Local News

<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   Related Stories • Police had doubts about Forde’s rape claims, documents show 7/21/09 • Leaders of anti-illegal immigration groups trade insults over Forde case 6/30/09 • Forde set plan in case of arrest 6/26/09 • Case reports reveal more details on Arivaca shootings 6/24/09 • Shawna Forde cohort a 15-time offender 9/6/09 • Arizona will seek death penalty on Shawna Forde 8/14/09 • Death penalty sought against Minutemen leader Forde and 2 others 8/13/09 • Shawna Forde’s alleged conspirator is now charged in 1997 East Wenatchee killing 7/31/09 • Jason Bush investigated in 1997 killing 7/29/09 • New scrutiny of Shawna Forde by Everett police 7/16/09 » More SHAWNA FORDE stories >   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, June 19, 2009 Everett police drop Shawna Forde rape investigation Investigators find "insufficient evidence" of allegations made by the anti-immigration activist By Scott North Herald Writer EVERETT -- The December rape report that first brought national attention to Shawna Forde is no longer under investigation because detectives here have determined there is "insufficient evidence," Everett police said earlier this week. Forde, 41, is jailed in Arizona, charged with ordering two killings at a home invasion robbery. She's accused of leading members of her Minutemen American Defense group on a crime spree to raise money. In addition to the fatal May 30 robbery in Arivaca, Ariz., Forde and others in her crew are under investigation in Northern California in connection with a home invasion robbery and a burglary about a week later. Forde and co-defendant, Jason Eugene Bush, 34, have been linked to the June 8 robbery in a number of ways, including a witness, Shasta County, Calif., sheriff's Sgt. John Hubbard said Thursday. "We know they were up here at the time," he said. Forde first received national attention after she reported being raped and beaten Dec. 29 in the north Everett home she'd formerly shared with her ex-husband. The report came a week after her former spouse was nearly shot to death by a still-unidentified man who ambushed him inside the home. The violence drew attention -- and controversy -- after Forde publicly suggested the attack could be the work of Mexican drug cartels angry over her Minuteman activism. The case took a bizarre turn on Jan. 15 after Forde was found in a north Everett alley with apparent gunshot wounds to an arm. Forde now is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and other crimes stemming from the Arivaca, Ariz. holdup. Arizona officials allege Forde targeted Raul Flores, 29, believing he was a drug trafficker. This week they released a recording of the 911 call Flores' wife made during the attack. The tape documents an exchange of gunfire, and the wounded woman's sobbing over the killings of her husband and their 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia. Everett police continue to investigate the shooting of Forde's ex-husband as well as her wounding later in the alley, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said. They are awaiting the results of forensic tests of evidence gathered in connection with the shootings. Investigation into Forde's reported rape and beating, however, has been closed "for insufficient evidence," Goetz said. There are no viable leads, he explained, adding "that's very much different" from accusing Forde of having staged the attack as a hoax. Forde has been less than candid about the events in Everett. While publicly blaming Mexican drug cartels, Forde during a February interview with The Herald admitted she'd all along been urging Everett police to investigate local street toughs in connection with the violence involving her ex-husband and herself. Everett police have been working with Arizona detectives since before Forde's arrest, sharing information, but so far to no avail, Goetz said. "The bottom line is we still don't have any solid suspects on the assault on her ex-­husband, or on her," he said. In California, detectives have enough evidence of Forde's involvement in a holdup that they intend to send the case to prosecutors for review, Sgt. Hubbard said. The victims are close friends of Forde's mother and Forde asked for their home address just before the robbery, Hubbard said. Peter Meyers of Shasta Lake, Calif., last week said he recognized Bush as one of the two men who posed as federal agents to get inside his home June 8 and then robbed him at gunpoint of nearly $12,000. Police still are looking for the second robber, who was described as white, in his mid-20s, clean shaven and with short brown hair. Forde's half-brother, Merrill Metzger of Redding, Calif., on Thursday said police detectives told him that Forde and Bush have been connected to that robbery as well as a burglary the next day at Metzger's home. Metzger said detectives told him that cell-phone records show that six days after the Arivaca killings, Forde and Bush went to California, where they checked into a motel outside Redding. At one point, the pair asked the motel manager for a pry bar, he said, because they wanted to open a safe. Metzger said detectives told him "the safe they were trying to open was mine." Although they didn't grow up together, Forde in recent years has visited Metzger's home regularly as she's traveled between Everett and the U.S.-Mexico border. "It is very unsettling to think that your own family would do something like that to you," he said. Like his mother, Metzger said Forde had previously talked about creating an "underground" group to rob suspected drug traffickers and also businesses that she believed may be friendly to illegal immigrants. He said Forde bragged of connections to white supremacists and said some in her organization were willing to kill. One of the potential targets, Metzger said, was a store in Phoenix where the owner was said to cash checks for people working illegally in the U.S. "She just sat here and told me, just outright blatantly told me, what she was going to do," Metzger said. Scott North: 425-339-3431, north@heraldnet.com. READER COMMENTS Be the first to comment. You must be a registered user and verify your e-mail address to post comments to blogs or articles on HeraldNet. To register, click here. To read other terms and conditions, click here. Log out

1. Gay marriage issue can wait, say Referendum 71 partisans 2. Six injured, three critically, in wreck near Machias 3. Forecast for 2010 housing market: slow decline 4. First-time homebuyer credit invites tax cheats 5. That's Stud Muffin to you 6. Offensive line helps Marysville-Pilchuck rush into state playoffs 7. Glacier Peak freshman overcomes jitters to win state in cross country 8. Proud union member and veteran had a wild side 9. Snohomish County's former sanitation director claims his ouster was forced 10. More snow expected for Cascades, mountain passes 2 - Top 10 Stories Most Talked about 3 - Top 10 Stories Most Emailed

• Gough on track to keep job • Jazz vocalist headlines NPAC • Mountlake Terrace makes football history • Tax revenue sagging, city budgets lagging • ‘Touch of Magic' show opens at Gallery North • Jackson repeats as South champs • Holiday Bazaars Calendar • Meadowdale storms back to grab title • Edmonds moves to Fire District 1 • Boeing will build, flight test and deliver 787s in South Carolina to spe ... • Snohomish County EDC promoting job growth in key industry clusters • $4 million grant to advance brain tumor research has Everett links • Providence medical center construction tops off its 12-story steel frame ... • Tulalip affordable housing project to be financed by KeyBank, Raymond Ja ... • Arlington's Lak of Ink has a growing following for Luke Kooyman's creati ... • Bank of the Northwest formed • Cascade Bank earns $1.6 million