Stalking charged against woman

Published 9:00 pm Monday, November 14, 2005

A former Snohomish County Public Works Department employee was being held on $100,000 bail Monday for allegedly stalking a co-worker.

Christina S. Orozco allegedly established Web sites describing the co-worker, a woman, in derogatory terms, and distributed or mailed flyers to county workers, the victim’s neighbors, elected officials and others, said Halley Hupp, deputy prosecutor.

The flyers contained “fabricated” and “highly derogatory” information about the victim, Hupp said in court papers.

The victim hired a private investigator, who cooperated with Everett police to plant false information with the defendant, and it appeared in subsequent flyers, Hupp said.

Orozco, a former Everett resident, was arrested Friday when she traveled from Oregon to the Seattle area, Hupp said.

She appeared Monday in Snohomish County District Court in Everett, where deputy prosecutor Travis Johnson asked for the high bail because of the recent “increasing intensity” of the harassment. Judge Thomas Kelly set the bail.

The felony stalking charge, filed in Everett District Court, alleges that the activity continued from Jan. 21 through Oct. 31.

The two women worked together in the department between July 2003 and December 2004, Hupp said.

The two women saw each other socially for a few months, until the victim became uncomfortable with the friendship and began to limit contact.

Orozco became more aggressive as the victim attempted to develop her relationship with her boyfriend, Hupp said.

Orozco was fired in December 2004 after a supervisor began an investigation of derogatory flyers showing up in the workplace, Hupp said.

On Jan. 21, the victim obtained a Snohomish County District Court anti-harassment order against Orozco, but the mailings continued after that.

Hupp said the victim feared for her safety after encountering Orozco in the county parking garage and on work-related trips.