The Ketchikan Police Department’s downtown headquarters is shown in this 2013 file photo. (KRBD)

A former Ketchikan political candidate has been accused of physically abusing a younger member of her family.

A Ketchikan police detective wrote in a sworn statement that the victim had red marks and a bruise on her neck. The detective wrote that the child told police they were from the hands of 29-year-old Sidney Hartley.

Police have not commented on the case.

Hartley says she intends to prove her innocence in court.

“I don’t know where these marks came from, but I assure you, they were not from me,” Hartley said in a phone interview Thursday.

Hartley was arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges on Wednesday. She’s out on bail and due to return to court next month.

Hartley is a self-styled political advocate and community organizer. She came in third in the 2019 mayor’s race in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough.

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