“Here we go again”: a woman accused of harassing in struggle for the case of unsolved rape in the suburb of Seattle

While Sharilyn Lux was sorted by post last week, she stopped at a letter from her local administration. The city of SnoQualmie, a small suburb to the east of Seattle, where Lux has lived in the last two decades, has accused him of cyber harassment.

“Here we go again,” Lux said.

It is the third time that the city brought it to Lux, a rape survivor who spent the last six years requesting answers about her case, in court for the numerous communications she personally sent from the city in 2019.

The city says that it is – the emails and telephone calls – which are often full of vulgar language and accusations that SnoQALMIE officials are criminals – are harassment and lose public resources.

But Lux, a 49 -year -old Spanish teacher, says they are needed to get answers about her unsolved rape in 2019.

Lux believes that the SnoQualmie police gave birth to the investigation, pointing to lost evidence, non -observed opportunities and the involvement of an officer who had been suspended for the unpleasant pursuit of sexual aggression, Reported investigated west in February.

The accusation of cyber harassment, a serious offense punished with up to 364 days of imprisonment and a fine of $ 5,000, is the latest development in a continuous struggle between luxury and snoqualmia, raising questions about Lux’s right to free expression following a brutal crime that the police failed to resolve.

The city refused to comment on the accusation, mentioning that it does not comment on the pending criminal cases.

The accusation comes from a series of E -mails that Lux sent to Mayor SnoQualmie, Katherine Ross, and the police chief, Brian Lynch, according to a SnoQualmie Police Report.

The E -mails, which were also sent to other mayors, the office of the State General Prosecutor and the media, included many vulgar phrases aimed at Ross and Lynch. Lux has repeatedly named Ross gender insults while criticizing police and city staff because it did not act on its rape case.

Ross reported the E -mail to the police and confirmed that he wants to follow a criminal case, according to the police report.

A SnoQALMIE police officer concluded that the E -Emails “seem to contain a significant amount of LEWD, lascivious, indecent and obscene language, which is one of the elements of the cyber harassment.”

After obtaining a search warrant for Google, who allowed the police to examine Lux’s E -mail account, the Internet activity and Google Pay information, the officer recommended that the case be sent to the city’s parquet.

Lux said that the investigation into E -its emails is a greater proof that the city seems more motivated to be silent than to solve its case.

“This is unreal that they have received a mandate for my edition,” she said. “They lose all their energy to criminalize me.”

Although the citation of the cyber harassment was issued on February 18, Lux did not see the letter only a few days later. She does not check her mail every day because she is afraid to go to the post office to pick her up, she said.

A 15 -year -old protection order that he put against her by the official SnoQualmie City last year prevents her from coming to 500 meters from the town hall, with some exceptions. It can go to the post office, which is within 500 meters, but only if it is “prompt”, the specific order. It is vague enough that luxury is not always sure when it can violate it.

While harassment It is not allowed in accordance with the law of the state, some lawyers in Washington claim that SnoQualm’s actions are an overload that violates the rights from Lux’s first amendment.

Joan Mell, lawyer of the Board of Directors of the Open Coalition to the Washington Government, described the 15 -year -old protection order, saying that “until now” the court intervention needed to protect the city official, has previously investigated West.

In July, the city charged luxury because it misused the 911 emergency response system. SnoQualmie Municipal Council created the criminal crime Through an ordinance of the city just two months earlier, following frequent calls from luxury.

According to the Office of the State General Prosecutor, if a city passes an ordinance that incriminates a certain conduct, it is usually according to the person accused of the crime to challenge its constitutionality. Lux did this last fall – her lawyer, isham reavis, argument That SnoQualmie drafted an “unconstitutional ordinance that prohibits the basic activity of the first amendment, because it was tired of taking Mrs. Lux.”

But just a few days before the case was tried at the end of January, the city moved to reject the wrong use of system charges 911, and the case was abandoned. While this was a positive result for luxury, it has expressed regret that “what we think is an unconstitutional law remains in books.”

Reavis said he was “deeply disappointed” that the city decided to perceive luxury again. But he is not surprised.

“They are explicitly concerned, both in the laws they transmit and now this new accusation,” he said. “Obviously, these are angry emails that use colorful language, but I feel disappointed that anyone would like to bring accusations in this regard.”

Lynch, who took over the position of SnoQualmi’s police chief in 2023, made more efforts to stop luxury to communicate with the department.

In one of his first actions as interim chief in July 2023, Lynch offered the staff a “new response plan” for managing 911 or non -de will to be luxury, according to a luxury memorandum This Lynch sent to the shipping supervisor.

If Lux appeals to a “historical rape”, says the memorandum, the call would answer: “It seems that you do not have an active emergency and it seems that you are in crisis. I will now transfer you to the crisis line. ”

Lux has now heard the dispatchers and the police staff recit this scenario dozens of times.

“They were trained to reject it and claim that they were suffering from a mental health crisis, whether it is or not,” said Reavis.

On February 6, a few hours after investigating West, he published the investigation of Lux, SnoQualmi announced that Lynch was the subject of an ongoing internal investigation and was put on administrative leave.

“The city of SnoQualmi does not comment on the pendent investigations,” the city press release states. The SnoQALMIE Police Department did not respond to the comment request of the wesp.

Lux said that the media coverage of her case has finally helped her to be heard after years when she was rejected by SnoQualmi’s leadership. But now, she starts to spend more than thousands of dollars for legal taxes.

“I feel that I finally returned to dignity and indeed, honestly, starting to heal for the first time in six years,” Lux said. “They will not take it from me.”

– Kelsey Turner, investigatedwest

InvestigateWest (investigatewesta.org) is a non -profit independent news dedicated to investigation journalism in the north -the Pacific west. Reporter Kelsey Turner can be reached at [email protected].