Embattled Seattle Mayor Ed Murray
announced his resignation on Tuesday.
The announcement came just hours after
new abuse allegations against Murray surfaced.
Murray said he would step down
effective 5 P.M. Wednesday.
“While the allegations against me are
not true, it is important that my personal issues do not affect the
ability of our city government to conduct the public's business,”
Murray said. “To the people of this special city and to my
dedicated staff, I am sorry for this painful situation.”
Murray's fifth accuser since April is
his cousin, who accused him of child sexual abuse in an interview
with the Seattle Times.
Murray, a 62-year-old Democrat and the
city's first openly gay mayor, has denied the charges.
Joseph Dyer, 54, told
the Times
that Murray forced him into sex for about a year when he was 13 and
the two shared a bedroom in Medford, New York.
The mayor dismissed the claims, saying
that there has been a rift in the family for years.
“There's been numerous fights between
our two families for many years, and much ugliness. I guess they see
me down and out, and they want to finish me off,” Murray told the
paper.
Murray, who not long ago was seen as a
shoo-in for re-election, ended his campaign for a second term in May
amid similar allegations.
With his husband Michael Shiosaki by
his side, Murray told reporters that a campaign should focus on the
issues of how to make Seattle a better, more affordable city, not
scandal.
Delvonn Heckard, a 46-year-old gay man,
said in his lawsuit filed in April that Murray sexually abused him as
a teenager. Three additional men came forward to make similar
allegations. All four men have “histories of drug use and serious
criminal records,” the
Seattle
Times
reported, and Murray has denied their claims.
Murray served two decades in the
Washington State Legislature before being elected mayor in 2014.