County Assessor Wilson Jailed on Allegations of Stalking, Violating Protection Order

PubliCola broke the news on Wednesday night that Wilson was arrested for showing up at his ex's house while under an order to stay away from her.

By Erica C. Barnett

On Wednesday night, Seattle police officers arrested King County Assessor John Arthur Wilson for stalking and violating a restraining order obtained by his ex, Lee Keller. Wilson reportedly showed up at Keller's house repeatedly on Wednesday. He was arrested when he returned to her home while police were present to take a report after Wilson drove to her home earlier in the evening.

Keller obtained a restraining order against Wilson in May. Since then, Wilson has been seeking to have the restraining order lifted, arguing that he does not pose any threat to Keller.

The two briefly reconciled in May, a fact that Wilson has used to argue that there is no reason for the restraining order. In June, Wilson posted a photo of himself and Keller together shortly after the restraining order took effect, saying that she looked "happy and not at all afraid" of him as evidence that her restraining order was frivolous.

PubliCola broke the news about Wilson's arrest exclusively on Bluesky at 11:00 Wednesday night.

Shortly before his arrest, and after he showed up at Keller's home the first time, Wilson posted a photo of himself at Daniel's Broiler on Facebook with the caption, "Been a busy but great day. Came to one of my favorite places to have a great celebration. Yay!"

Wilson has never denied any of Keller's specific allegations about his behavior, much of which is documented in text messages entered into the official record at King County District Court. In addition to showing up at Keller's house repeatedly when she has asked him not to do so, Wilson called the workplace of a man Keller had been seeing and falsely accused him of sexual assault in an attempt to get him fired.

Wilson has portrayed criticism of his actions as a witch hunt, condemning the King County Council for a unanimous resolution calling for his resignation. In his post claiming Keller's restraining order was baseless, Wilson praised the Seattle Times, which ran an editorial arguing it was unfair to condemn him for his actions and that he deserved "due process" instead of demands to resign.

Wilson's first appearance in court is scheduled for this afternoon.

The Seattle Police Department would not provide a copy of the police report, telling PubliCola to file a public disclosure request—a process that, as we've reported previously, takes months or years because of SPD's practice of "grouping" multiple requests and fulfilling each one in full before moving to the next one.