The Seahawks have received intense criticism this week after two independent investigations by the Seattle Times and King-5 News have called into question the Seahawks' research into Frank Clark's domestic violence incident. These reports noted that the Seahawks did not speak to the witnesses of the incident and challenged claims that Seattle did an extensive background investigation into the situation. The Seahawks selected Clark with the 63rd pick in the NFL Draft.
The witnesses, whose statements were included in the police report, provided detail of their accounts to the Times and to King-5, and those accounts are extremely disturbing. The prosecutor in the case, Lynne Gast-King, also spoke to The Seattle Times and admitted that "when I first read that report, I was like ‘Holy you know what ... this is bad, this is really bad.'" However, throughout the course of the investigation, she said, "The facts were not as they initially appeared."
Gast-King said that Clark's attorney requested a sit-down so that his client and her could talk, which is rare. "He made a very good impression, of course,'' Gast-King told The Times. "He was very articulate, very polite, very humble. Actually, he was quite charming. I always take that with a grain of salt because batterers can be quite charming. I'm very careful about that, and I think I'm pretty good about reading whether it's forced or faked.''
Gast-King said that the "Perkins police did a wonderful job," with their report, but despite some of the details therein, she decided to reduce Clark's charges from domestic violence and assault to fourth-degree "persistent disorderly conduct," a misdemeanor. "The police did everything exactly right," she said, "but I'm trying to be delicate because I don't want to involve Diamond (Hurt) too much in this. Let's just say she can take care of herself.''
"Diamond has indicated to me what happened in that room," said Gast-King. "We've talked quite a bit about it and there are answers that I'm satisfied are true answers — not just something made up to get him off the hook.''
Gast-King said there was a "physical confrontation" but would not confirm nor deny that Clark struck Hurt. She said that the witness reports were taken into consideration. "I think the facts that the witnesses reported are accurate,'' Gast-King said. "They saw and heard what they saw and heard. There was definitely an altercation. But where the facts went from there, it was a situation that seemed to spiral out of control very quickly, and not just on Mr. Clark's part. There was some personal things going on between the two of them.'' Gast-King added that Clark and Hurt remain friendly, and that Hurt's mother "had nothing bad to say" about Clark.
Clark had his charges reduced when he completed a 25-week "Healthy Relationship and Prevention of Domestic Abuse" program at the Ann Arbor Community Center, said Gast-King. She said that this was a typical deal for first-time offenders in cases like this, adding "This was not a sweep-it-under-the-rug type of thing."