Firefighter told councilwoman to ‘jump headfirst’ off building, Washington cops say

A firefighter is accused of using a coworker’s email to send threatening messages to a Seattle City Council member, telling her to “get out of the city or else,” according to documents from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Kshama Sawant, who represents District 3, reported receiving threatening emails in December and January from a seattle.gov account, documents say. The email address belonged to a firefighter at the Seattle Fire Department.

“The first email explains a dislike for Sawant’s performance as a council member and asks that she leave town,” documents say. “It also suggests that she jump headfirst off her building and the sender offers their assistance in pushing her.”

Later emails warn Sawant to “get out of the city or else,” demanding she resign and “if she doesn’t go willingly, that decision will be made for her by any means necessary,” according to documents.

After the first batch of emails was sent in December, the firefighter whose account was used to send the messages requested to transfer to a different unit in the department, documents say. A few days after the request was submitted, the firefighter told Capt. Richard Holtman he did not submit the request.

The firefighter stated he didn’t write the email asking for a transfer, nor did he write the emails sent to Sawant, according to documents.

In January, around the same time more emails were sent to Sawant, Holtman received another transfer request from the firefighter, which he stated he did not write, documents say. The firefighter changed his password shortly after finding more emails sent to Sawant, according to documents.

An investigation by the city’s IT department revealed one of the emails came from an address in Everett, documents say. The investigation led officials to Andrew Finseth, 42, of Shoreline — another Seattle firefighter, according to documents.

Investigators discovered most of the emails in question were traced directly to Finseth’s residential address, documents say. One of the emails was sent from the Everett church where Finseth is a member, according to documents.

Finseth had a history of run-ins with the firefighter whose email was used to message Sawant, documents say.

“It was reported that Finseth made derogatory comments about [the firefighter’s] religion during an emergency call where both were in an aid car driving code to a call,” according to documents.

The firefighter also reported a physical altercation that took place between him and Finseth several years prior.

After officers arrested Finseth on Feb. 12, he admitted to sending the emails from the other firefighter’s account, documents say.

“Finseth stated his intention was to get [the firefighter] to be punished by his chain of command and held accountable for ‘something’ because [the firefighter] was always getting away with things,” according to documents. “Finseth reported that he did not have any intentions of harming Sawant and did not want harm to come to her.”

Finseth told officers he chose to send the emails to Sawant because the firefighter whose email was used lived in her district, documents say.

Finseth is charged with two counts of cyberstalking and one count of second-degree identity theft, according to Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney.

The Seattle Fire Department placed Finseth on paid administrative leave “pending the upcoming legal process and internal investigation,” according to Kristin Tinsley, a spokesperson for the agency.

“The Seattle Fire Department has adopted values (Compassion, Courage, Diversity, Integrity and Teamwork) that guide our actions, behaviors and speak to who we are as an organization. There are no circumstances under which the Seattle Fire Department would condone an employee sending threatening emails to another person,” Tinsley said.