A convicted sex offender with a long criminal record was charged Wednesday with five felony counts, including intimidating a judge and Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies.
Willie Jay Russell, 46, of Everett already was being held in the county jail following his arrest over the weekend on suspicion of possession of stolen property. He’s being held in lieu of $300,000 bail on all the counts, mainly because of his alleged threats to public officials.
Arraignment is scheduled today on the five new charges.
Russell is charged with two counts of intimidating Everett District Court Judge Thomas Kelly. He’s also charged with two counts of intimidating a pair of deputies. The fifth count is telephone harassment of a deputy.
Deputy prosecutor Chris Dickinson said Russell in July and August was angry at Kelly because of several pending and former legal decisions in his court. Russell allegedly made repeated threats to kill the judge and Sheriff Rick Bart, Dickinson said in court papers.
Russell told witnesses he knew where they lived because he followed them home and watched their activities, papers say.
On Sept. 18, Russell allegedly made a series of telephone calls to sheriff’s office personnel making threats to them and others, Dickinson said. That was the day after he was charged with possessing stolen property and a judge signed a warrant for his arrest.
Among other things, Russell allegedly told officers "he had been pushed around by the cops long enough and now he had a gun," Dickinson said. Russell warned officers not to try and serve the arrest warrant on him, "or he would kill cops," court papers say.
Russell’s criminal history goes back to 1977, when he was convicted of robbery and forgery. Among his eight felony convictions are two counts of second-degree rape and one count of second-degree statutory rape in 1989. He also has eight adult misdemeanor convictions, including assault, telephone harassment and violations of anti-harassment orders, Dickinson said.
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