Pedro Gomez, the previous Director of Exterior Affairs beneath Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has been accused of rape within the second diploma, in response to a police incident report obtained by The Stranger. Gomez, who abruptly resigned from his place final week, is now beneath scrutiny because the King County Prosecutor’s Workplace Particular Assault Unit evaluations the allegations.
The allegation stems from an encounter between Gomez and Cheryl Delostrinos on June 18, 2024, when the 2 met for a deliberate enterprise assembly over drinks close to Metropolis Corridor. In accordance with a police report, the night ended at a Lake Union house the place Delostrinos later wakened, disoriented and intoxicated. She allegedly discovered herself in mattress with Gomez performing a non-consensual intercourse act on her. Information of the police report was first reported within the Northwest Asian Weekly.
In an unique interview with The Stranger, Delostrinos recounted the occasions of June 18 involving Gomez, her battle as an abolitionist grappling with the prison justice system, and her pressing name for accountability.
In our interview, Delostrinos described a troublesome private decision-making course of to report the alleged assault. Along with the inherent challenges of coming ahead with these allegations, Delostrinos, a jail abolitionist and lady of shade, confronted profound inside battle concerning the prison authorized system, however she instructed The Stranger that her considerations for neighborhood security and the necessity to maintain Gomez accountable led her to report the alleged incident.
“A part of the rationale I went via your entire [criminal justice] system and course of was to supply proof so individuals can imagine me and perceive what’s occurring. I’m talking publicly as a result of I need to lean on the neighborhood,” she says. “As a pacesetter in our neighborhood, I’m asking: How are we holding this individual accountable? And the way are we preserving our neighborhood secure?”
“It takes large braveness for any survivor to return ahead,” says Elizabeth Hendren, an legal professional representing Delostrinos from the Sexual Violence Regulation Middle. “Their private lives are routinely opened up for examination and criticism, and the method could be very painful and taxing. We steadily see survivors attacked and shamed by their very own communities and by the courts once they select to carry the individuals who have sexually abused them accountable.”
She provides that survivors of shade typically face systemic disbelief and harsher criticism for perceived imperfect decisions round their victimization —an added burden Delostrinos knew all too effectively when she determined to talk out. And due to that, she says, her purpose to return ahead was very clear.
“I am not right here to take him down. That is not the objective. I’m talking out and speaking about what occurred to me, to [make visible] the violence towards ladies, and that it might occur to anyone,” says Delostrinos.
Strictly Enterprise
A burning van first introduced Delostrinos and Gomez into one another’s orbits again in December 2023 in response to the police report.
On the time, Gomez’s position positioned him on the intersection of neighborhood engagement and metropolis governance. Appearing as a public liaison, he represented the Mayor’s workplace, and was required to coordinate with the Metropolis’s Funds Workplace, Metropolis Council, and central workers. On this public dealing with position, Gomez would often meet with neighborhood members to deal with considerations. It’s how Gomez and Delostrinos initially related with one another.
Delostrinos has spent her life dedicated to constructing neighborhood energy, as an organizer, dancer, co-founder of Au Collective, a dance collective dedicated to eradicating systemic racism by making a secure house for femmes, queer, and trans individuals of shade to current their very own tales and make artwork accessible to the communities they arrive from. It was this ardour for neighborhood that impressed her to pursue a enterprise diploma and work as Director of Improvement for Younger Girls Empowered (Y-WE), a South Seattle-based nonprofit centered on life enrichment and talent constructing for girls, trans, non-binary, and gender-expansive youth.
After considered one of Y-WE’s vans was vandalized and set on hearth, the group’s management reported the suspected arson to the Seattle Police Division.
Receiving no follow-up from SPD for weeks, in response to her assertion within the police report, Y-WE management reached out to the mayor’s workplace for help and was ultimately related to Gomez, as a consultant of Mayor Bruce Harrell’s workplace.
After scheduling a gathering, Gomez, Delostrinos, and one other Y-WE director, all met in late February to debate the arson and the way the town may be capable to assist the group.
In the course of the assembly, Gomez shared that he was a enterprise proprietor of Kolors Studio. “He had expressed to me that he was anyone locally doing actually superior issues as an entrepreneur, and a number of the issues he was speaking about actually aligned with lots of work that I used to be specializing in in supporting Black and Brown owned companies,” Delostrinos instructed The Stranger.
The three mentioned a attainable partnership between Kolors and Y-WE, and scheduled one other assembly to flesh out extra particulars of the likelihood.
Delostrinos, her colleague, and Gomez would subsequent meet for a 90-minute dialogue at Kolors studio in March of 2024. Gomez was joined by his enterprise companion, and in the course of the assembly, introduced out a bottle of tequila for a celebratory drink. Delostrinos accepted out of politeness, however her colleague declined, stating to police that she handed on it as a result of she felt uncomfortable as a result of energy imbalance with Gomez working on the mayor’s workplace, in response to the police report. Nonetheless, the 2 each left excited on the potential of partnering with Kolors.
In accordance with her assertion within the police report, Delostrinos and Gomez met twice after that: as soon as shortly after, when he requested if Delostrinos is likely to be keen on working at Kolors; and once more in Could, when he invited her to a marketing campaign celebration for Nick Brown that he hosted at Kolors, the place he urged they meet up once more to speak extra about Delostrinos, who was attending graduate faculty on the College of Washington Foster College of Enterprise, becoming a member of the Kolors workforce.“On the time, I used to be occurring lots of informational interviews and connecting with individuals in neighborhood, nothing appeared out of the atypical,” she says. “Each time we met was particularly about enterprise,” she says.
Till it wasn’t.
We Can’t Do This
Delostrinos remembers the morning of June 18, 2024, as simply one other Tuesday. After graduating from the College of Washington’s Enterprise College, she’d hit the bottom operating, catching up with uncared for enterprise contacts and leaving no stone unturned on profession prospects.
Nonetheless keen on pursuing a job with Kolors, she and Gomez had agreed to fulfill at Charlotte Restaurant & Lounge on the Lotte Lodge lower than a block away from Gomez’s Metropolis Corridor workplace, in response to her assertion within the police report.
Scheduled to fulfill at 4:30 pm, Gomez was operating late so Delostrinos had already ordered a margarita when he arrived about quarter-hour later from a barbecue he’d been attending on the mayor’s workplace, in response to the police report. He shared that he’d already been consuming on the barbecue, after which ordered a shot of tequila for himself.
“He requested if I needed one. I instructed him no. And he was like, effectively, I am going to get one for you, and when you do not end it, I am going to end it for you,” she says.
In accordance with the police report, the 2 talked about Kolors wants and its buyers, with Gomez name-dropping a number of outstanding figures he and his firm had been related to. The dialog turned to the general public sexual assault allegations towards former chief of police Adrian Diaz, and Gomez commented that was the rationale he made Kolors a “secure house” for girls.
Delostrinos instructed police that the dialog quickly turned to a restaurant referred to as Mercado Luna on Capitol Hill, the place Gomez claimed he was an investor. He then ordered one other shot of liquor and requested her if she needed one other. She mentioned no as a result of she was driving. However Gomez ordered one other for her anyway, telling her he’d end it if she didn’t. Delostrinos says she felt pressured to drink it.
Having drank, however eaten little on the cafe, Gomez requested Delostrinos if she needed to go to Mercado Luna. At that time, Delostrinos instructed police that she didn’t suspect that Gomez was hitting on her, however feeling too tipsy to drive in the mean time, she accepted a experience in Gomez’s BMW to the restaurant. She instructed police that she texted her fiance her whereabouts, as the 2 sometimes did if one was going to be out just a little later than deliberate.
As quickly as they entered the restaurant, Delostrinos mentioned she wanted to make use of the restroom. Already going past her typical two-drink most on a weekday, she meant solely to eat on the restaurant. Nonetheless, when she returned to the desk, she was shocked to see an undesirable margarita and a shot of Mezcal ready for her, in response to her assertion within the police report.
On the restaurant, Gomez appeared very acquainted with the restaurant workers and launched her to the proprietor, however, she instructed The Stranger, the vibe began to really feel just a little off. “After some time, I began to really feel like I wasn’t secure. I texted my fiancé and greatest good friend like ‘I simply needed you to know that I am going to most likely want a experience in some unspecified time in the future.’”
In accordance with the police report, she additionally texted her fiancé that she was unsure about Gomez’s intentions, however that she was okay and making enterprise strikes.
At this level, in response to the police report, Delostrinos shared she was drunk, and uncertain whether or not or not she had completed her drinks. She instructed police that she did recall consuming there and Gomez asking her why she was interested in her fiance.
The report exhibits that she referred to as three Lyfts that night time, at 10:10 pm, 10:18 pm, and 10:24 pm, however by no means obtained into any of them.
In accordance with her statements within the police report, the time main as much as being in Gomez’s South Lake Union house is a little bit of a blur. She ended up again in Gomez’s automotive after not getting right into a Lyft, after which at an house at Dexter Residences.
Delostrinos reported that she later discovered herself at Gomez’s house on his mattress with a few of her clothes eliminated and broken. She regained consciousness whereas Gomez was performing nonconsensual sexual acts on her, in response to her statements to the police. In accordance with the police report, she verbally instructed Gomez “no, I don’t need to do that” however Gomez proceeded to try to nonconsensually drive his manner on high of her and kiss her. She obtained out of bed and struggled to seek out her telephone and belongings.
In her assertion to the police, she then describes a wrestle: She sat down at a desk within the house, stating they had been imagined to have been “discussing enterprise, not this.” Gomez provided her a drink, which she didn’t settle for, after which, in response to the police report, continued to drag her in direction of him, carry her, and throw her onto the mattress. She repeated, no, she did not need to, and obtained out of bed once more to seek out her telephone. She instructed the police that her purse was in Gomez’s automotive, and he or she couldn’t recall whether or not or not she went with him to retrieve it, however she was capable of get her telephone and eventually name a Lyft dwelling. She discovered that her fiance had beforehand texted her a number of instances, however he hadn’t heard again from her.
Talking to investigators in September, Gomez gave his model of the night time. He acknowledged that their June 18 encounter was the primary time he and Delostrinos had frolicked and that they each drank till the bar closed in Belltown. Afterward, he instructed the police, the 2 determined to get extra drinks at his house, the place he says Delostrinos initiated a kiss, however he was uncomfortable due to her relationship, and he rejected it.
Police discovered that the house Gomez took Delostrinos to was not truly leased to him, although he was listed as an emergency contact on it.
Delostrinos instructed police that she returned dwelling at 1:30 am. Her fiance instructed the police that he might scent alcohol on her earlier than she reached the doorway of their bed room, the place she stumbled in. He instructed investigators that he was shocked on the sight, as he’d by no means seen Delostrinos this drunk earlier than.
“I used to be inebriated and non coherent once I obtained dwelling,” she instructed The Stranger. “I am referred to as the grandma of all my mates as a result of I actually go to mattress at 8:30 pm daily. So for me to be out at 1:30 within the morning—it is simply out of character for me.”
Her fiance instructed police that Delostrinos instructed him what had transpired that night.
Delostrinos wakened feeling terrible the subsequent day, with an excessive headache, extreme dehydration, bruises on her physique, and vomiting a number of instances all through the morning, in response to the police report.
She texted her greatest good friend to inform her concerning the earlier night time. Delostrinos coordinated with a good friend’s husband to retrieve her purse again from Gomez, in response to the police report.
In accordance with her statements within the police report, Delostrinos expressed to her good friend that she was terrified of the ability dynamics current— Gomez was, in any case, in a excessive place on the mayor’s workplace, and had beforehand boasted of being related to highly effective individuals — she knew the rapid subsequent step.
When requested to answer Delostrinos’ allegations and the general public police report, Gomez’s legal professional, Joshua R. Saunders, supplied The Stranger with the next assertion:
“Pedro Gomez has been an advocate for fairness and social justice for his total profession. He has carried out nothing incorrect and strongly denies these allegations. We’re assured that he might be absolutely exonerated when the entire details are recognized.”
Making Violence Seen
“Being anyone that has supported survivors of sexual assault, you all the time need to have as many choices as you’ll be able to—whether or not or not you are going to transfer ahead. I’ve instructed sufficient individuals in my life to go get a rape package carried out that I knew it was one thing I needed to do as effectively,” Delostrinos says.
The method of getting a rape package carried out is inherently invasive. She describes a grueling nine-hour course of of various nurses, a lot of them male, popping out and in of a College of Washington hospital room, probing and asking her deeply invasive questions on her physique lower than 24 hours after experiencing the trauma of assault. It’s an expertise, she says, she was solely capable of endure with the assist of her fiance.
“If he wasn’t there, I’d have been like, ‘fuck this’. On high of that, I used to be emotionally and bodily distressed. If I did not have an understanding of why it was essential for me to be there, I’d have left in half-hour,” she says. “I am somebody who has sources and is aware of this course of. I can not think about being somebody who went via a horrific expertise with no assist or data of why totally different males are strolling into the room asking about what simply occurred.”
What was worse, she says, was that she would not be capable to see the outcomes of her rape package except she filed a police report.
Delostrinos is an abolitionist, and he or she was hesitant to belief a prison justice system she believed was centered on punishment, versus any true restoration and therapeutic of survivors of sexual assault.
It was a system that disproportionately incarcerated individuals of shade and destroyed the lives of parents from marginalized communities whereas offering leniency to the highly effective. By using that very same system, would she be validating its legitimacy?
What’s extra, Delostrinos mentioned that Gomez occupied a number of identities and was a Mexican man at a time when problematic, racist, and false narratives of Latino criminality had brought on wildfire with no less than a plurality of the voters, intensifying throughout the most up-to-date presidential election.
“It is a actually complicated state of affairs due to the a number of intersectional identities, once you’re going via this technique, they do not actually care about us. Our [local communities of color and gender expansive communities have] seen that point and time once more, however I needed to make an intentional choice about what accountability would appear to be when it comes to this hurt,” she says.
Her choice to file a police report 5 days after the incident was principally pushed by concern for others inside her bigger neighborhood. With Gomez’s entry to neighborhood members and the assertion that he was making a “secure house” for girls of shade, Delostrinos says she felt an obligation to guard different ladies of shade from future abuse from Gomez.
“On the coronary heart of most sexual violence is a misuse of energy. There are numerous methods an individual can have energy—typically it’s via a proper place, however typically it’s informally gained via a neighborhood fame. It’s critically essential that we perceive this, and have clear and constant processes in place, whether or not legally or via our communities, to verify the individuals we put in energy will not be abusing it,” says Hendren.
Even with Gomez’s resignation from the town, he’s nonetheless a outstanding fixture throughout the higher Seattle Neighborhood as an entrepreneur with being the co-owner of Kolors Studios, a co-working and manufacturing house primarily serving communities of shade.
Previous to being named the Director of Exterior Affairs, Gomez labored in numerous exterior roles at The Metropolis for greater than a decade, together with because the Director of small enterprise growth within the Metropolis’s Workplace of Financial Improvement, and final 12 months was named one of many Puget Sound Enterprise Journal’s 40 beneath 40 honorees, awarded to rising stars within the native enterprise neighborhood.
In an electronic mail to The Stranger, a spokesperson for the mayor’s workplace says that the Metropolis was knowledgeable of the investigation into the alleged sexual assault on September 24, and the Metropolis promptly positioned Gomez on paid administrative go away pending the outcomes of the investigation. Gomez was additionally barred from contacting Metropolis workers, partaking with neighborhood companions, or coming into municipal places of work whereas the investigation remained lively.
The spokesperson additional acknowledged that the mayor’s workplace grew to become conscious on January 6 that the Seattle Police Division had referred the case to the King County Prosecuting Lawyer’s Workplace. That very same day, Gomez submitted his resignation, preempting any assessment of the allegations or subsequent motion by the mayor’s workplace in response to the report.
Gomez had no prior reported allegations of sexual assault towards him, in response to the identical spokesperson.
“Mayor Harrell believes that sexual assault and harassment are wholly unacceptable[…] Our workplace works to convey consideration to energy dynamics, recognizing that these from traditionally marginalized communities can most really feel their influence. We all the time encourage survivors to return ahead. The mayor appreciates the braveness of this particular person in sharing this with SPD.”
A King County Prosecuting Lawyer’s Workplace spokesperson says they’re ready for added data from regulation enforcement sources within the coming weeks and count on to make a charging choice as soon as that data is obtained.
“Neighborhood security has all the time been on the forefront of what my objective for doing this is part of the accountability course of is eradicating an individual from a place once they can probably hurt our neighborhood,” the spokesperson says.
One other driving drive behind her choice to return ahead was the pressing must highlight the pervasive harms of gender-based violence, a disaster more and more normalized by the election of a president discovered civilly answerable for sexual abuse—a president that has hand-picked cupboard nominees dealing with accusations of rape and sexual assault, underscoring the systemic nature of the difficulty and the stakes of remaining silent.
“I needed to make seen the violence towards ladies and that this might occur to anyone. This was a enterprise assembly. This was anyone I knew. This was anyone in my neighborhood, in my activist neighborhood. I am not trying to take him down. I am trying to lean on the neighborhood to ask how we’re holding this individual accountable,” says Delostrinos.
From her perspective, she doesn’t need perpetrators of violence to get what they “deserve”, within the punitive sense, however the help they should overcome a pathology the place harming ladies for sexual gratification is okay.
For her, the difficulty of violence towards ladies is not only a private pathology however a systemic failure, woven into the material of a tradition that commodifies our bodies and normalizes hurt. She rejects the simplistic, punitive notion of giving perpetrators what they “deserve” and as a substitute advocates for the necessity to handle the foundation causes of their habits. This implies difficult the poisonous ideologies and buildings that allow violence, offering the sources and assist essential to basically reshape harmful patterns. Justice goes past punishment to dismantling the techniques that perpetuate hurt in our society.
In her case, she’s discovered a few of her personal wants met within the ensuing months with the assistance of her community throughout the native social justice house. Of the 50 ladies she estimates she shared her story with, practically 95% have, in flip, shared their very own experiences of sexual assault—many for the primary time.
Against this, Delostrinos notes that lots of the trusted males in her circle have expressed shock that this might occur to somebody they know, highlighting the extent to which even many well-meaning cis males are unaware of the prevalence of sexual violence within the lives of ladies near them.
Lots of the questions they ask are what cis-straight males needs to be always asking themselves: What’s our position in fixing this? How will we be sure the individuals in energy are held accountable? And the way will we, as males, begin noticing the refined methods violence will get normalized on this planet round us? And, how will we contribute to that violence, even when implicitly?
These solutions will not be the product of mere navel-gazing, however of a willingness to take a seat with the load of silence, to hear with an openness that calls for humility. They require the sort of time that’s not spent, however invested—the sort of time that’s borne out of a need for deep reflection and sincere dialog. Solely then can we start to unravel the truths that reside inside us and between us.
“A few of the issues that occurred to those ladies and gender-expansive individuals I’ve spoken with occurred to them as kids. They’re now of their 30s, 40s, and 50s, and I am the primary individual they opened as much as,” she says.
These conversations have served as a wanted social balm to her and likewise illuminated the restrictions of society’s grace in the case of present assist provided to victims of gender-based violence.
“We do not know learn how to assist victims, and that is why there aren’t sufficient individuals coming ahead speaking concerning the hurt trauma and PTSD they expertise daily. We’ve got a lot grace for the predator that in the case of the sufferer, we see them as somebody who’s damaged,” says Delostrinos.
She shares that she suffers from PTSD because of the alleged assault. It’s prevented her from attending informational or networking interviews and has led her to say no job alternatives.
That’s why she laments a society beholden to a prison justice system that prioritizes neither the transformation of the perpetrator nor the therapeutic of the individual they’ve harmed. It’s not a system constructed for acts of restore. Sadly, it is the system now we have for now.
“A lot violence is within the grey space in our society, it is the hug that is just a little too lengthy. It is your boss touching you inappropriately, or your good friend objectifying somebody. So many cis, straight males have been socialized like this,” she says. “It is why all of us should have these conversations, so we will begin constructing and creating safer areas for individuals like me, for victims to not solely have the justice they deserve, however the therapeutic they deserve.”
If you happen to or somebody you already know have been a sufferer of sexual assault, beneath are native sources to get the help you want.
988: the behavioral well being and suicide assist line, obtainable 24/7.
Authorized counsel on the Sexual Violence Regulation Middle: Contact them by calling 844-991-7852, or emailing legalline@svlawcenter.org.
Harborview Middle for Trauma and Abuse: Offers trauma-specific analysis and psychological well being remedy for survivors of sexual violence.
King County Sexual Assault Useful resource Middle: Offers advocacy for survivors of sexual assault.
WashingtonLawHelp.org: A free authorized useful resource library that features many authorized data packets for survivors.
Extra reporting by Hannah Murphy Winter.
Editor’s Word: A earlier model of this story incorrectly acknowledged that Gomez was beforehand the Director of the Metropolis’s Workplace of Financial Improvement. He was the director of small enterprise growth within the Metropolis’s Workplace of Financial Improvement. It additionally acknowledged that in his most up-to-date position, he was a liaison between the Mayor’s workplace and HHS, which was incorrect. Each have since been corrected within the story.