Seattle, judge pay woman $135K after affair

A former Seattle Municipal Court employee said a presiding judge insisted on kissing and fondling her after she ended a sexual relationship with him, according to a $135,000 settlement agreement released by the City Attorney's Office on Friday.

The judge, Ron Mamiya, expressed his remorse in a statement released Friday, calling his actions a "horrible lapse in judgment."

The judge, the city of Seattle and the employee reached the settlement in November, with the city and Mamiya each paying $67,500, according to documents provided by the city in response to public-document requests by the media.

Mark Firmani, a spokesman for the judge, provided the media with a statement from Mamiya:

"I want to acknowledge my horrible lapse in judgment. I have no excuse for my role in this incident, and my actions have hurt many people important to me, including my wife, family and my community. I take full responsibility for my behavior. Words cannot describe how sorry and horribly embarrassed I am by my conduct and I hope people judge me not on this incident alone, but by the balance of my contribution to the community."

There was no indication that Mamiya would step down as a judge, and he did not return calls.

Mamiya, 59, has served on the bench since 1981, last winning re-election to a four-year term in an unopposed race in 2006. Municipal-court judges are nonpartisan elected officials who adjudicate misdemeanor and gross-misdemeanor cases in Seattle. According to the court's Web site, Mamiya served as presiding judge in 1984, 1988, 2007 and 2008. He is not serving as presiding judge this year.

Mamiya was married at the time of the affair, but he and his wife filed for divorce Feb. 25, according to court documents.

The court employee, who was single, said in a declaration filed by the City Attorney's Office that she initially saw Mamiya as a mentor, but their relationship reached a personal level in 2007.

"He would tell me that he loved my shoes, he would [ask] me to take off my shoes so he could look at them and then would insist on putting them back on my feet," the employee said in the declaration.

In February 2008, the two began a sexual relationship, meeting at a hotel in Seattle and another hotel near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, she said. He also visited her in her court office in the late afternoon and would kiss her and touch her sexually. Mamiya became jealous when he saw her talking to other men at work, the documents said.

Mamiya told his wife about the relationship, and in April 2008, the judge and court employee decided to end the affair, the declaration said. After that, the employee became alarmed when the judge repeatedly returned to her office and called her into his chambers, kissing and touching her sexually without her permission, the declaration said.

"I tried to avoid situations when I would be alone with Judge Mamiya as he seemed to think it was open season whenever we were alone," she said in the declaration. He sometimes became emotional and cried while with her, she said.

After the breakup, the employee said, she received an anonymous letter at work, asserting that she was unstable. At one point, the judge put her on the phone with someone, whose name was redacted from the documents, to assure the person that their relationship was professional, the statement said.

The employee said she began dreading coming to work. In June, the judge showed up uninvited at the woman's home, according to her statement.

"I was freaked out," she said. The woman told the judge she wanted a strictly professional relationship. After that, her statement said, he left her alone for three weeks, then again began coming to her office and kissing and fondling her. She said he made late-night calls to her.

In July, the employee said, she received a threatening phone call from someone who said "I didn't know who I was messing with, and her tone was very threatening." The caller's name was redacted in the documents. The employee said she became depressed and resigned from her court job in August.

The municipal court could not be reached for comment Friday evening, and it's unclear whether Mamiya will face disciplinary measures over the sexual-harassment complaint.

The judge was absent several weeks last fall, and a court spokeswoman said at the time that he was on medical leave.

City Attorney Tom Carr said Friday he was not involved in the investigation or the city's settlement. "I kept myself uninvolved because I know the judge."

The former employee's attorney, Antonio Salazar, wrote a letter to the city law department in September saying the woman wanted to reach a civil resolution rather than pursue criminal charges. Judicial Dispute Resolution, a private firm, mediated the case in October, according to City Attorney's documents.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

Information in this article, originally published March 20, 2009, was corrected on the same date. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Mark Firmani is an attorney. He is a spokesperson for Ron Mamiya.