SEATTLE — In a Seattle courtroom Tuesday, for the first time we heard from the woman who accuses King County Sheriff John Urquhart of rape.
The hearing was for a protection order the accuser filed to stop any release of her medical records. She claims the sheriff has released them.
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The rape claim stems from 2002 and Urquhart has denied ever having sexual contact with her. Seattle police investigated and no charges were filed.
“The table has already been stacked against me from the very beginning,” the accuser said in court Tuesday. “Which is why I had to go seek this order.”
Urquhart wasn’t in court Tuesday, but he sat down with KIRO 7’s Alison Grande on November 2 to respond to the allegations. Grande asked, “Did you ever have sexual contact with that alleged victim?”
“No,” Urquhart said.
In court on Tuesday, the accuser said she has witnesses and evidence to show she's been harassed by him.
“I have a significant amount of evidence,” she said. “I'm actually concerned for him interfering with my employment at this point. He's so brazen in passing out my medical files to the media and to endorsements. At this point he's capable of anything.”
But in Thursday's interview, Urquhart denied having her private medical records.
“We’ve been accused of offering to release 300 pages of private medical records,” Urquhart said. “Those don’t exist, at least not with us. We’ve never had them. We’ve never offered to release those, period. That never happened.”
The sheriff says he did give public records from her divorce to journalists that include details about her mental health.
Both sides agreed Tuesday to continue the hearing, meaning the protection order stands for another month. The next hearing will be at the King County Courthouse in Seattle on December 5, at 9 a.m.