A few months ago, I was given access to hundreds of internal documents that had been obtained from the King County prosecutor’s office and other law enforcement in the Seattle area by public records requests. The documents revealed that prosecutors and police in Seattle had received nearly $200,000 in funding from an anti-prostitution advocacy group, which also gave millions of dollars over four years to other law enforcement around the country. The documents, which included internal emails and grant agreements, showed that in exchange for the funding, Demand Abolition required Seattle-area law enforcement to carry out regular arrests and prosecutions of buyers with the goal of disrupting demand for prostitution. As part of signed agreements for the funding, law enforcement officials in King County were also required to frame the activities of men who purchased sex and reviewed sex workers on an online website as sex trafficking, even though there was no evidence of trafficking in these cases. My in-depth exclusive on how these prosecutors may have violated ethical codes of conduct was published March 24 in The Intercept, a national news outlet.
Demand Abolition has since ceased funding the King County prosecutor’s office and other law enforcement throughout the U.S. Some legal scholars believe the strings attached by Demand Abolition in exchange for the funding may affect the prosecution of several men accused of promoting prostitution in Seattle. It remains to be seen whether the state of Washington will take any disciplinary action against the King County prosecutors for mischaracterizing ongoing legal proceedings and quite possibly violating their professional codes of conduct.
