Brame home was searched after killings

TACOMA -- Pierce County sheriff's detectives executed a search warrant at former Tacoma police Chief David Brame's apartment on the day he killed himself, and had its results sealed four days later.

Yesterday, documents relating to the search were released at the request of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

They show that detectives searched the Tacoma apartment, where Brame had lived for just nine days, looking for a suicide note.

Among the documents released yesterday was a form used to catalog items collected during a search, but it was blank. However, Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said yesterday that detectives took some paperwork from that apartment, but did not find a suicide note.

Troyer said detectives have also searched Brame's work space, desk and car. Troyer said documents related to those searches have also been sealed by court order.

"Clearly there has been an overzealous culture of secrecy that is hiding from the public answers and information it deserves to have," P-I Executive Editor Ken Bunting said. "Hopefully, we've begun to break through that shield of government secrecy."

The search warrant unsealed yesterday shows that Brame's Tacoma residence, at the Gold Pointe Apartments, was searched April 26 -- the day Brame fatally shot his wife, Crystal, then killed himself in the parking lot of a Gig Harbor strip mall.

On April 30, Pierce County Detective Sgt. Todd Karr asked a Pierce County Superior Court judge to seal the documents, reasoning that the investigation into Brame's death and the fatal shooting of his estranged wife "may lead to an investigation of Tacoma Police Department personnel and their actions in this matter and prior to this incident. There is a potential for a criminal investigation to develop."

At that point, the media had already reported assistant police chief Catherine Woodard's involvement in the Brame divorce. Woodard has since been put on paid leave and is the subject of a Washington State Patrol investigation.

Troyer said detectives sealed the three searches to prevent the media from beating them to people they intended to interview for the investigation.

"We've been 100 percent open," Troyer said. "We're releasing everything we can legally."

The P-I, along with The Associated Press, The Seattle Times and other media, is also seeking to unseal court documents in a 3-year-old lawsuit filed by Tacoma police Lt. Joseph Kirby against the city of Tacoma.

Contained in that lawsuit are statements by Tacoma City Manager Ray Corpuz and David Brame, as well as statements by Tacoma police officers who say they were aware of rape allegations made against Brame in 1988. The police chief at the time determined that the allegations could not be proved.

Corpuz was placed on paid leave Tuesday amid questions about his handling of Brame's promotion to police chief in 2001. Corpuz has said that he knew vaguely of the allegations against Brame when he promoted him.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Katherine Stolz has been asked to unseal the statements, which were previously sealed after being ruled irrelevant to Kirby's case.

Tacoma city officials have been barraged by criticism of the handling of Brame's rise through the ranks to police chief and of their response to the shootings and allegations that Crystal Brame had made that her husband had threatened her.

According to the unsealed search warrant, detectives asked to look for ammunition and handguns, media articles and tape recordings regarding the Brames' pending divorce, paperwork showing control over the residence, and any information that would document Brame's intent to kill his wife -- such as handwritten notes, audio or video tapes, or messages stored on a computer.

Karr also was looking for a suicide note. In the search warrant, the detective indicates that David Brame was still alive. Brame died just hours after the shooting.

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