his film, and if confiscated, he often fights in court to have the original copy returned to him. Politics Lee has run for a number of political offices in Seattle. He ran for Seattle City Council in 1999, but a judge ruled him ineligible because he reused old petition signatures to get on the ballot. Mayoral run In 2001, Lee ran for mayor of the city of Seattle against incumbent mayor Paul Schell, but lost to Greg Nickels. Lee was critical of the way Schell's office responded to the WTO protests in 1999. He was the only candidate that year to gather enough signatures to be on the ballot without having to pay the filling fee. While running for mayor in 2001, Lee showed up to a mayoral candidates' forum in a dress. He used the opportunity to question Greg Nickels about a supposed cover-up regarding the investigation of the death of Kurt Cobain. Notable incidents In 2000 Krist Novoselic was granted a restraining order against Richard Lee, which expired in 2005. In 2004, Lee was arrested in Los Angeles at a court hearing for Courtney Love, in which he attempted to ask questions about killing her husband. The incident was covered in entertainment media, especially on Celebrity Justice. During the 2005 campaign, Greg Nickels got a mild restraining order against Lee, citing Lee's ambush interview practices over the past years as harassment. Nickel's lawyers, employed by the city, wanted a standard 500-foot restriction from the mayor's home and workplace, which would include city hall. The judge in the case kept the home restriction, but minimized the order to one floor of city hall and to a 50-foot radius in public places and events. Part of the motivation for the restraining order was Lee's attempt to interview the mayor at a Democratic Party event in Fremont to which many Seattle residents including Lee had been invited. Lee was ejected from the grounds by the owner, but remained on the sidewalk trying to ask questions of the mayor. As the mayor was about to leave, Lee was restrained by a plainclothes police officer that Lee then allegedly kicked in the leg. Lee pleaded not guilty, maintaining that it was he who was assaulted by the officer. During pretrial hearings, he succeeded in forcing the Seattle Police Department to return the original copy of his videotape of the incident, which they had