Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Embattled Seattle Mayor Will Not Seek Second Term

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Tuesday he will not run for a second term, as he fights claims that he sexually abused teenage boys in the 1980s.

SEATTLE (CN) – Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Tuesday he will not run for a second term, as he fights claims that he sexually abused teenage boys in the 1980s.

Murray, who was expected to win the upcoming mayoral race, dropped out days before the official filing deadline.

In April, a man filed a lawsuit accusing Murray of sexually abusing him in 1986, when he was a homeless 15-year-old boy.

Another man has also come forward accusing Murray of paying him for sex when he was a teenager, according to a declaration filed in the earlier case. Two other men told the Seattle Times Murray abused them when they were teenagers living in Portland in the 1980s.

Murray made the announcement at Seattle’s scenic Alki Beach, where he grew up, and quickly left without taking questions.

He forcefully said the allegations against him “are not true. The scandal surrounding them hurts me and this city.”

Murray, who served in the Legislature before becoming mayor, ran through some of his accomplishments and said politics “has been my life.”

Murray said he remembers going door-to-door with his mother campaigning for John F. Kennedy.

“It tears me to pieces to step away.”

He said he will serve out his term, which ends Dec. 31.

Categories / Government

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...