In mid-July, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) tossed one of its juiciest bad apples, something I doubted would happen. Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) Vice President Daniel Auderer’s laughter and related comments following the death of 23-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula disturbed more than just the people of Seattle–they made their way up to the US State Department. From an accountability perspective, the lesson I learned from this episode is that all it takes to fire a cop is a good argument, sound evidence, and a smidge of international outcry.
Like many officers before him, I imagine Auderer will file either an appeal or a claim against the City for his termination, so we’ll probably hear more from him in the future. In the meantime however, SPD Interim Chief Sue Rahr still needs to decide what to do with SPD Officer Kevin Dave, who actually hit and killed Kandula in January 2023 as she crossed through a crosswalk. The Office of Police Accountability (OPA) paused its investigation into Dave while the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO) reviewed the criminal investigation into his conduct, but the agency has not yet resumed its investigation, despite the KCPAO deciding not to file charges. Plus, the City Attorney’s Office issued Dave a ticket, marking the effective end of any criminal investigation.
While Dave’s OPA case remains in limbo, Publicola has unearthed Dave’s dangerous driving history, which SPD officials knew about before hiring him. Despite these findings, Amy Sundberg at the Urbanist has pointed out that neither the mayor, the city council, nor SPD has said anything about potential concerns regarding SPD’s hiring standards. Instead of talking about how to improve the screening and hiring process for SPD officers, city leaders remain laser-focused on how to do it faster.
For this week’s Bad Apples we’ll examine the fruits of SPD’s hiring process, including a final examination into the investigation and termination of Auderer.
A Laugh Heard Round the World
On January 23, 2023, Auderer drove to the scene of Dave’s collision with Kandula in South Lake Union. On the way, he called SPOG President Mike Solan. As the two discussed the collision, Auderer’s body-worn video captured him laughing after saying “but she is dead,” and then talking casually about a fictional future settlement agreement, saying, “Yeah, just write a check. Just, yeah [laughter]. $11,000. She was 26, anyway. She had limited value.” He followed his statement with what the OPA report described as “four minutes of full-bellied pronounced laughter.”
In Rahr’s disciplinary action report, she called Auderer’s comments “cruel” and his laughter “callous.” Auderer has maintained that he made those comments while mimicking what a lawyer might say to try to minimize a payment to Kandula’s family.
The OPA brought in Solan to elaborate further on the conversation with Auderer. Throughout the conversation with OPA, Solan invoked his right not to share some details of the conversation as protected union speech. He answered questions about his side of the conversation only to back up Auderer, and he claimed he couldn’t remember some details because their conversation had happened 10 months prior to his OPA interview.
In the report, the OPA pointed out that when the video of Auderer first came to light, both Auderer and Solan said that the context of their conversation would “clear the air.” However, OPA investigators found that after interviewing both Auderer and Solan “twice, inconsistencies, irrationalities, and refusals to answer polluted their explanations.”
The OPA sustained two policy violations against Auderer, one for making unprofessional comments about Kandula’s death and another for violating the department’s bias-free policing policy, due to Auderer’s comments about Kandula’s age. The OPA recommended a disciplinary range of a 30-day suspension or termination. Rahr ultimately chose to fire Auderer.
In 2023, Auderer made $154,000 in salary. Under the new SPOG contract, he is expected to receive about $60,900 in back pay.
A Snippy Stop
Case #2022OPA-0172
On June 1, 2022, Officer Daniel Espinoza pulled over a man driving in South Seattle for allegedly making an illegal U-turn and failing to signal while changing lanes and turning.
The man told OPA investigators that when Espinoza pulled him over, the officer asked for his license, registration, and proof of insurance. The man gave over his license and registration but said he needed to pull up his insurance card on an application on his phone. That app, however, needed to be updated.
While the man waited for the update, Espinoza began rattling off a list of traffic violations, at which point the man asked where Espinoza had seen these violations. Espinoza demanded the insurance card again, but the man repeated his request. After a little more back and forth, the man asked Espinoza to call a supervisor to the scene, and Espinoza refused. The man then called 911.
Over the phone, the 911 dispatcher heard Espinoza tell the driver he’d receive his citation in the mail before driving away from the scene. The man later told OPA investigators that Espinoza hadn’t waited for him to provide insurance information and had driven away from the stop like he needed to “chase a murder suspect.” The dispatcher also noted that Espinoza had not recorded any traffic stop in that area at that time.
The man never received a citation from SPD, and OPA investigators also found that Espinoza did not write a citation until after the man filed a complaint against the officer. Espinoza told investigators he’d filed the ticket on the day of the stop, and then later realized it hadn’t gone through the filing queue.
The OPA sustained four policy violations against Espinoza; one for failing to be courteous and respectful during the traffic stop, another for acting unprofessionally, another for failing to write up the ticket by the end of his shift, and the last for failing to call a supervisor to the scene. The OPA has yet to release the full report on him, and the public OPA database does not list what disciplinary actions SPD may take against him.
Espinoza made about $226,000 in 2023. Under the new SPOG contract, he is expected to receive about $87,600 in back pay.
Two Hours of Work, 10 hours of Pay
Case #2023OPA-0510
On July 25, 2023, Officer Autumn Arbogast attended a training on SPD’s new department-issued gun and holster. The instructor reported that Arbogast fell asleep during part of the classroom firearm training, and he screamed at her after she repeatedly broke safety protocols by drawing her own gun behind the firing line.
The sergeant then told Arbogast she’d need to return for more training but that she could report back to her unit for the rest of the day. Arbogast instead went home. Despite spending just two hours on the range, SPD paid her for 10 hours of training. When interviewed by OPA, Arbogast said she believed the sergeant told Arbogast to go home, not to return to her unit. The sergeant said he believed Arbogast believed that.
The OPA found Arbogast violated the department’s professionalism policies, and SPD issued a written reprimand for her behavior.
Arbogast’s disciplinary history includes four suspensions, according to DivestSPD. She also achieved notoriety in 2015 after she “bungled” an investigation into a man groping people in Westlake.
Arbogast made about $278,000 in 2023, and under SPOG’s new collective bargaining agreement, she is expected to receive about $103,000 in back pay.
