At Least 11 Mayors Accused Of Child Sex-Related Crimes Since 2016
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray resigned on Wednesday after a fifth man publicly accused the Democrat of molesting him as a child.
But Murray isn’t alone. At least 11 then-current and former mayors have been accused of child sex abuse-related crimes since 2016. The allegations range from child porn to physical abuse. The alleged victims were as young as four years old.
Stillwater, New York Mayor Rick Nelson resigned earlier this month after being arrested on child porn charges. Nelson has a decades-long history of alleged sexual misconduct involving teenagers and children. The child porn charges marked the fifth such accusation against Nelson, the Times Union reported, including allegations of rape and sodomy.
Nelson was never convicted for the previous alleged abuses, which allegedly included inappropriate behavior with a five year old in 1982 on the school bus that Nelson was driving at the time.
Nelson is the father of Patrick Nelson, a Democratic 2018 congressional candidate who served as one of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ delegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Just last week, 78-year-old Dale Kenyon, former mayor of Clayton, New York was indicted on charges of sexually abusing a teenager over the course of three years. (RELATED: De Blasio Staffer, Rising Democrat, Caught With Child Porn)
Dwayne Schutt, 61-year old mayor of Randolph, Nebraska, was arrested in July on multiple child sexual assault charges, KTIV reported. Police say Schutt repeatedly sexually abused a minor over a period of four years, beginning when the victim was 13-years-old.
Schutt, whose trial is ongoing, remains Randolph’s mayor today.
Former Ohio mayor Richard Keenan, a Democrat, was handed a life sentence in April 2017 after he pled guilty to repeatedly raping a four-year-old girl, WFMJ reported.
Keenan, who was first indicted in August 2016, will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years. He claimed during the trial that the four-year-old was a “willing participant.”
Anthony Silva, then-mayor of Stockton, California, was arrested last August on charges that he provided teens with alcohol at a camp for underprivileged youth that he ran before recording them playing strip poker, the AP reported.
Silva, who claimed he accidentally recorded the strip poker game after interrupting it, pled no contest to the lesser charge of providing alcohol to a minor. He was sentenced to 40 hours of community service. Silva, a Republican, was later accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from the camp in a case that is ongoing.
Kenneth Lewis Barrett, then-mayor of Winston, Oregon, was one of four men arrested on March 19 as part of a sex sting, KPIC reported. Authorities say the four men believed they were meeting a 14-year-old girl for sex. Barrett was carrying a concealed handgun when he showed up to the meet, police say.
The trial of a Georgia man last year convicted of molesting and raping an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl took a dark twist when the girl said that Christopher Wright, then a Georgia mayor, had also raped her and forced her to perform oral sex on him, KTOC reported.
Wright, who was first elected mayor as a Democrat in 2012 at the age of 22, was indicted in June 2016, WALB reported. Wright pled no contest to child sex abuse and rape in January 2017 but was let off without a prison sentence. He was sentenced to 20 years probation — during which time he can’t seek public office — and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.
Former Rockdale, Texas mayor Darral Gene Walker was indicted in June 2016 on charges of sexual misconduct. “A copy of the indictment said Walker engaged in sexual contact with a child younger than 17 years of age by touching the boy’s genitals,” TDTNews reported. “Walker admitted that the events happened at his home in Rockdale, but said it was for purely educational reasons, not for sexual gratification.”
Walker pled guilty to a lesser assault charge in August 2016 after striking a deal with prosecutors that will allow him to avoid registering as a sex offender.
Former Millbrook, New York mayor Donald H. Briggs was indicted on felony charges in December 2016, in relation to “alleged inappropriate sexual contact with a person younger than 17,” according to local news reports.
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