Homeless man’s alleged text threats lead to arrest

Published 10:36 pm Wednesday, April 30, 2008

EVERETT — Threatening text messages and dirty pictures have landed a man in jail and under suspicion of cyberstalking.

Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Beau Beckner arrested the man, 20, Tuesday after a monthlong investigation into messages sent to three teenage girls.

The messages included pornographic pictures and threats to kill and sexually assault the girls.

The man also is under investigation by Everett and Pierce County authorities for similar crimes, according to an affidavit filed in Everett District Court. A judge on Wednesday ordered him held on $100,000 bail.

The law against cyberstalking was passed by the state Legislature in 2004. It makes harassment by e-mail and text message illegal.

Beckner, a school resource officer at Mariner High School, was first approached by two students last month. The girls showed him text messages that included threats to kill their families and make the girls sex slaves. The suspect may have gotten the girls’ cell phone numbers from one of their friends, who met the man on a bus, according to court documents.

Beckner called the cell phone number that sent the messages. A man who answered the phone said, “Good luck finding me, pig. You don’t know where I am,” the deputy reported.

About a month later, a third girl, 16, reported receiving threatening text messages from the same cell phone number. In the messages, the writer threatened to kill himself if the girl hated him.

The writer also wished the girl good luck on her school tests and threatened to sexually assault and kill her, according to court records.

The girl’s father searched the Internet to learn the name of the cell phone’s owner and provided Beckner the man’s name. The deputy discovered that the cell phone owner was under investigation for several cases of harassment by Everett police and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office.

The man is on probation and under supervision by the state Department of Corrections. The state confirmed that the phone number belonged to the man Beckner was investigating, according to court records. Corrections officers had received calls about threats the man had made to a minor from his phone and MySpace.com account.

The man was arrested for investigation of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and cyberstalking. He spoke with deputies and reportedly told them he had sent numerous threats and nude pictures to the Snohomish County girls and others, Beckner wrote in the affidavit.

The man told police he has mental health problems and sent the messages while he was drunk, according to court records.

In 2006, the man was convicted of harassment and barred from attending parties. In an e-mail to a friend, he threatened to kill dozens of people at an after-hours party on Capitol Hill and then kill himself.

The judge ordered him to get a mental health evaluation.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.