OLYMPIA – Another community meeting on a convicted rapist living in Lake Stevens may be needed because fears are being stoked by a Republican group, Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart said Wednesday.
The group, the Olympia-based Speaker’s Roundtable, phoned about 10,000 homes in the county on Monday with a taped recording that began with “A level 3 sex offender has been released into your community.”
|
The message does not name the city or offender, but describes the crimes committed by Jeffrey Henderson, who moved to Lake Stevens after serving a 19-year prison sentence for convictions in 1984 and 1985.
Phone calls went to that city, as well as to Bothell, Everett, Marysville, Mill Creek and Snohomish. Bart received one at his home.
By Wednesday morning, 40 residents from throughout the county had called the sheriff’s department asking if the unnamed offender described on the phone had moved into their neighborhood. For most of them, the answer was no, Bart said.
“They’re worried. I’m trying to allay their fears,” he said. “This raises the hysteria. This raises it to the level that it will cause law enforcement a problem.
“I think we’ll have to do something out of the ordinary if they continue to do this,” he said.
Last week, sheriff’s officials met with Lake Stevens neighbors to discuss Henderson’s arrival. Bart thinks another meeting may be needed. He does not want to see a repeat of the July 1993 incident in which an arsonist torched the home of Joseph Gallardo in south Snohomish County hours before his release from prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl.
But Monday’s phone calls may only be the beginning.
Postcards containing Henderson’s photo on one side and “Sex Offender Notification” on the other may soon be arriving at homes. Television ads may soon run on cable TV channels as well.
“I think the people have the right to know,” said Kevin Carns, who runs Speaker’s Roundtable.
The group raises money and works to elect Republicans – or unseat Democrats – from the state House of Representatives.
Carns’ focus is on dislodging Democratic Reps. Hans Dunshee and John Lovick from their seats in the 44th District. The phone message names them, and tells residents that they “failed to protect your children by refusing to vote on a bill that would put child rapists in prison for life.”
Carns said Henderson inspired the content of the calls.
“I didn’t imply they failed to convict the guy for life,” he said. “I wanted to tell people their representatives failed to put guys like this in prison for life.”
The just-concluded Legislature passed longer prison terms for predatory sex crimes. The final bill included wording sought by Republicans guaranteeing potential life terms for clergy, coaches, teachers, boyfriends, fiances, fathers and uncles convicted of molesting or raping a relative or a child they knew.
“This is a new level of slime,” Dunshee said. “You want people to take notifications seriously. Using them for a political purpose like this scares people. It’s that threat that is more important than the politics of it.”
Lovick also said he’s worried that people will become unnecessarily fearful because of false notifications.
The Republican challengers to Dunshee and Lovick deny any involvement with the phone calls.
Robert Legg, a Lake Stevens pastor, and Mike Hope, a Seattle police officer, each said they did not receive a call, and learned about them from supporters.
“Hopefully, (residents) will recognize that I didn’t have anything to do with this,” Legg said. “I plan to run a positive campaign.”
Hope also said he would run a positive campaign.
“I can’t control what other people do for or against me,” said Hope, who ran against Dunshee in 2004.
“They talk to the Republicans in Olympia all the time,” Dunshee said. “Now they’ve been caught in a lie.”
Hope said residents are concerned that the state does not punish sex offenders harshly enough despite Dunshee’s recent claim that laws passed this year are the “toughest in the world.”
“We actually do need the toughest sex offender laws in the world, because that’s not what they passed,” Hope said.
Bart, a Republican, detests the tactic.
“This was uncalled for,” he said. “I don’t run the party. If they had asked me, I’d have said not to do it.”
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@ heraldnet.com
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
