05:39 PM PDT on Wednesday, July 20, 2005

By LINDA BRILL / KING 5 News

KING

Former King County Elections Superintendent, Julie Anne Kempf.

SEATTLE - Embattled former King County Elections Superintendent, Julie Anne Kempf, has been arrested. She's the subject of a criminal investigation centered on incidents connected to the elections office.

She was fired as the head of King County Elections in 2002 for allegedly lying about absentee ballots. Kempf was arrested Tuesday, and fingerprinted at the King County jail as part of a three-month criminal investigation.

So far, details of the investigation into the 40-year-old Kempf are sketchy. In 2002, Kempf was embroiled in a King County elections scandal that cost her her job. She is now under investigation for alleged forgery, theft, criminal impersonation and assault on a police officer.

A Seattle police detective said, "One of our detectives went to her house. She went out the back, got into her car and tried to leave. If our detective hadn’t of moved out of the way, he would have been hit."

The investigation is related to events that happened after Kempf left her county job. It reportedly involves an e-mail Kempf allegedly sent to current King County Election Director Dean Logan. According to the Seattle Weekly, in the e-mail, Kempf allegedly pretended to be someone else. She's also suspected of inserting false documents into a file of public records.

King County Election officials say the probe does not involve any current workers at the elections department.

The investigation will continue for another three weeks, and there are several more people yet to be interviewed. After that, the case will be sent to the U.S. Attorney for possible charges. Kempf could not be reached for comment.