SEATTLE – The vice president of Seattle’s rank-and-file police union acted unprofessionally and showed bias when he made “callous” comments downplaying the death of a young woman fatally struck by another officer last year, according to city police watchdogs.
Police Chief Adrian Diaz will decide whether he will fire or otherwise discipline Officer Daniel Auderer after members of his chain of command discuss findings and recommendations from the city’s Office of Police Accountability at a Tuesday disciplinary hearing.
Civilian OPA Director Gino Betts Jr. has not announced what discipline he’s recommending. The committee will forward its recommendations to Diaz, who must justify his findings in writing if they differ. It’s unclear when the chief will make his decision.
OPA’s findings come on the one-year anniversary of the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, who was struck and killed by a speeding police cruiser while crossing a South Lake Union street. A criminal investigation into the incident is pending.
In a scathing memorandum, Betts concluded that Auderer’s statements — in which he’s heard laughing and joking in a conversation about the death of the 23-year-old graduate student — damaged the department’s reputation and undermined public trust on a scale that’s difficult to measure.
“[His] comments were derogatory, contemptuous, and inhumane,” Betts wrote in his investigation summary.
“For many, it confirmed, fairly or not, beliefs that some officers devalue and conceal perverse views about community members.”
The city’s Office of Inspector General, which reviews and certifies police disciplinary investigations, found Betts’ conclusions “thorough, timely and objective,” and Inspector General Lisa Judge recommended that OPA add a bias allegation to its investigation into unprofessional conduct.
The OPA launched its investigation after Auderer’s comments from last January surfaced in September. In a two-minute phone call with Seattle Police Officers Guild President Mike Solan, Auderer joked about Kandula’s death in a conversation caught on his body camera, suggesting that her young life had “limited value” and that the city should “just write a check.”
Investigators concluded that his comments violated SPD policies that state officers should strive to act professionally at all times.
The department prohibits “behavior that undermines public trust,” including “any language that is derogatory, contemptuous, or disrespectful toward any person.”
Policy also prohibits prejudicial or derogatory language about “someone’s discernible personal characteristics,” such as age.
Solan and Auderer have said their call was private, mostly union-related and never intended to be made public. The conversation went undiscovered until an SPD public-disclosure employee flagged it for agency attorney Rebecca Boatright, who referred it to OPA for investigation.
When Auderer discovered the audio existed and was being sought by the media, he asked Betts to handle it as a “rapid adjudication,” admitting the potential policy violation and stating in a letter that he recognized his statements, taken out of context, might be considered “horrifying and crude.”
Betts declined, saying that streamlined process is for less-serious violations.
Auderer and Solan insisted the conversation was meant to express their mockery of and exasperation with a legal process in which they claimed civil lawyers would argue and try to place a dollar value on Kandula’s life.
However, Auderer wrote that he recognized “if a citizen [heard his comments] they would rightfully believe I was being insensitive to the loss of human life … [and] diminish the trust in the Seattle Police Department and make [all] our jobs more difficult.”
Solan, the elected president of the roughly 900-member police union, also said the OPA investigation amounted to union-bashing during a time when the city and police union have been mired in negotiations and working without a contract for nearly three years.
Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office said it could not comment on the findings, pending Diaz’s disciplinary decision. SPOG did not return an email seeking comment Tuesday.
‘Yeah, just write a check’
Auderer, a 49-year-old traffic and drug-recognition officer, had been assigned to determine whether the officer who struck Kandula, Kevin Dave, was under the influence. Auderer’s report concluded that Dave was not impaired.
While leaving the agency’s West Precinct, where he interviewed Dave, Auderer called Solan, and the pair talked for two minutes.
In the conversation, Auderer joked about the deadly crash and dismissed any possibility Dave might be at fault or that a criminal investigation would be necessary, as is required by law under the circumstances of Kandula’s death.
Auderer also laughed several times, saying at one point: “Yeah, just write a check.”
“Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway,” Auderer said, misstating the victim’s age. “She had limited value.”
Only Auderer’s side of the conversation is audible in the body-camera footage.
Kandula, a graduate student at Northeastern University’s Seattle campus, was crossing Dexter Avenue North in the crosswalk at Thomas Street the evening of Jan. 23, 2023, when Dave struck her while speeding to a reported drug overdose. Dave was driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone just before he hit Kandula, who was thrown more than 130 feet.
His emergency flashing lights were on, however he was operating his siren manually as he passed through each intersection, according to documents released by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Graphic dash-camera video from Dave’s vehicle, released by SPD through a public disclosure request, shows Kandula enter the intersection and then start running, apparently realizing the speed of the oncoming vehicle and trying to beat it across the intersection.
There’s an audible impact as the right front of Dave’s patrol car strikes Kandula, sending her airborne and bending a heavy metal push-bar on the front of the vehicle. Police found a pair of earbuds in the roadway and believe Kandula might not have heard the oncoming cruiser.
Body-camera video obtained by The Seattle Times via public disclosure requests includes footage of an officer walking up to a clearly shaken Dave and asking if he’s all right. “No. I’m not all right,” he said, his voice shaking.
The Seattle Department of Transportation has since started safety work at the intersection, which will become the city’s first “protected” crossing as part of pre-existing plans to reshape Thomas Street, an important connection for people traveling between South Lake Union and downtown.
Auderer’s comments about Kandula’s death prompted international outcry, including condemnation from the government of India, her home country. OPA has said the department received nearly 400 complaints.
Just last week, Seattle’s advisory Community Police Commission hosted members of the Indian American Community Services, who were harshly critical of the department’s handling of investigations stemming from the crash and comments, as well as the agency’s failure to address issues surrounding high-speed officer driving.
IACS spokesperson Lalita Uppala, a member of the state Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs, said Kandula’s death, the glacial pace of the investigations and Auderer’s remarks “have caused pain and dismay” among members of the community.
Further, members of the City Council and CPC have questioned whether Auderer’s involvement in an investigation into a member of the guild’s rank-and-file amounted to a conflict of interest, and council members have asked SPD to review its policy around such investigations.
The public outcry led SPD to take Auderer off the streets and reassign him to a desk pending the outcome of the internal investigation about his comments and the criminal investigation involving Dave.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has also hired an outside firm to review the SPD investigation into the crash itself. Its results will be released within a few weeks.
The Rev. Patricia Hunter, CPC co-chair, said Tuesday that the anniversary of Kandula’s death should remind everyone that her “life mattered.”
“The CPC mourns the passing of Ms. Kandula,” Hunter said in a statement. “We remember her family and friends today and we celebrate her life and how she touched so many in her 23 years of living.”
