Bellevue police chief cleared after allegations of sexual assault led to criminal probe

Two months after Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett was accused of sexual assault and placed on administrative leave, a Bothell police investigation has cleared him of any wrongdoing and found no substantial evidence that he even knew his accuser, according to a news release.

“Investigators concluded there was no probable cause to show that Mr. Mylett committed any crime,” according to a news release posted Monday on the city of Bothell’s website. “In addition, there was no substantiated evidence to prove there was ever any contact between the complainant and Mr. Mylett.”

On Monday, Mylett also was reinstated as police chief, according to a Bellevue news release.

Mylett was placed on paid administrative leave in early August after the woman claimed she had been sexually assaulted by the police chief. The 44-year-old Issaquah woman alleged the incident had happened two years earlier in Bothell, which is why the Bothell Police Department led the criminal investigation.

On Monday, Bothell police made details of its investigation public for the first time.

The woman claimed that she and Mylett had met on a fetish website for people seeking “aggressive” sex. They agreed to meet in October or November of 2016 for an encounter involving bondage but without intercourse, the police report said.

She alleged that Mylett broke that boundary and sexually assaulted her. She gave Bothell police the address of a home Mylett and his wife had rented in 2016 and claimed the assault took place there.

As evidence of the alleged assault, the woman gave police the underwear she wore that day, the report said.

A DNA test later showed that the woman’s DNA was on the underpants, as was the DNA of three other individuals, but not that of Mylett, according to the police report.

Further investigation also showed that Mylett and his wife were not living in the rental house during the time of the alleged assault.

“Fortunately, he had moved out of the rental house by then,” said his attorney David Allen.

Allen said he was heartened to learn the investigation was over and his client’s name has been cleared, “but it’s a real shame he had to go through all this and that somebody would make this up, besmirch his name and level these false accusations. She’s very, very dangerous.”

Mylett did not return a call for comment.

The woman and her attorney could not be reached on Monday.

Bothell police say investigators determined there was probable cause to believe the woman committed perjury, tampered with evidence and made a false statement to police. The case has been forwarded to King County prosecutors for a charging decision.

In an August interview, Mylett said that he didn’t know the nature of the allegation against him and added he hadn’t committed any crimes or offenses, except for a few minor traffic violations.

“I don’t even know what the allegation is,” he said at the time, “but I have faith that the Bothell Police Department will do a thorough investigation and that the truth will come out, whatever it is.”

Mylett acknowledged at the time he was aware of who the woman was because she had accused one Bellevue police officer of domestic violence and another of rape.

Earlier this month, prosecutors dismissed the domestic-violence assault and witness-tampering charges against one officer, and have opted not to pursue rape charges against the second officer.

According to an investigation by the King County Sheriff’s Office, the woman has a history of seeking out men on Craigslist and then falsely reporting those consensual encounters as a crime to police. According to sheriff’s detectives, she had made false rape accusations twice previously.

King County sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Abbott said in early October that due to concerns about the 44-year-old woman’s mental heath, investigators did not recommend that she be charged with any crime in connection with the allegations against the two officers.