Prosecutor drops case against Seattle councilman

Published 5:07 pm Tuesday, January 15, 2008

SEATTLE — The King County Prosecutor’s Office has dropped its domestic violence case against Seattle City Councilman Richard McIver.

In a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors wrote that they couldn’t proceed without cooperation or evidence from McIver’s wife, Marlaina Kiner-McIver. Earlier in the day, King County District Court Judge Linda Thompson ruled that statements she made to a 911 dispatcher and to an arriving officer could not be used at his trial.

McIver was accused of grabbing his wife by the throat on Oct. 10 during a drunken argument. Prosecutors said that Kiner-McIver’s current statements about what happened that night are “materially and significantly different from her prior statements.”