The Associated Press
TACOMA, Wash.- The city has agreed to pay $750,000 to a detective who said she was sexually harassed by police Chief David Brame before he killed his wife and himself two years ago.
Mary Herrman said Brame tried to persuade her to have sex with him and his wife, Crystal, by suggesting she’d be promoted if she complied. Herrman declined, but received the promotion to detective anyway.
The chief kept pursuing her, and though others in the department knew of his actions, no one did anything about it, according to investigations conducted after the April 2003 killings.
The investigations also showed Brame had been hired and promoted despite problems with psychological examinations, a rape accusation against him and a history of domestic violence that his wife revealed in divorce documents. Crystal Brame had filed for divorce about two months before the killings.
The settlement, approved Tuesday by the City Council, averted another lawsuit against Tacoma stemming from the scandal. The city is already defending itself against five.
Herrman, who had declined to comment publicly on her claim for two years, offered a brief statement after the vote.
“I’m relieved,” she said. “But I have to say this isn’t the way I wanted things to happen.”
Herrman, 34, hasn’t worked since shortly after the shootings, but the city has continued to pay her. Under the settlement, Herrman will leave the police department with a letter of recommendation from police Chief Don Ramsdell.
Her attorney, Cliff Freed, said it was uncertain whether Hermann would seek another police job.