Washington Legislators Reverse Course, Won’t Investigate Rape Allegation Against Sen. Joe Fain

Fain has been accused of raping a Seattle woman in 2007 before he took office and has denied the allegation.

In November, a bipartisan group of Senators signed off on a plan to hire an outside investigator to look into the case.

But on Monday, Republicans said the investigation should be called off because Fain lost his re-election bid. They said Fain’s loss made the issue a potential case for law enforcement and that the Senate was no longer the appropriate body to launch an investigation.

Sen. Randi Becker (R-Eatonville) sent a letter to Sen. John McCoy (D-Tulalip), chair of the Facilities and Operations Committee, and characterized the investigation as a “partisan witch-hunt.”

In response, Democrats, who control the chamber, said the investigation would be cancelled and blamed partisanship.

A spokesperson for the Democratic leadership said the committee agreed to work on the investigation in a bipartisan manner and said that Republicans had failed to advance any suggestions for a possible investigator.

McCoy wrote to Becker that the Republican minority leader had refused to approve any of the proposed investigators.

KUOW producer Jason Pagano contributed to this story.

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