The reality TV star is accused of spitting on the Uber driver and denting the driver’s car after learning he couldn’t pay cash for his family’s ride home. He has been charged with misdemeanor assault and property destruction
Seattle police have released video and audio recordings from the arrest last month of “Deadliest Catch” star Sig Hansen after an alleged altercation with an Uber driver.
The recordings, released Friday under a public-records request, capture the arrest of Hansen after officers went to his Shoreline home to investigate the May 18 incident. It also captures the cable-TV celebrity arguing with officers and denying that the altercation took place.
“When you hire someone to take you home so you don’t drive drunk, and the guy complicates things, it’s like uh — you know, I’m a person of principles. And when you can’t act with your principles, you have a problem. You know what I mean?” Hansen tells police after he’s been handcuffed.
Hansen, 51, has been accused of spitting on the Uber driver and denting the driver’s car after learning he couldn’t pay cash for his family’s ride home. He has been charged with misdemeanor assault and property destruction.
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He has pleaded not guilty.
According to police, Hansen and his wife, stepdaughter and son-in-law were picked up by an Uber driver in the 2200 block of Northwest Market Street sometime after 2 a.m. after Norwegian Constitution Day celebrations in Ballard.
The driver started to take Hansen and his family to Shoreline when the driver “was notified the trip had been canceled in the Uber application,” the police report said. “This meant if he continued the trip, he would not be paid.”
When the driver asked the passengers to request another ride through Uber’s app, they instead tried to pay him in cash, the report said. The driver told the group that Uber didn’t allow him to accept cash, then stopped the car in the 5800 block of 20th Avenue Northwest to let the passengers out.
That’s when Hansen got angry, the driver later told police.
The driver told police Hansen and his son-in-law spat on the his head and the back of the driver’s seat. Hansen also “kicked the outside of the rear of the passenger side of the vehicle, causing a dent,” the report says.
The Uber driver drove away and reported the incident to police.
The audio records police after they went to Hansen’s home to ask him about the incident. At first, he denied it.
“I don’t know what Uber guy you’re talking about,” Hansen said.
He then went on, with his voice rising: “I got an Uber guy, his name is Issa. He took me home. We’re here. We had Norwegian Independence Day. Everybody’s happy, I got my family home. We’re safe and sound. That’s it!”
“And you had no confrontation with another Uber driver today,” an officer responds.
“ … No is no,” Hansen said. “So, that means we’re done.”
“We’re not done,” the officer said. “Come with me, you’re not free to go.”
Audio then captures the sounds of an altercation as Hansen and the officers grapple in the front yard of his home.
Officers later handcuffed Hansen and took him to their patrol car, where he calmed down and explained that his son-in-law tried to pay the Uber driver $100 cash to take the family home, but the man refused it because it ”didn’t jive on his paperwork,” Hansen said.
“When you’re trying to get a ride and you have a hundred dollars waved in your face and you don’t take it, you got to be kind of stupid,” Hansen told the officers.
When asked if he kicked and dented the driver’s car, Hansen tells police, “I think I kicked his tire.”
Hansen likely wouldn’t have been arrested if he hadn’t lied and resisted police, an officer said during part of the recording.
At one point, Hansen tells the officers, “I suppose I gotta pay the piper.”
Police, in their report, said Hansen appeared to be “heavily intoxicated.”
Hansen’s son-in-law, Clark A. Pederson, 30, of Vancouver, Wash., has also been charged with misdemeanor assault in connection with the incident.
Hansen has apologized for the incident.
“I am terribly sorry for my behavior and am very embarrassed by it. I owe a bunch of people apologies, first and foremost to our Uber driver, who was just trying to get us home safely,” he said in a statement.
Hansen faces a pretrial hearing on the charges Monday.