By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has opted to terminate Officer Burton Hill, following an Office of Police Accountability (OPA) investigation into Hill’s racist remarks and threats towards a Chinese American woman in August 2022. The OPA released the results of its investigation on June 13, 2024.
Sue Rahr, who took over as interim chief of police on May 30, 2024, confirmed in an email to the Northwest Asian Weekly that Hill “was separated” from SPD on May 13, 2024. But it was then-Chief of Police Adrian Diaz who made the final decision on the matter.
The OPA lays out the summary of events, beginning with the complaint the nonprofit organization Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC) submitted to the agency.
In the complaint, the CISC stated that it had a recording of the incident, which began after Hill, who was off-duty at the time, and his domestic partner, Agnes Miggins, president of the area’s Homeowners’ Association (HOA) “pounded aggressively on the door of our client [Zhen Jin], an older immigrant Chinese woman, demanding she open the door.”
“After our client and her elderly uncle frighteningly opened the door, the officer’s aggression continued. He called our client a racial slur more than once (“dumb f’ing ch*nk”) and threatened her with state action (“you’re going to jail”),” the complaint reads. “We have a recording of it. [Hill’s] misuse of power has resulted in significant psychological, health, economic, and legal consequences to our client. The police officer is our client’s neighbor and lives within 15 feet of her. Our client is in extreme fear for her safety and her life.”
Jin lives with and cares for her Palestinian American uncle who is blind and hard-of-hearing. In a protection order filed in 2023, Jin’s uncle stated, “I have heard Agnes [Miggins] treat Jin with contempt and accuse her of terrible things that are not true. This has created an atmosphere of fear… I have heard Agnes’ partner [Hill] threaten Jin with jail and call her a ‘f—ing Chink.”
In these same documents, Jin said that Miggins “made it a point to tell me that her husband is a police officer. He carries a gun daily, which is very frightening to me. The two of them told me, ‘You’re going to jail.’”
Burton and Miggins are white.
Both Jin and her uncle declined the OPA’s requests for in-person investigative interviews, but Jin agreed to answer the OPA’s questions via email. Jin also declined the Northwest Asian Weekly’s interview requests for an earlier article on the matter.
According to Jin’s emailed interview to the OPA, Hill pounded on the door of her and her uncle’s home on August 29, 2022, demanding that they open the door. When she did, Hill accused her of leaving bones in the common area, and called her “a ‘dumb f—ing chink’ twice, a ‘cunt,’ and threatened her with jail.” Jin said she had no prior relationship with Hill or Miggins before that encounter, but frequently saw Hill wearing his gun. She described Hill’s imposing stature, his role as a law enforcement officer, and his aggressive behavior as “terrifying.”
Miggins, who agreed to an OPA interview, said that her and Jin’s relationship started out well, but then claimed that it “deteriorated.” Miggins believed that Jin was intentionally leaving bones in the common area specifically to pose a threat to Miggins’ and Hill’s dog, about whom Jin had filed complaints. Both parties obtained restraining orders against each other, with Miggins securing hers first. At a February 2023 court hearing, Jin’s attorney argued that Miggins was using legal proceedings to harass Jin. Miggins was granted a restraining order in February 2023, while Jin received hers in June 2023. Jin stated she did not seek a restraining order until April or May 2023, in response to escalated harassment following Miggins’ court order.
On the day of the incident, Miggins said that she and Hill had just returned from a weekend away. Miggins admitted to OPA investigators that Hill had a history of alcoholism, and that he was “highly intoxicated” when he confronted Jin. Miggins said that she found a small, peculiar-looking bone in her dog’s mouth. The dog had found the bone under a bush, marking the third time he had found bones there. Miggins immediately assumed Jin was to blame, and rushed to confront her.
Miggins claimed that Jin pushed her elderly uncle out the door, and that Hill left their condominium and told her to get back inside. She told OPA investigators that it was to protect her and “de-escalate the situation.” According to the recording of the incident, Miggins did not go back into the condominium. She can be heard accusing Jin of “planting bones to kill [their] dog.”
Jin’s uncle was, at the time, according to Miggins’ assessment, in his 80s. Jin, too, is an older woman.
Hill admitted that, when he confronted Jin, he was drunk. He can be heard on the recording yelling at her, calling her the names listed in the CISC’s original complaint. Both he and Miggins appear to only want to address Jin’s uncle, because, as Hill says, apparently to Jin’s uncle, “I respect you. You own here [in this condominium complex]…”
When Jin laughs nervously, Hill says, “You think that’s funny? You dumb f—g chink.” He and Miggins then accuse Jin of stealing from her uncle by allegedly overcharging him, when he bought her condominium.
According to the part of the transcript recorded in the OPA’s investigation, Jin’s uncle explains that the dog scares him and that he has allergies. According to the transcript, it appears that Hill and Miggins had or have a regular practice of leaving their dog outside. Hill says that he won’t get rid of the dog, and that “the law and HOA policy are two different, totally…You don’t know what the f— you’re talking about…with all due respect. The HOA policy and the law are two different things. If you think HOA policy and the law are the same thing, you’re dreaming. Here’s what I’m going to do. If you have a problem with it, we’ll outvote you and kick you the fuck out of this place.”
The OPA sustained allegations of unprofessional behavior—in this case, Hill’s drunken, slur-laden confrontation with his neighbor—and biased policing, due to Hill’s particular choice of epithets against Jin.
However, the OPA did not find enough evidence to support claims that Hill used his position for personal gain, calling the evidence “inconclusive,” even though Hill threatened Jin with jail—not once, but twice. He later told the OPA he didn’t think the threats would lead to anything serious, though he didn’t communicate this to Jin at the time.
“[Hill] twice threatened [Jin] with jail, but as stated above, there is insufficient evidence that he intended to misuse his law enforcement status. [Hill] told OPA that he referenced [Jin] going to jail for endangering his dog with bones, hot dogs, and grease rather than a threat to incarcerate her without cause,” the OPA writes. “While a law enforcement officer like [Hill], who believed [Jin] committed crimes against his dog, would be expected to file a police report, [Hill] said he thought the evidence was insufficient for it to go anywhere. As stated above, [Hill] attempted to threaten, bully, and intimidate [Jin], but the evidence does not establish that he referenced or misused his law enforcement status.”
It’s unclear why the OPA didn’t take into account that Jin knew Hill was a police officer—a fact Miggins supposedly reminded her of, according to Jin’s court testimony when she filed for a protection order. It is also unclear why the OPA did not take into account that Jin stated she regularly saw Hill carry a firearm.
As The Stranger first reported, Hill told OPA investigators that “[t]he worst part for me about this whole thing—other than being labeled a racist, which is probably the worst thing other than a pedophile you can be labeled as—is I look at my fiancée and my dog differently. I resent them both because they put me in this position. And it sucks.”
Neither the OPA nor SPD returned emailed requests for comment, before publication.
CISC said it worked with OPA during its investigation. In a statement, CISC said Jin “showed tremendous courage to speak with CISC about what was happening to her and be a witness in our complaint to hold law enforcement accountable.”
CISC and other community-based organizations are working in partnership in the region to increase community safety. The Anti-Bias/Anti-Hate team was established in 2020 following the rise in anti-Asian hate.
Jamie Cho says
I applaud SPD decision to remove this man from his position. He abused his power to unleash racist, sexist and xenophobic rhetoric on his neighbor. What is appalling is this man and his partner can continue to live in their condo complex, right next door to their victim. This is not justice. It doesn’t even come close.