Sheriff chases stolen car; Dems irked by news release

SEATTLE – A day after winning the Republican primary for the 8th Congressional District, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert helped chase down a stolen car.

It wasn’t until the sheriff’s office sent out a news release about the chase and subsequent arrests, mentioning it happened a day after “his big win in the primaries,” that Democrats started complaining.

“It’s unbelievable,” Kirstin Brost, spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said Thursday. “This is not an appropriate use of his office. This is using his official office to do campaign activity.”

State law bars the use of taxpayer funds to support or oppose any candidates or ballot initiatives.

Sgt. John Urquhart, the sheriff’s office spokesman, defended the news release, saying, “This is pure police business. Nothing more than that. We would’ve done it whether he was running for office or not.”

The car chase happened Wednesday afternoon when Reichert was off-duty, driving home in his unmarked patrol car in a neighborhood near Auburn, a south Seattle suburb. After seeing a car driving recklessly, the sheriff flashed his lights, sounded his siren and tried to pull it over, but it sped off.

Reichert chased the car for a couple of minutes, then discontinued the chase because the motorist was driving too erratically.

A witness who saw the chase spotted the car a few minutes later, followed it to a house, then watched a man and woman get out of it. The woman pulled a car cover over the car.

Deputies soon arrived and arrested the man and woman after determining the car had been stolen from Olympia.