Seattle Mayor Harrell misled officer during 1996 arrest: police report unearthed

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell misled police in 1996 before being arrested at a riverboat casino in Iowa, a police report that surfaced this week alleges. KUOW broke the story of Harrell’s arrest on Wednesday.

According to the police report, Harrell brandished a gun after someone stole his parking spot at the casino on Sept. 27, 1996. Harrell was 37 at the time, working for a law firm in nearby Omaha, Nebraska.

Witnesses told an officer that Harrell had pulled a gun out. When the officer asked Harrell if this was true, Harrell told her that he “did not display a handgun to anyone,” and that witnesses might have confused his silver watch or his black and silver cell phone with a firearm.

RELATED: Seattle Mayor Harrell arrested in 1996 for pulling gun on someone who stole his parking spot

A subsequent search of Harrell’s red Jeep Cherokee revealed a handgun clip with four bullets and a Raven .25 caliber semi-automatic handgun. Harrell told the officer that he did not have a permit to carry a gun in Iowa.

Harrell was then arrested for aggravated assault, carrying a concealed weapon, and interference of official acts.

Harrell does not deny these events today – and does not see the report as contradicting his account, then or now.

“Mayor Harrell made it clear to the officer he never pointed a gun at anyone, which was a response to the question he was asked by the officer,” said Jamie Housen, the mayor’s spokesperson. “The officer may have interpreted that as the mayor saying he never showed anyone the gun.”

The report, written by the Division of Criminal Investigation of the Iowa Department of Public Safety, provides new facts about Harrell’s arrest 28 years ago at an Iowa casino, just miles from Omaha, where he and his wife Joanne lived for two years.

On Tuesday, Harrell said in a statement to KUOW that he was racially profiled – although the report provides a more nuanced account, as the people who reported him were Hispanic, and believed he was also Hispanic.

Harrell said his lawyer sent a demand letter to the casino around the time of his arrest stating that Harrell’s constitutional rights had been violated due to the “unreasonable search and seizures based on racial profiling.”

“Knowing all the facts, the prosecutor asked to drop the charges and a judge agreed,” Harrell said in the statement. “I pursued legal recourse after my constitutional rights were violated by an illegal search.”

An Omaha World-Herald news report at the time paints a fuller picture, however, saying the prosecutor had asked Harrell to apologize to the police officers, and he agreed.

The prosecuting attorney said there were "’lots of mitigating circumstances,’ including the contention that Harrell's ‘life was being threatened.’”

Harrell had been nominated to a public housing board in Omaha, after which he said he received death threats because the community wanted someone who lived in public housing on the board.

The prosecuting attorney said that Harrell and his wife told him about “their problems in the Black community” as a result of the nomination, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

The prosecuting attorney said Harrell was on edge and “obviously didn’t think through what he was doing, but that is not unreasonable,” according to the Omaha World-Herald.

"What I did find unreasonable was his lack of cooperation with arresting officers. That is why I required him to apologize to them,” the prosecuting attorney said.

Harrell said Tuesday that the incident helped to form his beliefs and made him “a strong advocate for police accountability.”

RELATED: Mayor Harrell promises more police accountability, balanced approach to Seattle growth

Harrell's spokesperson, Jamie Housen, added that "no lawsuit was filed and there was no monetary settlement for Harrell, because matters were resolved amicably between (the casino and Harrell).”

The police report states that at 12:30 a.m. on that early Friday morning, a Gaming Enforcement Officer was called after an altercation was made known outside of the Ameristar II Riverboat Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

The officer saw eight people entering the casino together, including Harrell and his friend, according to the report and Harrell’s recollections.

The officer questioned them. Two said that during the argument they saw Harrell hold a small silver pistol outside of his Jeep. Harrell told the officer they could have mistaken his silver watch or cell phone for a gun. The officer let Harrell and his friend go.

But as they were leaving, a casino employee told the officer they had also seen Harrell holding a gun.

Casino security and the officer stopped Harrell and his friend and demanded to search the Jeep.

Before the officer searched the car, she handcuffed Harrell’s friend. Harrell, meanwhile, “refused to cooperate,” the report states.

“After a brief struggle,” the officer handcuffed him, the report said. During the search, the officer found a .25-caliber Raven pistol.

Harrell was taken to the Pottawattamie County Jail at 1:54 a.m. that morning.

Harrell was charged with three misdemeanors: carrying a handgun in a vehicle, assaulting another person while armed with a handgun (brandishing a weapon at someone can be deemed a form of assault), and interference with official acts . The three charges against Harrell were dropped five months later, court records show.

Responding to the police report, Jamie Housen, the mayor’s spokesperson said, “As you are aware, in the criminal legal system – especially during the 1990s – African Americans and people of color are disproportionately arrested and charged. I would ask you to remember this in your review of this report.”