Bad Apples Baseball Cards: Zsolt Dornay
With a short temper and a long history of violence, Zsolt Dornay is the worst of both worlds: a cop and a criminal.
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For over 30 years, Officer Zsolt Dornay has been terrorizing the streets of Seattle (and the suburbs, too). Dornay, the son of a cop, followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Seattle Police Department in the mid-1990s. He immediately got into trouble. In his first year, Dornay chased a man in an off-duty road-rage incident and held him to the ground at gunpoint.
Dornay’s policing days could’ve been over right then, but SPD brass thought he had “potential.” Someone so quick to violence would prove useful on the department’s Anti-Crime Team, famous for its brutality. During his stint on ACT, Dornay bolstered his reputation as a brawler by nearly beating a 65-year-old man to death. This was followed up with an off-duty shooting, a DUI, and an argument with his wife that escalated into Dornay destroying his neighbor’s lawn.
For the past few years, Dornay has been assigned to a desk job, following up on shoplifting reports from retail establishments, but he was recently put back out onto the streets. Will he retire without incident or does he have one more internal affairs investigation left in him?
1995: Road Rage in Woodinville
When he was still in his probationary period in 1995, Dornay chased a man to Woodinville in a road rage incident.
He rubbed the man’s face into the pavement of a parking lot and pressed his gun to his head.
Dornay claimed the other man was armed, but a weapon was never found.
As a probationary officer, Dornay lacked union protection, but he wasn’t fired because command thought he “had potential,” according to a former chief.
He was suspended for 30 days, with 15 held in abeyance.
2003: Near-Fatal Beating of Raymond Nix
While working with the Anti-Crime Team, Dornay detained Raymond Nix, a 65-year-old indigenous man, because he was talking to a known drug dealer.
When they rushed him outside of a bar, they claimed Nix swung at his sergeant, but he denied this, and the felony assault charge was later dropped.
Dornay, the sergeant, and other officers severely beat Nix. They also used Tasers and pepper spray.
Nix said they paraded him around the jail to show the other prisoners “what happens” when you assault a sergeant.
According to the after-action report, Dornay was the officer who used the most force against Nix.
A few days later, Nix collapsed in the shower with a ruptured spleen and was rushed to the ER. Medical records show his heart stopped twice on the operating table.
Nix filed a civil suit, but it was dropped due to missed deadlines. SPD’s internal investigation was also scuttled when they were unable to contact Nix.
2006: Shot a Lawyer in Post Alley
Off-duty, Dornay was riding his Honda Gold Wing motorcycle through a crowd in Post Alley and revving it up to get people to move.
When he bumped into a woman, she got angry and climbed up onto the wheel guard.
Dornay tried to display his badge but couldn't find it and continued riding up the alley with the woman on his motorcycle. Her employer, attorney James Walker, followed along, cursing at Dornay.
Dornay got mad and slammed the woman against a bar door, angering the crowd. About six men rushed Dornay and started pummeling him.
He pulled out his gun and fired six shots into the crowd, wounding Walker.
Dornay was never charged or internally investigated, in part, because Seattle police never searched for footage.
2010 Convicted of DUI in Ocean Shores
A state trooper stopped Dornay and his brother, Dustin, in July 2009 on their motorcycles as they drove away from a bar at nearly twice the speed limit.
Dornay smelled of alcohol and dropped his license.
He showed the trooper his SPD identification and asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
At the station, Dornay blew almost double the limit.
He was convicted of DUI in a one-day trial a year later.
2013 Did Donuts in His Neighbor’s Yard
![On 07/02/13 at approximately 2015 hours I was notified of a Malicious Mischief report at
Sw. The actually address of the incident turned out to be
The reporting party who did not want contact stated he observed someone damage the neighbors lawn
and left in a late model white Infinity. I arrived on scene and contacted the victim J.
]c stated at approximately 2030 hours He was sleeping. Suddenly he was awoken by loud voices and
crashing sounds outside his bedroom window. J
looked out and saw his neighbor S-1 Zsolt,
Dorney following his wife on foot heading north up the street in apparent pursuit of her. The next
heard was loud engine noises. He looked out his window and saw Zsolt in his white Infinity
accelerating while driving through his lawn over his front yard spinning his tires. Zsolt was alone in the
vehicle and yelled, "What's up hommie"
Prior to this event last week Zsolt's wife K6
had visited his home. While she was there she told
him about the marital problems and their argumen](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!yCAc!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb4fb6fe3-f4f7-40d4-8f0b-405bd002be93_1574x686.jpeg "On 07/02/13 at approximately 2015 hours I was notified of a Malicious Mischief report at
Sw. The actually address of the incident turned out to be
The reporting party who did not want contact stated he observed someone damage the neighbors lawn
and left in a late model white Infinity. I arrived on scene and contacted the victim J.
]c stated at approximately 2030 hours He was sleeping. Suddenly he was awoken by loud voices and
crashing sounds outside his bedroom window. J
looked out and saw his neighbor S-1 Zsolt,
Dorney following his wife on foot heading north up the street in apparent pursuit of her. The next
heard was loud engine noises. He looked out his window and saw Zsolt in his white Infinity
accelerating while driving through his lawn over his front yard spinning his tires. Zsolt was alone in the
vehicle and yelled, \"What's up hommie\"
Prior to this event last week Zsolt's wife K6
had visited his home. While she was there she told
him about the marital problems and their argumen")
In July 2013, Dornay was arguing with his wife and throwing things. He then got into his Infinity and started doing donuts in his neighbor’s yard.
Dornay apparently believed that his neighbor was sleeping with his wife because she visited him a few days before and discussed their marital problems.
A public records request for Dornay’s address shows police responded to multiple 911 hangups from his wife’s phone before and after this incident.
When the neighbor looked out his window, Dornay yelled, “What’s up, homie?”
Dornay was charged with malicious mischief, but it’s unclear how that was resolved in court.
SPD suspended Dornay again for 30 days.
2015 Slammed a Handcuffed Man to the Ground
Seattle police responded to a call about a man allegedly assaulting a woman. They found no assault had occurred but arrested the man for an open theft warrant.
The officers took the man, Alonzo Price-Holt, to the ground and cuffed him.
Once he was placed in the holding cell, Price-Holt, still handcuffed, began kicking the door.
Dornay and another officer entered the cell to remove Price-Holt’s shoes so he could no longer kick the door without hurting himself.
Dornay grabbed Price-Holt from behind and pushed him up against the wall, then slammed him to the ground.
An investigation found Dornay violated SPD’s policy, which bars force against handcuffed prisoners, except in extreme circumstances.
SPD once again suspended Dornay for 30 days.
Price-Holt sued the city. The case was settled out of court for $100,000 plus $60,000 in attorney’s fees.