Unbeknownst to neighbors, parents and children, a Level 3 convicted sex offender had been staying part-time since May at a house next door to North Sound Christian Schools in Mountlake Terrace.
School officials discovered the situation last week, called authorities and notified parents. The offender, Timothy McKenna, stayed often at the house overnight and during the day, according to school officials. The house belongs to a now-former school employee.
McKenna was found guilty in 1996 of rape of a 6-year-old. In 1991, McKenna pleaded guilty to rape of a pregnant 16-year-old girl, whom he physically assaulted.
While in prison, McKenna had therapy and disclosed 20 more victims who range in age from 4 to 50.
The Level 3 designation denotes a potential to reoffend.
The house where McKenna stayed is right next to the school’s secondary campus, with classes for students in grades 6 through 12.
Parent Christine Vaughn said she saw McKenna many times when she picked her children up after school.
She’d see McKenna drive up to the house in a small yellow car about the time school finished, get out and start weeding the lawn, Vaughn said. It looked strange because he wasn’t in clothes normally worn for gardening, she said.
Sean Osborn, school superintendent said staff and parents saw McKenna “on a daily basis.”
“People thought it was just a family friend,” he said. “(The former employee) was allowing him to stay a couple nights a week and do weeding and menial chores, and none of this information was out.”
On Labor Day, the school got an anonymous call on McKenna, and Osborn looked up his record.
“They list his offenses and it was absolutely appalling,” Osborn said.
The school employee who let McKenna stay at the house then told the school she was a chaperone for him. Chaperones accompany sex offenders receiving treatment out in public and are part of a treatment plan.
The employee has since been “dismissed,” according to a letter sent to parents Sept. 5.
The morning the letter was sent, McKenna was seen at a local grocery store, but hasn’t been seen since, Osborn said.
The school has filed a no contact order, a no trespass order and a restraining order against McKenna and posted a non-armed security guard at the school.
The question of whether it was legal for McKenna to stay at the house is under investigation by the state Department of Corrections, said Rick Kendo, field supervisor with the department.
McKenna did not have permission from his parole officer to stay there, Kendo said.
Chaperones usually attend events or visit places with offenders, but offenders must first get permission from parole officers. It’s not common to stay at a chaperone’s house, especially for long periods, Kendo said.
“Not without us knowing – we can approve travel or trips, but each incident we have to know about in advance,” he said. “If someone was staying at a different residence than what we had approved or that was registered with the sheriff’s office, that certainly has concerns and would have to be looked at very closely.”
McKenna’s permanent residence is a “clean and sober” house in Marysville — a house where people rent a room with the expectation they use no drugs or alcohol. He’s registered as a sex offender living in Marysville with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s office.
If the investigation determines violations, a court would decide how to address the issue, Kendo said.
At this point, McKenna knows that he is not to stay at the house in Mountlake Terrace, Kendo said.
Legally, McKenna is allowed to linger near a school. The Community Protection Zones Act, which mandates that offenders must stay 880 feet from a school if convicted, didn’t take effect until July 2005.
McKenna was convicted before then, so the law doesn’t apply to him, said Mountlake Terrace Police Chief Scott Smith.
In general, parents have been very upset, Vaughn said.
“It’s a terrible situation,” she said. “It’s a lapse in judgment of the school employee who lives next door to have this individual stay at her house knowing what kind of danger he presents to the kids, and it’s a gross lapse in the law enforcement to not keep better track of this individual.”
Vaughn’s daughter used to take the bus home after sports practice at night, but now is afraid to do so, she said.
The school has filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s office and the Department of Corrections.
“If the Department of Corrections is going to release offenders back into the community, we need to be informed as a community that they’re here,” Osborn said.
Enterprise reporter Oscar Halpert contributed to this report.
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