted his pay by nearly $4 an hour, to $49.92 an hour, or a base annual salary of about $104,000. His move to the acting position also placed him on a track to keep the job and make the promotion official.

Letter of apology

Arata's letter of apology to Hay and Magan, dated Dec. 4, was written on department letterhead, said Hay, who read it to The Times.

In the letter, Arata wrote, "My method was cowardly and I should not have reported this in the manner I did."

Arata revealed he had learned of the allegations from a "third party" but provided no name, Hay said.

Arata said he initially thought the allegations about Hay and Magan might be true, but had since learned the woman behind them had credibility issues.

He explained he wrote the anonymous letter because he feared the department knew he was aware of the allegations, and might be setting him up for punishment if he didn't report them, Hay said.

He also acknowledged his judgment had been "clouded" by what happened in 2005.

Calling his actions selfish but not malicious, Arata wrote, "My notification method was clumsy and stupid and I know better. For that I sincerely apologize."

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com