A decade ago, Mike Hope, candidate for Snohomish County executive, got in trouble at the Seattle Police Department because of his behavior while a passenger during a 2000 traffic stop by Mill Creek police.
Last week, Kevin Hulten, an employee in the office of Executive Aaron Reardon, went to considerable effort to put the details of that incident in front of reporters.
Fair warning: This is a story with more questions than answers.
When asked about what happened, Hope last week provided a less-than accurate accounting of the details. He tries to explain more below.
Hulten, meanwhile, continues to dodge our questions about his motives and methods, even as he took it upon himself to send us, unsolicited, more documents about the case. He did so while conferring upon himself the status of secret source — something that we would never consider granting the $59,000-a-year government employee who is right in the center of a controversy that may determine whether he still has a job come January.
Here’s an email Hulten sent us on Saturday evening:
Noah –
The attached document contains information you may not have been aware of prior to Friday’s story. Specifically, Hope states that his date was never charged. Please see attached, documenting her DUI arrest and later charging. I would appreciate it if you would treat this as a confidential tip. I am guessing that you were burned by your source on this one.
KH
“I was trying to be helpful,” he told The Herald when we called Monday for an explanation. A former editor at the weekly Lake Stevens Journal, Hulten seemed genuinely surprised that we wouldn’t treat what he sent us as secret, nor allow him to go “off the record,” in other words, agreeing to accept what he sent us or told us without requiring him to stand behind his actions in print.
Hulten became mute when pressed about how he acquired the Mill Creek records. (For what it is worth, Mill Creek police confirm that they released documents related to this 11-year-old case under a recent records request, but they haven’t yet told us to whom because the person who handles such requests was out Monday afternoon. We are following up.) Meanwhile, Hulten stopped answering questions when asked whether his sending us the records was an act designed to help make sure his boss gets re-elected.
“No, I’m not part of Aaron’s campaign and I’m ending this conversation now,” he said. He promptly wrote us that any future communication would have to be through Deputy Executive Gary Haakenson, who spends his days running county government and assures us he has nothing to do with Reardon’s re-election campaign.
Hulten and Reardon last week claimed Hope was reckless in linking Hulten to complaints that were brought this campaign season against Hope at the police department and with state campaign regulators.
We have a few questions.
Mr. Hulten, are you ever going to explain why your home address and phone number wound up being used by the Seattle man who stepped forward to admit filing the complaints? And if you aren’t trying to help your boss by sending potentially embarrassing documents about Hope to The Herald and the Seattle Times, what is your aim?
Everyone has the right to campaign on behalf of their chosen candidate so long as that work isn’t being done on the government nickle. Mr. Hulten, if what you are doing passes the sniff test, why not submit to an interview where you answer some simple questions?
Now back to Hope.
On Monday, he acknowledged presenting a less-than accurate picture of what happened along the roadside in Mill Creek in March 2000.
To recap, Hope was a passenger in a car that was being driven by a woman he was out with on a date. She was stopped for speeding. The Mill Creek officer suspected that she may be drunk. Hope acknowledges he got lippy with the cop, and he said some things that Seattle police felt were of sufficient gravity that Hope was suspended without pay; he remembers for three days.
Contrary to what Hope told us, court records show that the woman was charged with drunken driving. She pleaded guilty, however, to the lesser charge of negligent driving and paid a $250 fine. She faced no charges for a used marijuana pipe found in the ashtray.
County prosecutors say they have no independent recollection of the case, but noted that what happened fit the guidelines, particularly because she was cooperative and hadn’t tested as profoundly drunk.
Hope on Monday said he and the woman long since lost touch and he never followed up on what happened with her case. He said he hadn’t reviewed Mill Creek police reports prior to being shown those The Herald was sent by Hulten.
Hope told the newspaper he’d be willing to let a reporter accompany him later this week to review his Seattle police personnel file.
“What I did was wrong, darn right it was wrong,” he said. “I deserved everything I got. I’ve been up front with this. The difference is, I did this a decade ago.”
He said his opponent, Reardon, hasn’t been as up front in admitting missteps and management errors.
Hope said that as executive he would recommend creating a county office that would perform investigations similar to those he’s faced at Seattle police.
The punishment he faced for his conduct in the Mill Creek case “is a learning example and I’m unfortunately one of those who’s lived it,” he said.
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