In West Seattle Crime Watch tonight – first, a bicycle stolen late today:

Frank at Thunder Road Guitars (WSB sponsor) says that bicycle belongs to one of his customers and was taken from outside his shop at 3916 California SW about 4:30 pm today: “It’s a pretty expensive bike and a big loss for a 14-year-old kid.” If you find it, please contact police.

Meantime, Sarah reported finding this bike last weekend by her home on 106th SW near the Shorewood Grocery:

She was considering turning it in to the King County Sheriff’s Office last we heard. If you recognize it, comment here.

2:16 PM: We’re in the courtroom of King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer, who is presiding right now over the sentencing hearing for 21-year-old Sean Jeardoe. We first reported on his case after his arrest in a stolen truck in the West Seattle Thriftway parking lot last summer; he was not charged immediately, but was arrested again in connection with multiple other cases. As reported here in December, he confessed to 22 burglaries, not just in West Seattle, but in other areas of King County, and struck a deal to plead guilty to 14 charges – eight of them residential burglaries, plus three auto-theft-related charges and three gun-theft charges. The recommended sentence is eight and a half years. We’ll update as this goes.

2:20 PM: The prosecutor says some of his victims are in court and six letters have been submitted to the judge as well. (This was originally scheduled for a different judge, but as we noticed while covering another case last week, the sentencing calendars sometimes move around.) There’s now a short delay because the judge has ordered the defendant be unshackled for the proceedings. A second courthouse deputy had to be called; he said that it’s policy for the restraints NOT to be removed for this type of hearing, but she ordered it anyway.

The prosecutor says Jeardoe actually eventually confessed to 31 burglaries. “Coming into this from a negotiation standpoint, the state acknowledges he has no (felony) history. He appears to have a drug addiction….” He mentions that Jeardoe pointed out much of what he did; the judge asks if he helped them get some victims’ property back. Some, yes, the prosecutor says, but “there are still countless pieces of jewelry that have been melted down or gone off into pawn shops …” He now mentions that a residential burglary affects a victim forever, with sense of security, separate from whether the items can be replaced. “Based on the number of crimes and magnitude of this crime spree, the state is NOT recommending the low-end sentence or a prison-based (drug treatment) DOSA sentence.”

Before hearing from victims, the judge says she has something to say: “Mr.Jeardoe by operation of law gets credit for the time he’s already served – six months – so the maximum sentence I have to impose is 8 years … and (he will be) eligible for up to 50 percent ‘good time,’ so his sentence could be as low as 4 years. … So whatever age he’s going to be when released, I have to think about … what will protect the community.” She says she’s “looking seriously” at the drug-treatment-sentence request of the defense, which would be a mid-range sentence, and once he’s out, if he messes up again, he will have to go back for the rest of the full term. Now, she says, she welcomes victims to speak, now that they know what she’s thinking.

2:30 PM: Now a man whose home was broken into and vehicle stolen last August is speaking. “I hope Mr. Jeardoe realizes that not all the damage he’s done can be expressed in dollars and cents.” He speaks of losing items that were of great sentimental value, as well as financial records, house and vehicle keys, information that could make him vulnerable to ID theft. That said, he says he realizes that Jeardoe is a young man and hopefully can turn his life around.

The defense lawyer says Jeardoe’s history of addiction “was based in his childhood.” She calls attention to the fact his crime spree was over a matter of months but says his addiction is a serious problem and if not dealt with, he could wind up back in these straits again. Now Jeardoe’s father is speaking. He thanks victims for coming to court. He says they adopted him as a baby and he was subject to alcohol and drugs “in utero” but says that is no excuse. He has long been getting counseling for substance abuse, Jeardoe’s father says, and also mentions he spent a year in intensive treatment out of state and ‘did very well’ but relapsed upon returning here. He says his son needs to pay for his crimes but also needs some sort of “mandatory drug treatment.”

2:35 PM: Jeardoe speaks, turning to the gallery and saying “I know it’s not enough to say I’m sorry …” as he apologizes. Judge Shaffer says she has seen many burglary victims: “It’s always devastating, always. …There’s this destroyed sense of security – people never really feel they can sleep securely after that.” What he was doing “was devastating,” she admonishes him. Especially stealing some items that “can’t be gotten back.” She mentions that one victim for which this was particularly devastating was a West Seattle man who he used to live across the street from, “and they couldn’t believe he would do this to them” – it roiled the whole neighborhood. “This is a big deal, you’ve done a lot of wrong here.” She tells him “the work of getting clean and sober” is the best way he can apologize. She asks him to prove to his victims he can do that hard work. She says, “I want all the victims to know the court takes what happened very seriously but I want to make sure there are no more victims in Mr. Jeardoe’s history.” She says DOSA is “not an easy way to go” and that if he doesn’t do well he will go right back into prison. And she orders it. So this means, according to what the prosecutor just said, his prison time will total less than half of what prosecutors had sought – 44.7 months. He would then be on probation (community custody) for a roughly equal time once he gets out. The treatment, she explains, will likely start closer to release. (DOSA – drug offender sentencing alternative – is explained here.) There also will be a hearing on restitution – “all the restitution the state can prove within (the next six months, per law)” – for victims.

Three charges are now filed against the man arrested last Friday night after law enforcers in the air and on the ground tracked a stolen SUV to a house near The Junction. 32-year-old Nicholas Broughton is described in court documents as an “11-time convicted felon.” He is charged with possession of a stolen vehicle, hit and run, and first-degree criminal trespass. He remains in jail tonight, but Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer set bail at $25,000, prosecutors say, down from the $100,000 set after his arrest. (At right: State Department of Corrections file photo of Broughton, added 2/7/14)

The police report in the documents includes more information on last Friday night’s events:

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Two followups and a reader report in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:

SUV-THEFT/BREAK-IN FOLLOWUP: Bail was set at $100,000 today for the 32-year-old man arrested at a house on 47th SW southwest of The Junction late Friday night, suspected of crashing this stolen SUV nearby:

(Friday night WSB photo)
According to probable-cause documents, the red 2003 Chevrolet Tahoe was reported as stolen Friday in Pierce County, less than an hour before it was found in West Seattle. As noted in our as-it-happened coverage, it had LoJack anti-theft technology, which is activated upon report of a theft, and that sounded an alert in a Seattle Police car south of The Junction. With the help of the Guardian One helicopter (as shown in the aerial/infrared video shared here Saturday), the Tahoe was tracked to the 4800 block of 47th SW, behind a home where the suspect used to live. As law enforcement converged, the vehicle started to pull away; police blocked the alley, so the SUV went into reverse and crashed through a fence. The driver then got out and ran, and though police say they confronted him twice and ordered him, at gunpoint, to stop, he kept running, and eventually broke glass to get into the house, whose residents, including a sibling of the suspect, told officers he hadn’t lived there “in months.” The documents say the residents did give police permission to go into the residence, but first, they used a loudspeaker to tell the suspect to come out, and just before midnight, he did. His next court appearance – by which time prosecutors must decide on charges – is set for Wednesday.

ROBBERY FOLLOWUP: We’ve obtained the report on the 16th/Henderson store-robbery reported here Saturday morning. The police report says the store owner identifies the ~18-year-old robber as a regular customer. He and the ~17-year-old girl who was with him had come into the store Saturday afternoon, the report says, bought some chicken and then went back outside, apparently to dine. Then the robber came back in, got ice cream and candy, took it up to the counter, said he didn’t have enough money but offered the store owner a dollar; the owner opened the register and then the robber pulled a gun and pointed it in the owner’s face, took all the cash from the register – about $250 – and the owner’s wallet, and ran out of the store. He wasn’t found but police did get prints. (Descriptions are in our original report.)

Now, the reader report – a neighborhood hit by mail theft, says a reader who doesn’t want to be identified:

Reporting a mailbox break in here in the 5000 block of California Ave. SW near The Junction.

I live in a condo and on Friday morning, we found our bank of locked mailboxes all pried open and all mail stolen. We are wondering if others had similar incidents late Thurs or Early Fri Morning ( Jan 30-31) especially other condos in the neighborhood? We did call the police, but they do not respond unless the value of mail stolen is $500+.

If you spot it as it happens, do call, police say – here, otherwise, is how to report mail theft (and prevention advice too).

Following up on our as-it-happened coverage from last night – the King County Sheriff’s Office Air Support Unit has published video with the Guardian One helicopter’s infrared view of last night’s stolen-SUV incident southwest of The Junction. The audio is exactly what could be heard on the scanner as this all moved toward the 4800 block of 47th SW, including the stolen Chevrolet Tahoe crashing through a fence and its driver running. We’re checking to see if we can find out more about him. Thanks to commenter Lola for spotting the video and sharing word of it in the 140+-comment thread following last night’s coverage. Again, as police confirmed to us on the scene last night and reiterated in today’s SPD Blotter summary, they were alerted to the stolen vehicle by a LoJack signal – here’s the explanation of how that works.

P.S. We’re still checking into the record of the 32-year-old man booked into jail for investigation of burglary and auto theft. It’s long. Will add details as we pull them out.

2:56 PM UPDATE: Most of his record – 38 cases in the Washington State court-system files – is from outside King County (mostly Pierce County) so the documents are not so easy to come by. The most recent King County Superior Court cases is from 2008, when charges were filed in a 2005 Bellevue “trafficking in stolen property” case. A pickup truck stolen in Bellevue was found – but minus UW Huskies football season tickets that had been in the truck. The tickets were sold to someone via Craigslist, and that’s how detectives tracked down this man – who already by that point had a record including assault, theft, drugs, and forgery – and a female accomplice.

Meantime, back on 47th SW, as noted in comments, neighbors banded together today and did some cleanup, including putting temporary fencing up around a pool that the stolen pickup almost crashed into:

After we visited the neighborhood and took that photo, we heard from neighbor Jeff, who said he found evidence of the gunshot that many neighbors heard last night – he sent this photo:

Jeff said, “I’m the neighbor whose yard he ran through and this is my gate this morning. I could dig the bullet out of the post with a little patience.” We’ll continue to follow up on this case.

(Paulo at right, with her lawyer, and prosecutor Amy Freedheim at left)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

“You took his life – the life Logan had.”

That’s what the family of 29-year-old Logan Wicker, one of two people critically injured when a drunk driver T-boned his car in South Delridge last June, told that driver, 25-year-old Kalameu Paulo of Seatac, in a tearful King County Superior Court sentencing hearing this afternoon.

Logan, who spent more than three months in the hospital, spoke too: “My life was really good before … it’s been changed (forever) … I hope she can never do this to anybody again.” He begins our 23-minute unedited video of all who spoke at the hearing, including, at the end, the judge:

Though she chose not to speak, the other victim in the crash was in the courtroom too. After hearing about the effects of what he acknowledged was a “shattering … tragedy,” Judge Dean Lum formally sentenced Paulo to the recommended 14-month term, though he wondered aloud, “Is this justice? I don’t know.”

As reported here last month, Paulo struck a plea bargain, pleading guilty to two counts of vehicular assault, with prosecutors dropping a third charge of hit-and-run.

But that was the crime, as the deputy prosecuting attorney told Judge Lum, that disturbed Logan’s family the most – “disgust(ed)” them, as Logan’s stepfather put it; the night of the crash, according to the police report, she and her passengers got out of her van after she ran a stop sign and crashed into Logan’s car at 17th and Cambridge.

(WSB photo from June 23, 2013; victims’ car is out of view, blocked by the van)
They were stopped by police as they walked westbound across Delridge Way.

Paulo spent two and a half weeks in jail after being arrested last June and has been in the day-reporting CCAP program since, while undergoing alcohol treatment, her lawyer said. She was taken into custody at the end of the hearing, to start her sentence immediately, and the King County Jail Register confirms she was re-booked as of midafternoon. When she is released from jail, she will be in “community custody” – probation – for more than a year; she also faces a long list of other sanctions and conditions, including restitution payments to be determined later.

Police say stolen cars are often abandoned relatively close to where they were taken – so there’s a chance this car could be somewhere in West Seattle. Mike e-mailed tonight to get the word out about the theft:

Our locked vehicle was taken from near the intersection of 41st Ave SW and SW Hinds at some point between late Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. There wasn’t really anything in the car, and the vehicle isn’t worth that much, but we’re hoping folks might keep an eye out for it, since my commute to work is a little complicated without it. A police report has been filed.

Basic details: It’s a white, two-door 1994 Honda Civic. It has a black bra on the front and a missing vertical strip along the driver’s side window.

As police say when they tweet stolen-car reports like this, if you see it, call 911.

Two West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports – one, an alert for local businesses about an potentially prolific shoplifter; second, yet another report of a mysterious doorbell ring that in this case preceded a crime – read on:

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Two thefts in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:

STOLEN BICYCLE: Watch for Callie‘s black Vilano road bike, stolen from outside 24-Hour Fitness at Westwood Village between 5 and 6 pm tonight. It’s been reported to police, so please let them know if you see it.

STOLEN PURSE: Danielle hopes the thief/thieves who took her purse out of her car might have just cast it aside, with her glasses still inside. Her car was broken into in an alley near her home by Fairmount Park Elementary, now being expanded for fall reopening:

The only item stolen was my purse and I am interested to know if anyone has maybe come across it. There was no cash inside and I canceled the credit/debit cards within 2 hours of the theft. The police officer told me that whoever stole it would probably have ditch the purse once the cards were canceled. The two purchases the thieves made I know of were made at the Shell gas station on Fauntleroy and the Rite Aid on California at 3:29 PM and 3:56 PM respectively. My eyeglasses were inside my purse and I need them to assist me with driving at night so I would be extremely happy if I could get them back.

The purse was an off white/cream color with a long arm strap. It was a fake leather type of texture with one small zipped-up pocket on the outside and a zipped-up wallet compartment on the other side of the purse (on the outside as well). The inside was black with one zip pocket. There were other items inside that I would love to get back that include my driver’s license and a pair of dark brown leather gloves. Any information would be greatly appreciated. I simply cannot believe this happened right outside my house and in the middle of the day! I had only been home for one hour and planned on leaving again soon so I didn’t bother to bring in my purse. I thought it was safe, but never again, I guess……

NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS? Bring them to Tuesday night’s West Seattle Block Watch Captains’ Network meeting, 6:30 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster).

On Friday, we noted the release of repeat offender Ryan Cox, barely a day after he was arrested on a warrant related to his most recent assault conviction, following a discussion at last week’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting. This morning we have the promised followup information from City Attorney’s Office spokesperson Kimberly Mills, who has just spoken with the deputy city attorney on the case.

Mills says the warrant was issued because Cox “needs to report to probation to comply with conditions of mental-health and chemical-dependency evaluations and follow-up treatment,” but has now failed to, twice. With the second failure to report, “the city asked the court to strike probation and impose 60 days, since this was the 2nd time he failed to appear.” But instead, the judge denied that and granted the defense request to give Cox another chance to report to probation: “The court said it would allow him one more chance because the case was fairly new.” So if he fails to report today, apparently another arrest warrant would be the next step.

Cox’s jail stay last Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon was his third in less than two months; the previous warrant had him in jail January 10th through 13th, and his guilty plea in the case kept him in jail December 12th through 31st.

SIDE NOTE: The challenges in his ongoing saga include our state’s laws regarding mentally ill offenders and what it takes for them to be involuntarily committed. A proposal to change those laws has been introduced in Olympia, as our partners at The Seattle Times reported this past weekend.

Update for those who’ve been asking: After three weeks of proceedings, the Morgan Junction murder trial hasn’t reached the jury-selection phase yet. Pre-trial motions have continued all month for 69-year-old Lovett Chambers, on trial for second-degree murder in the shooting death of 35-year-old Travis Hood on January 21st, 2012. We’ve been checking in with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office; this morning, WSB’s Katie Meyer went to the courthouse for an in-person update. She learned that jury selection might start this afternoon. Once a jury is in place, they’ll move to opening statements and testimony, expected to take at least a month.

One less stolen car to watch for: Last Tuesday, Bill reported his red ’97 Civic hatchback stolen; this weekend, he reports, he found it while “driving around.” It was stolen in the Admiral area and turned up not too far south (46th/Hanford).

In West Seattle Crime Watch tonight, a burglary attempt that did a lot of damage, plus a stolen car, and an update on an arrest reported here last night.

BIG DAMAGE BY WOULD-BE BURGLARS: From a Highland Park resident who wants to be anonymous:

I left to go grocery shopping at around 11:05-11:00am (Thursday) and got a call from my alarm company at 11:27 am that my house alarm was going off. In the short time that I was gone, the thieves had removed the window screens from ALL of my back windows to try to open them. When that failed, they broke the back window of my garage and used my lawn furniture to crawl into the garage. Once in my garage, they used my tools to break off and destroy the door knob and lock assembly of the door leading into the house and attempted to smash through the deadbolt which thankfully held long enough for the alarm system to trigger and the resulting siren scared them away. Although nothing (so far that I can tell) was taken. I am left with large costly repairs to 2 doors / 2 locks / 1 window. The neighbors (across the street from me) reported seeing two Hispanic men in their late teens/early 20’s casing their own house around this same time. They must have seen me leave the house in order to have done so much damage is so short of a time. Please remind your readers that these thieves and others are skilled and work quickly and have been prolific in our part of Seattle. Please be very aware of your surrounding area and suspicious people and cars that look out of place. It is worthwhile to do a security review of your house to make it as difficult for the thieves to break in. I will be strengthening my home security after this incident even more.

STOLEN ACCORD: Reported in a comment on another story:

Had my Honda four-door stolen from the back alley off 44th and Spokane. Heard something about 2 AM last night, did not get up, had a bad cold, so I went back to sleep. Whole backseat full of plumbing tools in buckets and power tools to do side job. All my essays and observation journals for school due next week. Kinda devastating. … ’93 gray gold four-door Honda Accord LX, small dimpled dent left front fender, small dimpled dent left rear trunk. See it, please call Seattle Police; report has been filed.

RYAN COX UPDATE: Last night, we reported that repeat offender Ryan Cox was arrested on a warrant, two days after he was the subject of a discussion at the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council. Online records show the warrant had been issued days before the meeting, second one related to his probation following a guilty plea for an assault case in December. Tonight, Cox is out of jail after a hearing this morning; he was released on personal recognizance, according to the Municipal Court docket. We won’t be able to find out more about the status of his case until Monday, when the deputy city attorney handling the case is back in the office.

WEST SEATTLE BLOCKWATCH CAPTAINS’ NETWORK: Their first meeting of 2014 is next Tuesday (January 28th), 6:30 pm, Southwest Precinct (Delridge/Webster). You don’t have to be a Block Watch Captain – or even in a Block Watch – to attend.

One week from tomorrow, the confessed drunk driver who hit and seriously hurt two people in South Delridge last year will be sentenced. We first reported one month ago on the plea bargain for 26-year-old Kalameu Paulo, who was arrested trying to flee the scene of the crash last June. One of her victims, 29-year-old Logan Wicker, who was headed home from work that night when Paulo’s van (left) T-boned his car, has shared information on how to get a message to the judge who will sentence Paulo on January 31st, and says they need to be in by the end of this week:

If you’d like to make your thoughts known to the Judge on the sentencing in this case, please send an e-mail to the King County (senior deputy) Prosecuting Attorney, Amy Freedheim. She will forward all of your comments to the Judge for consideration as she determines the punishment for this woman’s crimes. Amy.Freedheim@kingcounty.gov – In subject line put: Paulo, Kalameu – 1/31 sentencing

Paulo’s blood-alcohol level was twice the legal-drunkenness threshold, according to court documents, which also say prosecutors are recommending a 14-month sentence as part of the plea bargain, in which she pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular assault, while a hit-and-run charge was dropped.

Detectives are making progress in West Seattle’s two most recent murder cases, new Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Pierre Davis told the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council tonight (our second report tomorrow will cover the rest of tonight’s meeting). In the Q/A period after his meeting-opening briefing, he was asked about three of the cases. First, in the December 14th blunt force/strangulation murder of 46-year-old Nga T. Nguyen at her High Point home, he said detectives “are working on something – hopefully they can bring something to a close very quickly.” He said that’s all he could say. Asked then about the New Year’s Eve shooting death of 40-year-old Stephen Jeffries Jr., Capt. Davis wasn’t quite that optimistic, but said detectives “know a lot more now” than they did on the chaotic night of the killing at a 16th/Barton party. Those were West Seattle’s only two murders in 2013, and the first ones since that of 51-year-old Greggette Guy more than a year and a half earlier; asked about that case, he said he hadn’t heard anything lately but would check. There are two other unsolved murders in this area – Kaari Higgins, who died three years ago after being found injured in her Fauntlee Hills home, and 24-year-old Jeremy Peck, last seen in a West Seattle bar three years ago, weeks before his body turned up on a Bainbridge Island beach. His death was added to the unsolved-murder list two years later.

If you have information on any Seattle homicide case, the SPD tip line is 206-233-5000 (or you can call 911).

In West Seattle Crime Watch tonight:

STOLEN CAR: From Bill:

I live just north of Admiral Junction and adding my red ’97 Civic hatchback, license 701 HMN, to the long list of stolen Hondas. I have a Club and pretty sure I put it on last night.

If you see Bill’s car, call 911.

MAILBOX, TRASH CAN EXPLOSIONS: Following up on e-mail we received early today, we learned that police are investigating two incidents last week. First, on Thursday in the 8600 block of 17th SW (map), a home mailbox was blown up – the resident said a piece of it was found 30 feet away. Police found what appeared to be part of a firecracker. A neighbor said she saw two teenagers hanging around the mailbox and then taking off running about the time of the explosion. Nobody was hurt. The next day, after 3 pm in the 8100 block of Delridge Way (map), they got a call from someone who reported her trash can had just been “blown up” – she was driving toward her home when she saw smoke pouring from it. A roommate was home but didn’t see it happen. An Arson/Bomb Squad member investigated that case, according to the report. No definite description of suspects in either case; the teens seen running after the Thursday incident were described as male, one white, about six feet tall, white shirt and blue jeans, the other black, with “unidentified clothing”; in the Friday case, police were told a slender 18-to-20-year-old African-American man in a yellow-and-red shirt, “possibly a San Francisco 49ers jersey,” and blue jeans was seen running from the area after the explosion.

EGG VANDALISM: A reader who asked for anonymity reports, “My car was egged on Charlestown Street between 44th and 45th [map] (likely) on 1/19.” Yes, you can report this as vandalism; the reader says the online form is problematic, though, because the vandalism section doesn’t have a dropdown for “car.”

MIDNIGHT PROWLER: A Seaview resident e-mailed:

Thought I would report that I had a weird happening Saturday around midnight. Someone rang my doorbell. When I went to answer the door, no one was around. I called police and they came and checked around the house and the neighborhood. They did find evidence of someone on my porch, but saw no one. Just an alert to let people know to be cautious. Police said someone was probably checking out the house to see if anyone was home, so they could break-in.

P.S. Lots of interesting information at tonight’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting – still under way as we publish this – watch for at least one report later.

Have you seen Krystal‘s car? It has been stolen for the second time in about a month:

My 1996 2-door silver Honda Civic, license plate # 682 YGW, was stolen from the Admiral Junction at some point last night, 1/19/14. It has a dent on the driver’s-side rear wheel.

It was stolen mid-December from 52nd/Andover. Only one person was arrested and I am afraid the accomplice to the initial crime is responsible for the second theft as I had mail in the vehicle and they were aware of my home address.

In any case, if you see this car, please contact the police. I would greatly appreciate all of the help from my community in tracking down my car. Keep an eye out, West Seattle, and invest in a steering wheel lock! Thank You!

If you see it, call 911.

Four West Seattle Crime Watch reader reports:

CAR BREAK-INS: Zale reports neighborhood cars were broken into last night:

They stole our car stereo and our Garmin, which SPD found in another car. Sadly, we had our arms full of stuff when we last got out of the car and forgot to lock the doors and set the alarm. You can bet we won’t do that again any time soon. We live in Sunset Heights on 31st between Othello and Myrtle.

TAGGING VANDALISM: An Arbor Heights resident who asked for name/location anonymity says vandals tagged her fence – “about 15 feet of fence, with letters approximately 4 feet high” – and that police are analyzing it as potential gang graffiti. That’s one reason why it’s important to report this vandalism, however common. Painting it over – a challenge for her, though, since it wasn’t a painted fence in the first place – is important, too, so take a picture as evidence as soon as you can. You can report graffiti/tagging online – here’s the form.

PARK VANDALISM: If you spot vandalism on someone else’s property, or public facilities like parks, you need to get word to them so they can report it. That’s what a neighbor of Hamilton Viewpoint in North Admiral planned to do about this:

She says it’s the second time in two weeks she’s spotted these types of tire marks tearing up the turf – the photo shows the older marks too, and she noticed “dirt clumps in the road in the same area where it appears the vehicle drove off the curb. This is really annoying. The park is for everyone’s enjoyment. This has turned the park into a mud pit and likely destroyed much of the grass.” If you see or hear something like that while it’s happening, call 911, but otherwise, report it to Parks – contact info’s here.

STOLEN SIGN: For this month’s West Seattle Art Walk, eight small local businesses teamed up for an event at West Seattle Office Junction (WSB sponsor), which put up an A-board sign in The Junction to promote it. Sometime between 10 am and noon that morning, it was stolen; Christine from Office Junction says the KeyBank security guard told them a man picked it up, put it into an orange vehicle, and drove away. She says they’ve had other A-boards stolen, too. If you’ve seen any, please let them (or police) know.

WEST SEATTLE CRIME PREVENTION COUNCIL: Tomorrow’s the first WSCPC meeting in two months. Bring your neighborhood concerns, on any crime/safety topic, including the one that’ll be discussed by the featured guest, Ann Graves from Seattle Animal Shelter, as explained on the WSCPC website. Be at the Southwest Precinct, Delridge/Webster, 7 pm Tuesday.

10:46 AM: In Seattle Municipal Court this morning, Michael S. Stanley pleaded guilty. He’s the convicted rapist arrested in a West Seattle alley not long after fleeing Canada, where he was being sought after illegally cutting off a monitoring device. Stanley, a U.S. citizen, has been in jail here since his arrest October 22nd, held in lieu of $100,000 bail. According to the Municipal Court web docket, he pleaded guilty to both charges filed against him last fall – harassment and resisting arrest. Hat tip to reporter Jennifer Sullivan from The Seattle Times [WSB partner] for first word of Stanley’s pleas; we’re checking on sentencing (the docket mentions only suspended sentences and credit for time served, but the city court docket does not link to full documentation) and will update this story. To date, Stanley has never been charged in connection with the allegation that he sexually assaulted a teenager the same morning he was arrested here.

10:59 AM UPDATE: City Attorney’s Office spokesperson Kimberly Mills says the credit-for-time-served calculation is still under way and promises more information later, but for starters “he’s not getting out today.”

2:16 PM UPDATE: Mills has sent a news release that, in addition to other information, indicates Stanley will remain in jail at least two more months:

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