The Truth About Brian Gaspar and His Attacks
I want the community to hear directly from me about allegations being made about me by Brian Gaspar, my former opponent in the race for Mercer Island school board, who has said he is no longer seeking the position but who remains on the ballot and has submitted a statement asking for your vote. In short, he is not being truthful with the community and you deserve to know the truth.
Mr. Gaspar has accused me and my supporters of bullying and harassment following his participation in a news story regarding a teacher abuser. I want to be clear that I have no tolerance for bullying of any kind. People who know me and have worked for me in my many years of service to our community will confirm that I will stand up to a bully every time.
What I did do—and what Mr. Gaspar objected to—was to inform the community at a school board meeting of Mr. Gaspar’s own history of multiple domestic violence restraining orders obtained by two different women over a number of years. I have since learned (through Mr. Gaspar’s own admission) that he was criminally charged and convicted in one of those cases. I did not relish sharing this information, but I felt voters deserved to know.
In retaliation, Mr. Gaspar sought a civil protection order against me in court. He did so without notice to me, and he made significant misrepresentations in his application, including claiming that I had revealed sealed court records, which was demonstrably false. Based on this untruthful application, the court entered a preliminary order that left me unable to go to my own child’s school and unable to engage in campaign activity for a period of time.
At a hearing where the court was able to consider my response, I was completely vindicated. The court ruled in my favor, finding no evidence of a threat to Mr. Gaspar or his family. In fact, Mr. Gaspar’s attorney did not even present argument regarding a threat, but argued only that my initial public statement had been untrue because I used the term “gender based abuse” to describe Mr. Gaspar’s history of domestic violence restraining orders. The court rejected Mr. Gaspar’s arguments outright, finding my statements had been truthful and not threatening. I am particularly grateful for the support of my family and many wonderful supporters in our Mercer Island community, who stood behind me as I persevered through a very difficult time to stand up for the truth.
The court records in this case are publicly available and posted along with this update. I invite the community to review them here:
You can see for yourself the utter absence of any evidence of bullying or harassment aimed at Mr. Gaspar or his family. What you will see instead is an egregious attempt by Mr. Gaspar to weaponize the civil protection order system—a system built to protect actual victims of abuse.
This was not Mr. Gaspar’s first effort to weaponize the legal system against those who oppose him. He is currently engaged in active litigation where he has sued a former employer who fired him. In that case, the former employer alleges in its counterclaims that “Gaspar has been dishonest from the inception of and even before beginning his employment at Turn. For instance, Gaspar misrepresented his prior work history by falsely claiming he was working at Amazon; he had, in fact, been fired from Amazon.”
Mr. Gaspar has claimed that the PTA was “under investigation” by the Washington Attorney General, when in fact Mr. Gaspar had made a complaint to the AG that the AG declined to investigate. He reported two parents on Mercer Island to the police and FBI for “threatening” violence against schools when they expressed concern over the security of the middle school. He’s said in his latest post that the police are investigating another parent when the police records show only multiple reports by Mr. Gaspar complaining about this parent after she demanded that he stop doxxing her by posting her personal information online. Authorities have not pursued any of these complaints.
With this as context, I have deep concerns over Mr. Gaspar’s attempt to center himself and portray himself as a victim in this moment when we need to remain singularly focused on doing right by our current students and anyone who may have been victimized by trusted adults in our schools. To be clear, I feel true compassion for Mr. Gaspar and his own history of childhood abuse that he recently shared online–it is heartbreaking to hear. But I also feel that as adults, we have to be held accountable for our actions and accountable to the truth.
Because he has said he is no longer seeking the position (though his name remains on the ballot), Mr. Gaspar has not participated in any voter forum, he has not responded to the questionnaires or inquiries from the many groups working to inform voters of the candidates’ positions, he has not disclosed any expenses or contributions to his campaign as required by PDC laws, and he hasn’t sat for a podcast interview or made himself available to voters in the many ways they get to know candidates over the course of the campaign. So voters haven’t had a chance to ask Mr. Gapar about his claimed qualifications for office or about how he would approach the many challenges the school board will face going forward.
I believe this community deserves leaders who will speak to them directly and truthfully. And I think this dialogue is much more meaningful and productive when it’s done face-to-face. The online dialogue, much done via anonymous posts, can lead too easily to mistrust and misunderstanding. So I won’t be engaging in back and forth online, but I would encourage anyone with questions to reach out to me to talk. You can send me an email at julian@bradleyforboard.com. I’d be pleased to speak with you directly.
