SEATTLE -- "He didn't just tap me. No, he didn't just tap me. He hit me pretty good," said Danette Griffin.

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Video: Ugly Dispute Leads To Alleged Assault

Her story checks out. Her injuries are real. So why did the man who rammed this pedestrian with a car not get in trouble with the law?

An exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation discovers it just might just be because he's a King County Prosecutor.

Our investigation raises questions of protectionism at the highest levels of city hall.

KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne looks at a case where the justice scales might not be balancing too well.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators looked into why the Seattle City Attorney's office decided not to file assault charges against a high-ranking King County Prosecutor.

Our investigation discovered the City Attorney's office made a decision -- before even talking with all the eyewitnesses.

An ugly dispute over a free street parking space turned violent earlier this year.

Danette Griffin was momentarily saving the spot for her boyfriend. Several cars paused, but passed on by. Then, a stranger arrived.

Halsne: "He clearly saw you?"
Griffin: "He clearly saw me. Clearly. He knew I was there."
Halsne: "He put it in reverse and came back anyway?"
Griffin: "Yah, exactly."

Pictures, taken at a hospital two days later, show dark, black bruises on her thighs. She says it's pretty clear where the vehicle bumper hit her legs.

"He didn't just tap me. No, he didn't just tap me. He hit me pretty good," Griffin said.

Barbara Bailor, former secretary at the Catholic Archdiocese, worked just a few feet from where the parking dispute erupted.

"I called police. I was afraid someone was going to get hurt," Bailor said.

Bailor is an independent eyewitness who told police at the scene she clearly saw two things: A stubborn pedestrian who refused to move and a man who was determined to move her.

"He was just insistent. He was steady and insistent. He wasn't jerking, he was just 'I'm taking this spot whether your body is on my car or not.' [He] just wasn't going to let her stop him."

Griffin expected charges to be filed against the driver.

After reviewing all the evidence, the Seattle Police Department listed the incident in a report as "disturbance w/ assault ... method of weapon … vehicle."

"They told me they were investigating it and they would let me know. I never heard anything."

What Griffin didn't know was the man who hit her was Senior Deputy King County Prosecutor Scott Peterson.

According to a police report, Peterson says "he attempted to pull into the (parking space) and saw Griffin was blocking it." He told police "she could not hold a space for a vehicle that was not there."

Peterson's behavior on this street corner is part of this story. How the City Attorney's office handled a potential criminal matter against a professional colleague is another.

We asked to speak with elected Seattle City Attorney Thomas Carr on that decision-making process, but he declined comment.

In a phone message, his spokesperson explained why that office didn't press charges.

"Because of conflicting witness statements regarding Ms. Griffin's accounting of events, they just did not meet our filing standards," the message said.

But here's the problem: KIRO Team 7 Investigators tracked down every independent eyewitnesses on the police report, plus one. They all said that the City Attorney's office never called for a statement -- including Barbara Bailor.

Halsne: "The City Attorney's office never contacted you?"
Bailor: "No, no, no."

This story gets stranger yet. After Peterson hit Griffin with his car, police say, in anger, Griffin's boyfriend "pushed" prosecutor Peterson to the ground. The City Attorney's office went right to work on that case, charging and convicting the boyfriend of assault.

Griffin wonders why the City Attorney's office isn't as vigorously pursuing charges against the man she claims assaulted her with his car?

"This guy is somebody. I'm nobody. So it doesn't really matter what happened to me," Griffin said. "It kind of frustrates me to know I am a citizen and I should have the same rights as everybody else."

After repeatedly declining our requests for an on camera interview, late this afternoon Deputy Prosecutor Scott Peterson changed his mind. I asked him to explain why he would back into a pedestrian just for a free parking spot.

"It's really out of character for me. I was having a bad day, running late. My purpose was just to park my car," Peterson said. "I was trying to park and I got this hysterical woman pounding on my car behind me. From what I could see, she was backing up and I was going very slowly. As I backed up, she backed-up."

Halsne: "This was a pretty ugly dispute over a parking place and in retrospect, I assume that you think, 'This thing kind of got out of control?'
Peterson: "That's exactly how I feel. I owe her a big apology, but it's not criminal. The difference is I wasn't trying to hurt anybody."

Seattle police have called us, defending their investigation of this case. We're working on confirming exactly how SPD handled the matter and will have more at 11 p.m. tonight.