SACRAMENTO — A federal judge Friday ordered an Everett man charged with traveling to California to have sex with an 11-year-old girl to remain in jail without bail pending a preliminary hearing June 5.
Donald Leroy Keffler, 41, is both a danger to the community and a flight risk, according to a U.S. District Court judge in Sacramento, Calif. The judge presided over Keffler’s initial appearance on charges of traveling in interstate commerce for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts with someone under 12 years old, and crossing at least one state line to engage in sexual acts with someone under 12.
Keffler has been the subject of an FBI investigation into child pornography. He allegedly claims to have had sex with children as young as 17 months and had been e-mailing a woman he met in an Internet chat room, believing her to be an 11-year-old girl. Instead, she was an FBI informant who passed on information to federal agents.
He was arrested Monday in Marysville, Calif., north of Sacramento, when he got off a bus. He had made a motel reservation and planned to meet the girl and take her to his motel room, authorities said.
Oak Harbor
Pornography arrests: FBI agents on Friday night arrested an Oak Harbor couple on investigation of possession and distribution of child pornography.
A 29-year-old woman and 30-year-old man were arrested about 7:30 p.m., FBI spokesman Ray Lauer said.
No other details of the investigation were available Friday.
Lauer could not say whether the arrests were connected to the agency’s arrest on Monday of Donald Leroy Keffler, 41, of Everett in Sacramento, Calif., on two federal charges accusing him of traveling to Marysville, north of Sacramento, allegedly to have sex with an 11-year-old girl. The girl he expected to meet was an FBI informant, authorities said.
The Oak Harbor couple is scheduled to make an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Everett
School drill: Dozens of law officers, firefighters and medical personnel descended on Mariner High School Friday and school officials locked down the school in a drill designed to show emergency responders what problems they would encounter in a real emergency.
The drill took several hours as Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies and other police located the intruders and volunteer students portrayed victims who were wounded or killed, then had to be removed from the school and other students evacuated. A long line of school and Community Transit buses were used to take students across campus as part of the drill.
Authorities later critiqued the exercise, which prompted closure of Fourth Avenue W. for part of the day.
No information was available Friday on how the exercise compared to a similar drill last year.
Granite Falls
Man charged: A Granite Falls man was charged Friday with vehicular assault for his alleged role in a crash Tuesday that left three teens seriously injured.
Louis-Erin Abraham Shook, 19, was driving in a reckless manner prior to the mishap, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Joan Cavagnaro alleged in a single-page criminal complaint filed in Everett District Court.
Shook and a 16-year-old Granite Falls boy allegedly were racing their cars through town, reportedly driving 80 to 90 mph in a 25 mph zone. The 16-year-old allegedly ran a stop sign at the intersection of E. Pioneer Street and S. Granite Avenue, then slammed into the dump-truck trailer.
The 16-year-old and both passengers were seriously injured. The 16-year-old, who had a restricted license prohibiting passengers in his car, also is under investigation for vehicular assault, police say.
From Herald staff reports
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