On this day in 1988, Judge Gary M. Little tragically took his own life just hours before the Seattle Post-Intelligencer was set to publish a damning article accusing him of abusing his judicial authority by sexually exploiting juvenile defendants who appeared before him. The front-page story also alleged that he had similarly taken advantage of teenage students during his teaching career in the 1960s and 1970s. This scandal called into question the integrity of the judicial system, especially given that Little had previously been investigated and disciplined—though these actions had been kept hidden from the public.
In 1981, during Little’s first year on the bench, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer received an anonymous tip about his unusual relationships with juvenile defendants. A subsequent investigation by a reporter uncovered that Little, then a volunteer counselor in juvenile court, had been charged with third-degree assault in 1964. He was accused of assaulting a 16-year-old defendant at his apartment, but the charges were ultimately dismissed. While the newspaper chose not to run the story at that time, the revelations prompted an internal investigation led by deputies under King County prosecuting attorney Norm Maleng.
Reports indicated that Little had visited three male juvenile defendants in detention without their legal representatives. One of the boys spent the night at Little’s residence, while another accompanied him to his vacation home. Although Little never denied these interactions, he insisted his intentions were purely to help the juveniles. Despite the absence of concrete evidence of sexual misconduct, one prosecutor noted that all the boys involved were young, attractive, blond, and male, and that there was compelling evidence suggesting the youths who stayed overnight with Little received lighter sentences. A 107-page complaint was submitted to the Judicial Conduct Commission, which ultimately dismissed the case and kept the details confidential.
In 1985, Little was discreetly reassigned and no longer presided over juvenile cases. That same year, the Seattle Times made the first public mention of the allegations against him. However, despite new evidence that surfaced after the article’s publication, the reporter was abruptly taken off the story, and the matter was once again buried. It wasn’t until 1988 that two Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporters revived the investigation. They soon obtained affidavits from five former students who claimed Little had used his position as a teacher to coerce sexual favors from them. Shortly after this information came to light, Little announced he would not seek re-election.
On the night of August 18, 1988, Gary Little was discovered in a pool of blood outside his chambers—just three floors below the location where his father, Sterling Little, had hanged himself in August 1947 following an arrest for burglary.
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