Prosecutors Desk 7-7-14

Detectives of the Stevens County Sheriff’s office have arrested two young men who are responsible for at least 20 burglaries across three counties and recovered tens of thousands of dollars worth of stolen property.  The young men are over 18 years old and face multiple charges for these thefts.

As part of the investigation, a search warrant was executed on a vehicle and many stolen firearms were recovered.  Possession of stolen firearms by felons triggers the application of the Hard Time for Armed Crime law that requires consecutive sentences for each of the firearms possessed. Because the young men have prior felony records, they each have a high offender score such that they face a sentencing range of decades in prison.

A very troubling aspect of this crime is that a great deal of property damage was done apparently just for “fun.”  A boat was entered, started, the throttle tied open and the boat set loose to crash on rocks, which it did. Hangers at Deer Park Airport were entered and planes damaged and items stolen which are important to aircraft owners but useless to anyone else. Estimated total amount of damage done by these thieves exceeds $250,000 dollars.

The investigation is being conducted very carefully and great care taken to follow procedures that will withstand judicial scrutiny and the inevitable Motions to Suppress that will be brought by defense attorneys. The two young men are being held in the Stevens County jail on initial charges with a bond of $100,000 each.    The investigation is still going on.

We should all be thankful that the Sheriff’s office has dedicated detectives and staff who work under difficult conditions to hold accountable those who injure people and destroy property.  The public should be aware that the Sheriff’s office in understaffed.  They do the best they can, but Stevens County has one of the lowest ratios in the state of officers to citizens and far below the national average and recommended levels.

In the past 10 years, the Sheriff’s office has seen a drop in manpower of about 1/3 and we continue to have a decrease in the number of available deputies.  Crime is not going down and the state is letting people out of prison early to solve budget problems. We know most people released will commit crimes and cause more trouble.  Proper staffing of the Sheriff’s office is critical.  It is time to stop the erosion of the numbers of the men and women of the county who work to keep us safe and to put in jail those who destroy our peace and security.  We will deal with these two thieves but others will take their place.

Comments are closed.