The first mayor of Bellevue was run out of the city more than 50 years ago over allegations he molested several young girls. Now the city council wants to remove Charles Bovee’s name — and the offense it evokes — from the four-acre park that has carried it for half a century.

Bovee Park had only recently been named when Charles Bovee, 84, was arrested in 1959 for allegedly molesting an 11-year-old girl; the first mayor of Bellevue was also accused by several other young girls.

According to a 1994 article by the Seattle Times — based on the reporting of a Bellevue Christian high-schooler — the charges were dropped when Bovee agreed to leave the city, settling and later dying in Ephrata.

A number of the victims came forward to the council in the 90s to request Bovee Park be renamed. It was only recently that another victim approached the council with the same request.

Mayor Claudia Balducci gathered unanimous support from the council Monday to direct the city’s parks and community services board to begin work on renaming the park.

“I think our parks should not be a reminder of painful history … it was the right thing to do,” Balducci said during a phone interview Tuesday. “It was just the right thing to do to not have a park associated with these terrible allegations.”

Councilmember Lynne Robinson, liaison to the parks board, said she fully supports removing Bovee’s name from the park.

“My feeling is that I don’t ever want a victim to feel ashamed about what happened to them,” Robinson told the Reporter Tuesday. “They shouldn’t be ashamed and they shouldn’t be afraid to come forward. They should never feel ashamed for what happened to them.”