Boys and Girls Club Employee Charged With Molestation, Rape

An employee of the is scheduled to be arraigned on several counts of child molestation and rape of a child in King County Superior Court on May 23.

Timothy L. Dampier, 34, of Seattle, has been suspended from his job due to the investigation, according to charging documents.

Dampier is charged with second-degree child rape, first-degree child molestation, and three counts of second-degree child molestation in incidents involving three boys, who were between the ages of 11 and 13 at the time of the alleged abuse. The charges stem from alleged sexual contact between Dampier and the youths from 2001 to 2003.

Apparently, Dampier met one of the victims while working at a group home, Samuel House, in Kent. Another victim said he first encountered Dampier through his church, charging documents say.

At least two teenagers who met Dampier through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue spent the night at Dampier's home in Seattle as recently as March, but Dampier denies any abuse took place and no charges have been filed in connection to those youths, according to the charging documents.

A spokesperson for the Boys and Girls Clubs couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday morning, and police documents do not say what position he has held there.

The investigation was launched after one of the victims, now 21 years old, went to the minister of a Seattle Central-area church and told him that Dampier had abused him. The victim had heard that Dampier was hired as a musician by that church and told the minister he was concerned about the safety of other children. The minister notified Seattle Police of the man’s report.

That victim told investigators he had previously reported the abuse to Dampier’s minister, the Rev. Robert Manaway of the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, but no charges were filed following a meeting Manaway facilitated between the victim and Dampier last October, the documents say.

Another boy, now 19, told investigators that Dampier had two teenage boys, whom he met through the Boys and Girls Club, spend the night at his Seattle home in March, and that at least one of them slept in Dampier’s bed. The 19-year-old denied being abused himself, and did not know if the teens he witnessed at Dampier’s home had been abused.

Police interviewed Dampier at the Boys and Girls Clubs on May 4, at which time he admitted to several of the allegations, including fondling two of the victims, the charging documents said. He acknowledged secretly videotaping another child masturbating, but said it was made accidentally.

Dampier also acknowledged that two teens, ages 14 and 15, recently spent the night at his home and that he had met them through the Boys and Girls Clubs, but denied that any sexual abuse took place.

According to the police report, Dampier has held numerous positions that put him in contact with minors, including as a counselor at group homes, as a licensed foster parent, as a musician in Seattle-area churches, and as an employee of various charitable organizations.

Given that Dampier told police that he has engaged in a sexual game with children whose names he couldn’t remember and his extensive contacts with multiple children, police anticipate that numerous other victims exist, and the investigation is ongoing.

Dampier has been ordered to have no contact with children or with nearly a dozen potential witnesses and victims, and that he have no contact with staff from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue or be on the premises of any of its facilities. He's being held on $500,000 bond.