Prosecutor arrested after allegedly having sex in Qwest Field bathroom

A Thurston County senior deputy prosecutor who was ejected from Qwest Field Sunday after employees said he was having sex in a bathroom told his boss he was just using the facilities.

King County Sheriff's Sgt. John Urquhart said two female employees told off-duty sheriff's deputies and Seattle police officers who were working security at the stadium during the Seahawks game that a man and woman were having sex in a bathroom stall.

"We didn't see them having sex but they were clearly in the same stall," Urquhart said of the couple, who told deputies they work together in the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

The man, a 39-year-old attorney, "had been drinking and was argumentative" with deputies, he said. Arrested for obstructing and trespassing, the man was interviewed and released, Urquhart said, explaining that it is "against the law for him to be in a women's restroom."

The Seattle Times does not generally name people who have not been charged with a crime.

Thurston County Prosecutor Ed Holm said the attorney — who handles general felony cases and has developed expertise in negligent homicide prosecutions and accident-scene reconstructions — has "been put on notice that there will be discipline." The lawyer will be allowed to continue working until Holm makes his decision, which won't happen until after local prosecutors decide whether to charge him.

According to Holm, the attorney "says he was going to the bathroom" and never engaged in a sex act with the woman, a paralegal who has worked for Holm's office for about eight years.

Holm, who has discretion in the disciplining of attorneys, couldn't say if the woman, a unionized employee, would also face discipline. "I don't think there's been any accusations against her," he said.

Urquhart questioned the attorney's claim that he was simply going to the bathroom.

"So why is he using it with another woman in the stall?" he asked. "When we got there [to the bathroom] there was quite a long lineup" of women waiting to use the facilities, he said.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com