Federal Monitor had personal contract with Seattle Police Executive
HardPressed has found a private business relationship between the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) Chief Operating Officer Brian Maxey and SPD’s federal consent decree monitor, Antonio Oftelie. As the federal monitor, Oftelie is tasked with leading oversight of police reform at the SPD. The personal financial ties raise major concerns and have skirted city ethics laws.
After being appointed Monitor, Oftelie invited Maxey to Minneapolis where Maxey participated in a privately funded report concerning reform of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD).
Wayne Barnett, Executive Director of Seattle’s Ethics and Elections Commission wrote to HardPressed that he “learned that Mr. Maxey had a contract with the monitor that ran between July 29, 2021, and December 15, 2021. At that time of the contract, [Maxey] was not employed by SPD. He ended the contract when he returned to the department.”
When HardPressed forwarded emails between Maxey and Oftelie to Barnett showing that Maxey was directly corresponding and planning meetings in Minneapolis with Oftelie while he was actively employed by the SPD, Barnett told HardPressed that Maxey, “billed no one for the email” because he ended his contract with Oftelie when he returned to the department.
The total amount of money that Oftelie paid Maxey, and the terms of their contract together are not known publicly. Maxey and Oftelie did not respond to multiple requests from HardPressed.
One spokesperson who did not wish to put their organization on the record, told HardPressed that, in their personal view, the revelations and “corruption within the consent decree process is ridiculous.” To them, the consent decree has, “essentially become a dog and pony show with no real purpose.”
Monitor Oftelie has cultivated close and personal relationships at the highest levels of SPD. That itself is not inherently a problem, however executives with SPD have leveraged their relationships with Oftelie. Prism previously uncovered numerous text messages between Oftelie and SPD executives, including Maxey, that raise significant issues and led to community members questioning the relationship between SPD leadership and their own federal monitor.
Real Change found that SPD’s General Counsel, Rebecca Boatright, successfully campaigned for the installation of Oftelie as SPD’s Monitor after another SPD executive drafted an op-ed for Oftelie to publish as his own in the media.
After his appointment as Monitor, Prism found that Oftelie privately emailed Boatright a monitoring meeting agenda with a focus on influence, and also found Oftelie working on a plan with Target Corporation to increase the legitimacy of police without addressing institutional harm.
Oftelie’s monitoring services provided to the federal court in the Western District of Washington are paid for by Seattle taxpayers and billed by Oftelie’s personal company, LNW Group LLC, also known as Leadership for a Networked World (LNW).
Boston 2022
After Oftelie took on the role of Monitor, he invited Maxey and Boatright to his 2022 Public Safety Summit at Harvard sponsored by private tech vendor Mark43, a law enforcement software company.
Maxey and Boatright would be treated to hors d'oeuvres, drinks, dinners at the Harvard Faculty Club and a BBQ restaurant in Cambridge according to a draft agenda of the three day event, valued at $400 each. Seattle city law prohibits accepting things of value which “to a reasonable person, would appear to have been solicited, received or given with intent to give or obtain special consideration or influence as to any action by the covered individual in his or her official capacity.”
Seattle Ethics and Election Commission Director Wayne Barnett told HardPressed that he had not heard about the $400 in food provided to Maxey. "I don’t recall ever hearing of that before, and the Commission never made a determination. I will tell you that when I receive a call from someone asking about someone paying for food and drinks at a conference, I am looking for any evidence that the employee has a matter on their desk that the payer could be hoping to improperly influence," Barnett wrote to HardPressed. "I’m not seeing the federal monitor as someone with an interest in improperly influencing Brian Maxey. Not closing that door, but having a difficult time seeing anything make its way through."
According to receipts obtained through a public records request, Seattle taxpayers footed a $3,570.94 bill for Maxey and Boatright’s all expenses paid trip to Boston.
Boatright bought her airline ticket using her own personal airline miles for $22.65 and then asked the city of Seattle to pay her “whatever would be permissible” for the ticket, sending a screenshot of a comparable $337.20 main cabin fare. Ultimately another SPD executive denied her request to be reimbursed by the city for more than what she personally paid. Boatright wrote back that “this has not been my experience in the past.”
Oftelie’s company, LNW, also sent an eye-raising offer to summit attendees. If you wanted to, you could provide a token “reimbursement” to LNW for the costs of “gifts or other things of value” provided by LNW and the other conference sponsors. While the summit was free to attend, LNW wrote that, “the per-person price of this conference is approximately US$1,850.”
Alongside LAPD lawyer Lizabeth Rhodes, Maxey and Boatright presented a session at the summit titled “The Future of Trust: Improving Officer and Community Outcomes.” Their one hour slot on the agenda aimed to highlight the SPD’s work to “drive innovation and improvements in equity, civility, and accountability.”
Rhodes later emailed Maxey and Boatright, writing, “I hope you both enjoyed your different night out in Newton” Massachusetts, a town about 20 minutes outside of Boston on the I-90 freeway. The SPD did not respond when asked what Maxey and Boatright were doing in Newton.
After their presentation in Boston, Oftelie emailed Maxey and Boatright a thank you. “It was a pleasure working with you on this, and of course we’re looking forward to finding other opportunities to collaborate throughout the year… your leading-edge thinking could be really helpful to other agencies visioning the future.”
However, Maxey had already found an opportunity with Oftelie, under the banner of his private company, The Maxey Group LLC, to assist Oftelie in developing the “Safe and Thriving Communities” report for Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Maxey in Minneapolis
In the wake of a Minneapolis police officer murdering George Floyd, Oftelie sent an email directly to former Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) Chief Arradondo Medaria, writing, “Hi Rondo, Are you hanging in there? Wanted to drop you a quick note of support and resolve. (I sent you a text as well but I imagine your phone is blowing up nowadays…)”
“Please let me know if you need anything,” Oftelie continued, “I’d be more than happy to volunteer on any committee or panel or such looking at the future in Minneapolis. Or just want to talk or have coffee sometime. I’m here for you. I also have an idea I’ll send a separate email on for you and Jennifer DeCubellis,” the CEO of Hennepin Healthcare.
Hennepin Healthcare did not respond to a request for comment.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s office previously told Prism that Oftelie had inserted himself, unsolicited, into Minneapolis’ high-stakes and highly lucrative process of police reform, volunteering to lead any new efforts himself.
Once appointed by Mayor Frey to develop a new privately funded reform plan in Minneapolis, Oftelie appeared to use his mantle of reform to quietly expand resources allocated to the MPD.
In numerous emails with Minneapolis’ Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman, Oftelie wrote he was “looking forward to supporting and amplifying” her ideas. In another email, Oftelie was blunt, asking MPD’s interim chief, “what new capabilities do you need and want?”
Maxey is identified in the “Safe and Thriving Communities” report as a contributor for his “thought leadership and technology modernization guidance.”
Records reviewed by HardPressed show that Maxey coordinated multiple calls with Oftelie and MPD commanders while he was actively employed as the Chief Operating Officer of the SPD in June 2022.
It's unclear how much of the Minneapolis “Safe and Thriving Communities” report’s privately funded $400,000 price tag was paid out to Maxey’s personal business. The full scope of involvement of Maxey’s work with Oftelie in Minneapolis or in other cities is not publicly known.
Seattle Ethics Concerns
The city of Seattle, including SPD executives, review and collaborate on the yearly federal monitoring plan produced by their own federal court monitor. This plan, in essence, confirms the scope of work the monitor will perform each year. Seattle taxpayers are then billed for the work from a seemingly endless budget administered by the Federal Court. When the allocated account dips below $100,000, the city of Seattle tops it off, perpetuating Seattle’s closed door consent decree process that is now ongoing for almost 13 years.
If the City Attorney’s Office, the monitor and SPD agree to expand the monitor’s scope of work, then the monitor is paid more.
Each invoice the monitor sends the federal court for payment is first reviewed by the city of Seattle.
Seattle’s municipal ethics laws prohibit a city employee from attempting to influence the conduct of city business with a person in which the employee has a financial interest. Maxey, SPD’s chief operating officer, appeared to disclose his work with Oftelie to Seattle’s Ethics and Elections Commission after HardPressed made an inquiry about the contract.
Maxey also did not disclose his potential conflicts of interests to Seattle’s city council, when he previously told council members that, “we’ve been engaged with the Monitoring team,” concerning new SPD crowd management policies and pending council legislation.
When Maxey completed his city of Seattle ethics Statement of Financial Interests for 2021, he was questioned if he had received any compensation worth more than $2,500 “from any person or entity that engaged in any transaction or activity with the City?” Maxey selected “No.”
Employees of the SPD must “disclose to the Chief of Police … any activities or relationships that may present an actual, potential or apparent conflict of interest,” according to the department’s policy manual. An SPD spokesperson did not respond to HardPressed’s question asking if Maxey had disclosed his work with Oftelie to the Chief of Police.
It’s unclear if it would even concern the SPD’s new chief Shon Barnes, who received a glowing public endorsement from Oftelie upon his nomination, and also assisted Oftelie in promoting a reform plan to boost police legitimacy with Target Corporation. Immediately before Barnes traveled to New Orleans to promote Oftelie’s plan, his former police department in Madison Wisconsin received a $100,000 gift from Target Corporation.
Maxey’s Ping Pong
A HardPressed review of 60+ federal court cases show that prior to becoming an executive of the SPD, and working for Oftelie, Maxey spent his legal career representing police officers accused of significant civil rights violations and brutal violence.
The scope of cases and conduct by police officers that Maxey represented is significant.
Prior to moving to Seattle, Maxey worked for the New York City Corporation Council, the city’s law department, representing cops at the NYPD accused of beating someone in the head with nightsticks, illegally entering someone’s home without a warrant and forcibly strip searching them, fabricating facts to have a man arrested, calling a man falsely arrested a “shithead,” then breaking their leg by stomping on it while the man was handcuffed, among numerous other cases. In total, Maxey was involved in legal representation for NYPD officers in at least 24 federal civil rights cases reviewed by HardPressed.
After leaving New York, Maxey has ping-ponged between the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, private consulting, and the SPD. According to the city of Seattle, Maxey served as Seattle’s Assistant City Attorney between September 10, 2010 until November 5, 2010. Five years later, Maxey became SPD’s Chief Operating Officer on November 5, 2015, where he later resigned on September 26, 2018.
In August 2018, Carmen Best was selected to replace Kathleen O’Toole as Chief of Seattle Police. With O’Toole out, Maxey followed her and immediately started his own consulting company, The Maxey Group LLC, joining O’Toole’s private consultant enterprise 21CP Solutions as a "senior advisor." O’Toole also has ties with Monitor Oftelie, and personally approached Shon Barnes, recommending his appointment for chief of the SPD.
In 2018, Maxey was pushing for the appointment to monitor the Chicago Police Department’s federal consent decree. That never panned out and Maxey remained in Seattle.
Six months later, Maxey was hired again in the Seattle City Attorney’s Office on March 20, 2019, before resigning again on October 20, 2020 to become the Deputy Monitor for the Cleveland Police Department’s Federal Consent Decree, instituted after a Cleveland Police officer shot and killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy playing in a park. During this time, Maxey also served as the Assistant Federal Monitor of the Baltimore Police Department according to his LinkedIn profile.
With 21CP, Maxey also participated in a reform report solicited by the city of Tacoma after Tacoma Police officers killed Manuel Ellis in 2020. Ellis told Tacoma police officers he couldn’t breathe after they hogtied him and put a spit sock over his head. Ellis's death was ruled a homicide noted as "hypoxia due to physical restraint."
For a brief stint in between September and December 2021, Maxey also served as the city of Pasadena’s Independent Police Auditor. On December 30, 2021, after SPD chief Carmen Best had retired and Adrian Diaz was appointed chief, Maxey jumped back to the department and was rehired as SPD’s Chief Operating Officer, where he continues to work today.
In 2023, Real Change found that Maxey made statements that were not factual when he testified to the Seattle City Council, asking to expand the surveillance capabilities of the SPD. He told council members that SPD’s use of helicopter surveillance did not include a live video feed, when, in fact, a live video feed was used. Maxey later said he stood by his comments based on what he knew and knows now, despite overwhelming evidence that disprove his testimony.
In 2024, The Stranger revealed the contents of a private group chat with Maxey, Oftelie, Boatright and another SPD executive. In the chat, Maxey appeared to belittle a Black SPD officer’s claims of systemic racial and gender discrimination within the department.
This year, Prism reported on an entirely new collection of findings that reveal Maxey’s personal text messages, some disclosing deeply concerning comments made by other executives of SPD.
What’s at Stake
The findings here, in concert with Prism’s continued investigative reporting, reveal a void of accountability at the highest echelons of Seattle’s costly complex of police reform. When the very officials paid with taxpayer money and tasked with monitoring SPD’s commitment to safety, community calls for accountability, and officers’ excessive force do not respond to inquiries concerning their own conflicts of interest, that further erodes checks and balances within Seattle’s already fractured and criticized systems of police accountability. These institutions continue to frustrate and re-traumatize victims of police violence, while text messages exchanged between the federal monitor and Seattle police executives show a contempt for community members.