Josh Farley writes:
 |
Like many high-profile criminal investigations in Kitsap County, the sex abuse case building against Robbin Leeroy Harper has moved quickly since the sheriff’s office announced they were looking for him last Friday.
Detectives, upon receiving a 911 call, secured a search warrant for his house and interviewed at least seven people claiming to have endured sexual abuse by Harper. The entire time, they kept the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office — which began to formulate charges — informed with new information.
Here’s a chronology of this past week’s events. I’ll keep this updated with current happenings in the case against the former pastor.
Friday, October 26
The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office announces it has begun an investigation on Harper after a 911 call from an alleged victim claiming she was sexually abused by the former pastor of the Church in South Colby. Detectives serve a search warrant on his house, seizing mainly his daily planner and couch pillows and covers from his home at 3525 Arvick Road. Later, Harper’s attorney, Thomas Weaver, says Harper was in Eastern Washington with the family of his wife, Christine, at the time. Detectives ask for the public’s help in finding Harper, or his 2003 Hummer, but no arrest warrant is issued for him.
Saturday, October 27
A family member of Harper’s contacts the sheriff’s office, saying Harper is in the area but is consulting his attorney.
Monday, October 29
Harper turns himself into authorities Monday, as detectives release their first findings to the public: five suspected victims who say he touched them inappropriately at ages as young as 7 (mostly inside his church office), and that the abuse would often become molestation or rape. Harper allegedly tells many of the girls that he’s preparing them for marriage. He is held on suspicion of child rape at the Kitsap County jail, with bail set at $500,000.
Tuesday, October 30
Harper appears in Kitsap County Superior Court for the first time, as Kitsap County Prosecutors begin to develop formal charges against him and the suspected victim total swells to seven. Also revealed from sheriff’s detectives’ reports is an alleged attempt by Harper to tell church members who are parents and elders that he’d been “inappropriate” with children there.
Wednesday, October 31
The Kitsap Sun attempts to contact members, past and present, of the Church in South Colby, as well as neighbors of the church. All refuse to be named, but do offer insights into what appears to have been a “controlling” figure as head of the church. A woman answering the phone at the church says he hasn’t been a pastor there — despite having his residence next door — for at least three years.
Thursday, November 1
Kitsap County Prosecutors
file eight felony charges against Harper, and don’t rule out
the possibility that if more allegations come forward, so too could
more charges.
Here’s a Google map of the Church in South Colby and Harper’s residence:
