Seattle official REFUSES to resign after outburst in defense of pedophile
A Seattle official who angrily spoke out against the appointment of a convicted pedophile to a taxpayer-funded position has refused to resign, despite a request to step down as her bureau chief.
On May 3, Shanee Colston co-chaired a Zoom meeting of a King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) subcommittee to hear nominations to fill an open spot on the board.
The meeting erupted in chaos when a fellow board member spoke out against the appointment of registered sex offender Thomas Whitaker, prompting an outburst from Colston, who defended Whitaker and the member who had been berating him.
Despite a call this week from KCRHA Chief Program Officer Peter Lynn for Colston to resign from the subcommittee, she has refused to resign, an agency spokesman said. KOMO TV on Friday.
“KCRHA shares our community’s concerns about the nomination of a registered sex offender to the Continuum of Care Board and does not support that nomination,” the agency said in a public statement.
Shanee Colston, co-chair of the Board of Continuum of Care – angrily yelled at the appointment of a convicted pedophile to a taxpayer-funded role
KCRHA said it opposes Whitaker’s nomination and has asked Colston to resign, but so far she has yet to step down from the subcommittee
“We agree that the conduct of the current co-chair of the board of directors by the board member identifying that the nominee is a registered sex offender was unacceptable, and we have immediately asked the co-chair to resign,” the statement said. .
“The KCRHA continues its actions to ensure the safety of the board, staff and the public.”
DailyMail.com reached out to KCRHA on Friday evening for an update on the matter, but did not receive an immediate response.
Colston is a peer counselor and co-chair of a subcommittee of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority.
When Whitaker’s name appeared among the subcommittee nominees at the May 3 meeting, Colston enthusiastically threw her weight behind him, touting his “lived experience” as homeless.
Whitaker’s appointment to the board was approved, despite Sawyckyj’s complaint
Whitaker, 38, also known as Raven Crowfoot, has been convicted of raping minors three times. His victims include a 13-year-old girl, a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl, with whom he was found sleeping in a tent.
After his name was introduced to the candidates, Marine veteran Kristina Sawyckyj, a sexual assault survivor who uses a wheelchair, expressed deep concern.
‘Can I say something? We have a code of ethics on this board and Thomas Whitaker Raven Crowfoot is a sex offender, a repeat sex offender and I had a bad experience with him.”
She later claimed that Whitaker “touched” her inappropriately.
Instead of listening to her, Colston snapped and unleashed a diatribe aimed at Sawyckyj.
‘I’m going to interrupt you. We can’t disclose people’s personal affairs here, can we? Although that’s public disclosure, like we don’t have the right to take anyone out in this room.’
Sawyckyj, a wheelchair-bound mother, withdrew.
“OK, OK.. I just thought…” she paused.
Colston continued her assault, getting angrier with every word.
‘That’s just not okay at all and that’s not what I stand for as co-chair. We are not here to discover people’s backgrounds. And actually, if that’s the case, I’m glad he’s here because sex offenders are another group of the population that’s most vulnerable, who have no housing.
‘This isn’t the forum… stop! As co-chair, I tell you that you cannot talk like that in this sitting. I won’t have that here. If someone wants to talk like that, you’ll be muted and then removed from this meeting. Board member or public or not.
“This is about equality and everyone, EVERYONE, deserves housing. I don’t care if they’re a sex offender. I don’t care if they are black. I don’t care if they are native. I don’t care if they are a criminal. I don’t care if they come out of jail, jail.
‘Everyone deserves housing!’
Colston can be seen on the Zoom yelling at a board member for objecting to a sex offender joining their board
Kristina Sawyckyj, right, attends the May 3 Zoom meeting. She objected to Whitaker joining the board and was silenced by Colston and others
Sawyckyj, 53, served in the Marines but says she uses a wheelchair after injuries sustained in a violent sexual assault in the 1980s
The board is part of the King County Regional Homeless Authorityfunded by state taxpayers and federal grants.
In 2010, when Whitaker was 25, he was convicted of harboring a minor, a 13-year-old runaway with whom he had a sexual relationship, according to court documents obtained by the independent news site Seattle. Publicola.
In 2012, Whitaker was charged with raping a minor in a case involving a 15-year-old girl.
Sawyckyj, a wheelchair-bound mother, withdrew
He pleaded guilty to communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, a felony sexual offense.
And in 2018, Seattle police found him in a tent near the Seattle waterfront with a 17-year-old girl, whose mother picked her up and took her home, according to Seattle court records obtained by the site.
Sawyckyj, a 53-year-old ex-Marine, was so badly injured during an assault in the army that she ended up in a wheelchair, she said The urban planner in 2017.
She joined the United States Navy in 1987 and served as the hospital’s chief constable until 1992.
She said she was raped on duty and suffered chronic physical injuries that left her in a wheelchair, she said King5 News. She then spent many years homeless in her van.
The day after the meeting, the chief program officer of King County Regional Homeless Authority wrote a letter to the board demanding Colston’s resignation as co-chair, Publicola reported.
Colston, who works as a collegiate counselor at the Downtown Emergency Service Center, allegedly “shouted” at Sawyckyj for her valid objections, Peter Lynn said.
Lynn said Colston “shouted down committee member Kristina Sawyckyj for determining that one of the future AC nominees was a registered sex offender, which is public information.”
‘Mrs. Sawyckyj was also yelled down by Chairman Colston when she said she was inappropriately hit by the nominee.”
The King County Regional Homeless Authority was established in 2018 and in 2022 applied for $14 million in federal funding for the next three years.
The funding would be directed to projects “focused on investment in programs that reduce homelessness, improve service delivery, health outcomes and housing stability by leveraging coordinated Housing First and public health principles to serve unprotected individuals and families .’
KCRHA is also funded by local taxpayers.
On Tuesday, the group announced that its founding CEO, Marc Dones, who was appointed in April 2021, is stepping down.
His firing was unrelated to the row over Colston’s actions, but rather to what some considered an impossible task.
In a letter to the members of the Authority’s Executive Board and Board Committee, obtained by The Seattle TimesDones cited burnout as the reason for dismissal.
“After five years I’m tired,” Dones wrote, among other things, about the creation of the authority in the timeline.
“I believe it’s time to pass the baton.”
The KCRHA said the agency’s goal and function of “unifying and coordinating policy and funding across King County for a regional approach to bringing more people in” will remain the same after Dones steps down.