Senate Republicans criticize planned rape investigation

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Senate Republicans are calling for the cancellation of a planned outside investigation into a rape allegation made against state Sen. Joe Fain, who lost his re-election bid last month.

Sen. Randi Becker was among the members of the Senate Facilities and Operations Committee who voted unanimously approve the investigation, but she wrote in a letter to Democratic leadership Monday that the circumstances have changed since the committee’s Nov. 8 vote. She wrote the investigation would have no legislative purpose since Fain is leaving office, and says a proper venue for such an investigation is law enforcement or the courts. Republican Sen. Ann Rivers argued the same in an opinion piece published last week.

In September, Seattle resident Candace Faber tweeted that Fain raped her in 2007, on the night she graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Fain, who has denied the allegation, was not in office at the time of the alleged assault.