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Bellevue, WA – Prosecutors have dropped the charges against a now-former police officer who served 49 days in jail because of what investigators now say were fake rape allegations.
John Kivlin was one of three members of the Bellevue Police Department who was accused of sexual misconduct by the same woman, KING reported.
Kivlin spent 49 days behind bars because, after accusing him of rape, the woman told police he violated a protection order by repeatedly texting her.
Kivlin also lost his job in the process.
Now investigators have said that never happened, and the King County Sheriff’s Office said the Issaquah woman has a history of seeking out men on Craig’s List and then falsely reporting those consensual encounters as rape, the Seattle Times reported.
“The result of [the woman’s] fabrication was that law enforcement arrested Kivlin for crimes he did not commit, prosecutors filed charges against Kivlin for crimes he did not commit, and the Court held Kivlin in custody for order violations which he did not commit,” the prosecutor said, according to KING.
The woman also accused Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett and another detective in the same department of raping her, sources close to the investigation told KING.
She claimed to have met all three men online.
“I never once violated my marriage vows. I would not jeopardize my relationship with my wife nor my children. I would never offend my God,” Chief Mylett told KING when the accusations were first made back in August.
Chief Mylett got dragged into the accusations because a text exchange between the woman and Kivlin, the woman accused his “boss boss,” even though she didn’t appear to know his name.
Bothell police were handling the investigation and declined to file charges against the detective who had been accused.
However, Chief Mylett has been on paid administrative leave since the woman made her accusations, while the Bothell police investigated, the Seattle Times reported.
Bothell Police Captain Mike Johnson told the Seattle Times that although the investigation has not yet been completed, detectives have been unable to find any corroborating evidence for the allegations against Chief Mylett.
The woman first met Kivlin on Craig’s List, and the two carried on a consensual relationship from September of 2017 until April, when she accused her police officer boyfriend of having punched her in the face twice.
Both the woman and Kivlin were married to other people at the time of the affair, the Seattle Times reported.
In July, the woman claim that Kivlin had been trying to force her to recant her story, and so police arrested him on assault and witness tampering charges.
Prosecutors eventually dismissed those charges against Kivlin after a thorough forensic investigation of his phone proved his accuser had lied.
“The investigation revealed [the woman] had made up evidence that Kivlin had contacted her in August. A forensic analysis of [her] cellphone revealed she was the one who initiated contact with Kivlin on Craigslist by posing as ‘Cynthia.’ The woman’s claim that Kivlin contacted her in August was not true,” the prosecutor wrote, according to the Seattle Times. “As a result of the investigation, Kivlin was released from custody and the new charges against Kivlin were dismissed.”
Prosecutors said the woman who accused the police officer had “fabricated evidence and used a sophisticated ruse to deceive Kivlin, law enforcement, prosecutors, and the Court in order to have Kivlin taken into custody and charged with additional crimes.”
Similar results into the investigation of the allegations against Chief Mylett are expected to be announced in the near future.
During the course of the investigation, detectives learned the 44-year-old woman had also made false rape accusations on two prior occasions in 2009 and 2010.
But King County Sheriff’s Sergeant Ryan Abbott said that investigators had not recommended charging the woman, even for her false allegations, due to concerns about her mental health, the Seattle Times reported.
Kivlin resigned from the Bellevue Police Department during the investigation and his attorney said they are not satisfied with the outcome.
“Although some may say that justice was served in this process, my client sure doesn’t see it that way,” Jeffrey Cohen told the Seattle Times. “She has destroyed lives and reputations and now he’s got to try to put his life back together.”