Story Created:
Sep 4, 2008 at 3:28 PM MDT
Story Updated:
Nov 21, 2008 at 2:43 AM MDT
SEATTLE -- A state assistant attorney general is accused of impersonating his former neighbor on adult networking sites and soliciting her for sexual liaisons for years.
According to a search warrant filed in King County Superior Court, a local woman says she has been receiving calls from strangers who claimed to have met and chatted with her online on Adult Friend Finder and Fling.com.
The victim said she received the first of such calls on Dec. 25, 2006 and continued to receive them once or twice a week until May of 2008. The callers included locals, as well as people from New York, south Florida and California, all of whom expected to arrange sexual encounters, she said.
The woman soon noticed the calls were coming in waves of weeks and began taking note of them in 2007. She reported the incidents to the FBI in April of the same year.
An investigation revealed someone had opened several accounts on Adult Friend Finder with the victim's name and information without her permission.
A federal grand jury subpoenaed the site's account information which indicated all of the accounts were originated from IP addresses that fell within the range of those assigned to Comcast-Washington.
Subpoenaed Comcast records linked the IP addresses, with the exception of one, to the assistant attorney general. The lone IP address led investigators to the name of another Kirkland man, the document states, but police believe information that led to this man was provided by mistake.
When asked whether she recognized either of the two names, the victim said the assistant attorney general and his wife, who is a reporter for KING/5 News in Seattle, had been her neighbor until mid-2007 when the couple moved to Kirkland. The victim had also previously worked with the assistant attorney general's wife.
The victim noted having seen the man on a walk near her home on a half dozen occasions. A neighbor also noted having seen the man in the area.
On July 31 investigators served a search warrant and seized the man's laptop, storage media and digital cameras, among others. Investigators have not yet commented on their findings.
FBI investigators also searched the property for any unsecured wireless signals that could have been hacked, but did not find any.
KOMO News has chosen not to name anyone as no charges have been filed in the case.
The Attorney General's Office is monitoring the investigation but has not taken action against the attorney's employment, spokesman Dan Sytman told the Seattle P-I newspaper.
The attorney represents the state Department of Social and Health Services on child abuse and custody cases, he said.
There was no indication that the alleged conduct took place on state time or on state equipment, he said.