Church Campus is Likely Site for New Police Training Center

Seattle Times/March 29, 1988
By Christy Scattarella

Burien -- Gov. Booth Gardner soon is expected to sign a $16 million measure to purchase a former church campus and convert it into a training center for the state's new police officers.

The Legislature allocated $16 million to purchase, revamp and expand the old Community Chapel and Bible Training Center, a 35.8-acre campus at First Avenue South and South 192nd Street in Burien.

Because Gardner is expected to approve the allocation, the state has been going ahead with a series of appraisals and studies, said John Swander, assistant director in the state's property division. Swander said the state will probably purchase the campus within the next two months. The current asking price is $10.7 million.

All the state's law-enforcement and criminal-justice agencies - with the exception of the Washington State Patrol - would send new recruits there to be trained. New police officers would attend an 11-week academy, and corrections officers, a 4-week program.

The Community Chapel has been boarded up since last summer. Three lawsuits have been filed against Pastor Donald Barnett and the Community Chapel, alleging sexual misconduct.

In one suit, filed in 1986 in King County Superior Court, three women members claimed Barnett sexually assaulted them as a form of spiritual counseling. The suit was settled out of court about a year ago for an undisclosed amount.