“I wouldn’t wish this upon anybody,” said Bellevue, Wa.. Police Chief Steve Mylett at a news conference announcing his reinstatement to the job. A police investigation completed Monday cleared him of sexual-assault allegations, Mylett expressed his gratitude for his faith, his family and his future in re-assuming command of the 225-employee department, the Seattle Times reports. “I had no idea why [a woman] would make the accusations that she made,” the chief said. His accuser, a 44-year-old woman, came forward in early August with claims Mylett raped her two years earlier during an encounter at his home arranged through an adult sex website. The King County Sheriff’s Office separately investigated the woman’s claims against two other Bellevue police officers that initially led to domestic-violence assault and witness-tampering charges against one of them.
Mylett, 53, who was hired as Bellevue’s chief in 2015 after more than two decades of police work in Texas, was placed on paid administrative leave. Investigators found Mylett’s accuser had gone so far as to create phony, backdated email exchanges that contained the address of a rental home where Mylett temporarily lived. Lease records and other evidence proved Mylett had moved out of that house before the date when the woman claimed the assault occurred, and DNA tests ruled Mylett out as a possible match to genetic evidence gathered from clothing the woman turned over as part of the case. Police have since forwarded probable-cause findings against the woman recommending charges of perjury, tampering with evidence and making a false statement to police. The sheriff’s office said the woman has a history of seeking out men on Craigslist and then falsely reporting those consensual encounters as a crime to police.