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Crime & Safety

Woman Says Edmonds Officer Had Sex With Her on Patrol Car

Incident said to have occurred behind Burlington Coat Factory on Highway 99. Officer posts bail; court date to be set.

Updated Friday at 11 a.m: Danile Lavely has posted bail, which was set at $10,000. A court date will be scheduled.

A bail hearing is set for 1 p.m. Friday for 47-year-old Edmonds police officer Daniel Timothy Lavely, on suspicion of having sex with a woman he had detained.

Lavely, a 7½-year employee of the department assigned to the patrol division who is on paid leave, was taken to Snohomish County Jail in Everett for investigation of one count of custodial sexual misconduct in the first degree, a felony.

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Edmonds police requested that Everett police investigate the allegation, according to Edmonds police Sgt. Mike Blackburn. Everett police determined there was probable cause to believe a criminal conduct occurred.

A 28-year-old woman alleged that on May 7 at about 2:30 a.m. Lavely had sex with her while she was in custody outside on Highway 99 in Edmonds, according to a probable cause statement dated May 31 by Everett police Detective Karen Kowalchyk.

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The report says that the woman first came in contact with Lavely when he stopped her for jaywalking on May 6 at 7:50 p.m. Lavely detained her for about 40 minutes as he checked on a King County warrant in her name. He then gave her a ride to Top Food and Drug on Highway 99 in Edmonds.

Later that evening, the report says, the woman ended up at on Highway 99 in Edmonds.

The next morning, at 2:20 a.m., a man whom the woman met at the motel called 911 and said he was concerned about her drug use. The woman said that Lavely contacted her at the motel and told her to come with him. She said Lavely then put her in the back seat of his car without handcuffs and drove to the secluded rear of Burlington Coat Factory.

The report says that Lavely, after conducting a search of her body, initiated sex with her on the Edmonds police patrol car.

The Everett police report says that Lavely then left the woman at Burlington Coat Factory. The woman walked around the store and met a street sweeper. They had a short conversation before she continued to Highway 99, where a man gave her a ride to 7-Eleven and then eventually back to Andy's Motel.

According to the 911 tape, Lavely advised dispatch that he picked up the woman at 3:08 a.m. and completed the transport at 3:12 a.m. Lavely said that he was giving the woman a courtesy ride from the 22200 block of Highway 99 to a bus stop near Costco in Shoreline’s Aurora Village.

The report says that Lavely told dispatch his mileage, which was rounded to 1 mile. The report noted that the distance from Andy's Motel to the bus stop is greater than 2 miles, and that the street sweeper estimated that he made contact with the woman at about 3:07 a.m. to 3:12 a.m.

In addition, a video from 7-Eleven showed the woman in the parking lot at 3:12 a.m. The driver, who gave the woman a ride, purchased cigarettes at 3:13 a.m. The report says, “It is clear from the time line that (Lavely) was not transporting (the woman) at the time he notified dispatch.”

According to Kowalchyk’s statement, during an interview Lavely denied any sexual contact with the woman and denied searching her before placing her in the back seat of his patrol car on both occasions. He admitted not calling out when he initially contacted the woman at the motel, but said he did call out the mileage specifically from when he initiated and finished transporting her.

In the interview, Lavely admitted that his patrol car was behind Burlington Coat Factory, at the specific location at the approximate time of the assault, but denied that the woman was in the vehicle with him.

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