TACOMA — A judge in Tacoma has sentenced a 40-year-old mother to three months in jail for taking an aluminum baseball bat to a convicted sex offender.
The News Tribune reported Tammy Lee Gibson waved at her two daughters and her sister as she was led from the courtroom to begin serving her sentence.
Before her sentencing on Friday, Gibson told Pierce County Superior Court Judge Susan Serko that laws are needed to keep convicted sexual predators away from children.
Court papers said Gibson saw fliers announcing that William Allen Baldwin, a 24-year-old Level 3 sex offender, had moved into a nearby trailer park to live with a relative. Gibson went to the address June 16 and knocked on the door. Baldwin answered and Gibson accused him of molesting her children. Baldwin hadn’t, but Gibson hit him with the bat.
In January, she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of third-degree assault. She initially was charged with second-degree assault and felony harassment.
Spokane: Opium operation broken up
In a raid, investigators found what could be Grant County’s first known indoor opium growing operation just south of Ephrata.
Fifty-six-year-old William P. Helfrich faces charges of possession and manufacturing marijuana and opium after 15 marijuana plants and bags of opium poppy pods were found in his home.
In another raid Wednesday, an unknown amount of rock cocaine and marijuana was seized from a home in Moses Lake following a six-month investigation.
Twenty-eight-year-old Valinda G. Otis and 23-year-old Tommy C. Stokes, 23, both of Moses Lake, face charges of unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.
Seattle: Ex-soldier gets probation
A former soldier from Kent who faked combat service in Iraq to get medical compensation has been sentenced to three years’ probation by a federal judge who called his behavior “deplorable.”
Brandon V. Perkins appeared in U.S. District Court Friday before Judge Richard Jones.
The News Tribune said the judge noted the American flag was at half staff in front of the Seattle courthouse and told the 22-year-old Perkins what he had done was “an extreme disservice to those who have served our country valiantly and been injured or killed in battle.”
Perkins pleaded guilty Nov. 13 to falsely claiming to be suffering pain and injury from a combat injury suffered when he was shot by enemy fire while deployed in Iraq.
Based on his claims, Perkins received $2,720 in Veterans Administration medical benefits to which he wasn’t entitled.
Associated Press
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