A Medina police officer accused of sexually assaulting a woman he arrested on a traffic stop sent three e-mails to city prosecutors asking them to dismiss the case against her, according to court documents.
Issaquah police are investigating whether the officer raped the woman after asking her on a date and taking her to his home a few weeks after the traffic stop on State Route 520. She was cited for a suspended license and small amount of marijuana.
The investigation is ongoing and the case had not been referred to the prosecutor's office, spokesman Dan Donohoe said Wednesday.
The officer is a 4-year veteran of the suburban police department, Police Chief Jeff Chen said. He has been placed on administrative leave.
The woman was pulled over Nov. 23. The officer handcuffed her and placed her in his patrol car while he searched her vehicle, where he found the marijuana, according to a search warrant affidavit.
He mentioned that she was attractive and told her not to worry about the charges. The next morning, the officer called her and asked her out. They agreed to meet the following Friday, court documents say.
The officer also sent three e-mails to the prosecutor, requesting the case be dismissed for evidence reasons.
"In almost 4 years, I don't think I've ever asked you guys to dismiss charges, and I don't plan on making a habit of it, but can we dismiss the charges in this case? I wouldn't even feel right going to court and testifying in this case," court documents say the officer wrote.
The case was dismissed on Feb. 9. The officer sent another e-mail to Medina's evidence custodian instructing her not to send the marijuana to the state crime lab because the case had been dropped, court documents say.
In March, a sheriff's detective was investigating a separate allegation that the woman's boyfriend had sexually assaulted her. The detective overheard on the phone as her boyfriend said "she didn't report that cop for raping her," according to court documents.
The detective questioned the woman, who named the Medina officer. The woman said she met him at Joker Pub and Grill in Issaquah, where he said he would provide her with a letter to give the court. The officer told her again that he was attracted to her and invited her back to his home in the Issaquah Highlands.
She said that she told him she wouldn't have sex on the first date, but that during a "tour" of his home, he pushed her onto his bed, held her hands above her head and raped her, according to court documents.
"She didn't know what to do because was a cop," an Issaquah police detective wrote in an affidavit.
During the date, he poured her a drink and told her people feared police officers because "they have power and authority, and a gun and a badge." He put his gun on the table, which she felt was intended to intimidate her, court documents say.
Police found nine phone calls from the officer's cell phone to the woman's phone between November and February, court documents say.
Medina, a wealthy Eastside suburb along Lake Washington, has seven officers, according to the city's Web site.
Chen, the police chief, fired a rookie officer in November 2007 after learning the officer had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl whom he met online. She had e-mailed him naked photos of herself. Sexually-explicit photos of anyone under 18 are illegal under child pornography laws.
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