Seattle sergeant kept a lid on family sexual abuse
Content note: This post mentions incest, rape, and child sexual abuse.
The son of a Seattle police sergeant molested his underage daughter for almost a decade, and the sergeant did not report the abuse after it was discovered, according to public records obtained by DivestSPD.
In November, the Office of Police Accountability determined that Sgt. Tommy Caldwell violated the state’s mandatory reporting law, which requires certain professionals, including doctors, police, and social workers, to report physical and sexual abuse against children and vulnerable adults.
Failing to report is a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, but Caldwell has not been charged, and the Seattle Police Department hasn’t issued final discipline.
Nathaniel Caldwell, Tommy’s son from his first marriage, began sexually abusing his daughter when she was 8 and he was 15, according to a Marysville police report. Nathaniel admitted that he bribed her to perform oral sex by paying for upgrades in The Sims or buying her video games. He also coerced her by threatening to tell her mother that she was playing his video games, which she was not allowed to do, and plied her with alcohol and marijuana.
The abuse continued after Nathaniel moved out of the house and into an apartment. Tommy’s daughter, still in high school, continued to visit regularly.
Caldwell and his wife reportedly learned about the abuse from the daughter’s school counselor in October 2022. They forbade her from going to his apartment but did not notify the police. However, Child Protective Services referred the case to the Marysville Police Department in June 2023.
Tommy told detectives that he learned about the abuse the previous year from her counselor, but he said nothing because she did not want her half-brother to go to jail. He refused to give a written statement and requested that the body-worn video recording of the interview be marked as confidential because it showed the inside of his home (Note: That fact alone does not exempt it from disclosure).
Marysville police forwarded the case files to the Office of Police Accountability on June 20, 2023, and an investigation was opened. At the time, it’s unclear why the investigation took over two years to complete, but cases are frequently paused pending a charging decision.
At the same time, the facts of this case are relatively straightforward, and the OPA does not need a charge to find that an officer violated the law.
Nathaniel Caldwell’s trial in Snohomish Superior Court is scheduled for the end of this month.