Port of Seattle Commissioner Ryan Calkins was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence assault.
He was released without bail Friday from King County Jail.
No charges have been filed, and the City Attorney’s Office has not yet reached the alleged victim, said spokesperson Dan Nolte.
As to whether Calkins might be charged, “It all depends on the conversation we have with the victim. That will determine next steps,” Nolte said.
Police declined to provide details about the arrest. Calkins said the incident involved his wife, and said in a statement that police responded to a call from his home.
Police are bound by a state mandatory-arrest law when responding to domestic-violence calls, meaning police always arrest the person an officer determines to be the primary aggressor if there is probable cause for a domestic violence assault in the past four hours.
Crosscut was the first to report that Calkins had been arrested.
Calkins’ wife, attorney Lindsay Calkins, has twice been arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence assault involving her husband.
The first arrest took place in Chelan, in September 2018. She was ultimately charged with disorderly conduct and remains on probation, according to court records. The second occurred in Seattle on Oct. 19. No charges have been filed in that case.
Ryan Calkins, the founder of a microfinance nonprofit, was elected to the Port Commission in 2017, pledging to clean the port of suspicions of corruption that had dogged it during the tenure of former CEO Ted Fick. Fick resigned in 2017 after Port officials found he had secretly given himself a raise and improperly accepted gifts.
Calkins is up for re-election in 2021.
“There is obviously much more to this story,” Calkins said about his arrest in an email. “For now, however, my priority is to ensure my kids’ safety.”
