SEATTLE _ Seattle Mayor Ed Murray was defiant Friday, saying he will stay on the job and continue his campaign for re-election, while defending himself against allegations that he sexually abused a teenager in the 1980s.
This was Murray's first public statement since a 46-year-old Kent man filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging Murray "raped and molested" him, beginning in 1986 when the man was 15.
"Let me be clear, the allegations, dating back to a period of more than 30 years, are simply not true," Murray said. "Things have never come easy to me in life, but I have never backed down and I will not back down now."
Murray, who took no questions, made the statement in the downtown Seattle office of Robert Sulkin, an attorney defending him against the lawsuit. Murray's husband, Michael Shiosaki, was in attendance.
Murray, 61, a day earlier had denied the allegations through Sulkin and a spokesman.
Filed in King County Superior Court under the accuser's initials, D.H., the suit alleges Murray sexually abused the teenager over several years for payments of $10 to $20. It says D.H. was a high school dropout addicted to crack cocaine who met Murray on a Metro bus.
Murray also has denied allegations by two men who say they knew Murray when they were growing up in a Portland, Ore., center for troubled children. Jeff Simpson and Lloyd Anderson allege Murray abused them in the 1980s, when they were teenagers.
They both raised their allegations a decade ago, with Simpson making calls to reporters and Washington state lawmakers. They repeated their accusations in recent interviews with The Seattle Times, saying they would testify in court if needed.
With Thursday's lawsuit, Murray is facing a formal public accusation for the first time, and the details of D.H.'s claims bear similarities to the earlier allegations by Simpson and Anderson. All three of the mayor's accusers have substantial criminal records.
Murray is a progressive Democrat who served in the Washington state Legislature for more than a decade, where his work made him a champion for gay rights.
