Sergeant not punished for failing to report his son sexually abused his daughter

CONTENT NOTE: This post mentions child sexual abuse and incest.

A Seattle police sergeant will face no punishment for his failure to disclose to authorities that his son sexually abused his daughter, according to a recently released disciplinary report. While the Office of Police Accountability found Sergeant Tommy Caldwell violated the state’s mandatory reporting laws, a gross misdemeanor, and recommended a suspension of one to three days, Chief Shon Barnes did not issue discipline.

Nathaniel, Caldwell’s son from another marriage, confessed that he began sexually abusing his half-sister when he was 15 and she was 8. This continued until he was 23, long after he moved out of the house and into his own apartment.

The daughter told her parents about the abuse in 2022, but Caldwell said she begged him not to report it to the local police in Marysville, where the family lives. Eight months later, she “let it slip” while speaking to a counselor, who called child services.

Caldwell told the OPA that he did not know that police were required to report sexual abuse under state law and claimed to have never received training on the subject in his 12 years on the force. However, the OPA found a PowerPoint presentation on mandatory reporting from his time at the police academy.

He said that when he told his daughter that the abuse had to be reported, she “lost all composure, control, and fell down on the floor, and started screaming and crying,” Caldwell said that he then urged his daughter to tell her counselor.

The OPA wrote that it understands “the weight of "[Caldwell’s] predicament” and that he “felt compelled to balance the needs of his children with the mandates of Washington State law and his professional obligations,” but it argued that there’s no carve-out in the law for parents who are police officers.

Furthermore, Caldwell did not notify Nathaniel’s mother, who had a minor daughter. He took his son’s word that Nathaniel had not sexually abused anyone else, and his son had access to a minor for eight months between the time Caldwell learned about the abuse and the day he was arrested.