Monthly Archives: May 2006

Another One Bites the Dust

(Blogger’s Note: This entry is hopefully to be a reoccurring feature on the Criminal Justice Forum, highlighting the car theft-fighting abilities of Bremerton Police Officer Dave Hughes, known throughout the county as one of the best in Kitsap law enforcement at finding stolen cars.

However, I am open to posting all types of crimefighting expertise. Please don’t hesitate to send me an e-mail or write an entry of other accomplishments that can be posted too.)

Dave Hughes, a Bremerton officer who we’ve written about on several occasions – lately for his uncanny knack for finding stolen vehicles – found another Monday night.

While patroling the 100 block of Lafayette in Bremerton at about 11:30 p.m., he remembered seeing a 1976 blue Ford pickup on the “hot sheet” – local law enforcement’s list of the county’s “stolens” – back in April.

Sure enough, it came back stolen and the owners were notified. Add another notch to Hughes’ already lengthy list.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Robbers Target East Bremerton Banks

Four unsolved bank robberies in seven months on the east side of Bremerton — just what’s going on here?

Two curious facts quickly emerge when looking at all four: 1) the targeted banks are in a concentrated area surrounded by neighborhoods, and 2) with each robbery, the suspect has become more public in his demands.

East Bremerton, with its neighborhoods sandwiched together and abutted by hedges and fences, gives a suspect many possible escape routes.

Police also aren’t ruling out the possibility that the latest robbery could be connected to one of the other three unsolved robberies. Each time the robber has drawn ever more attention to himself during the act — from the Nov. 2 robbery, in which a silent suspect slipped a note to a teller to Tuesday’s robbery, in which the culprit pulled a gun and demanded a full bank of customers to lie down on the floor.

Click below and we’ll look back and examine the similarities — if any — between the bank incidents:

Continue reading →

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Crime and Justice Week in Review: May 22-28

The county’s district court is all in for re-election. A Seabeck man who was allegedly molested by his own father was caught by federal authorities trying to lure a child for sex over the internet. And the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office unveiled its newest undercover method of transportation.

Get all of last week’s crime and justice news below.

Continue reading →

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

A Simple Search

What turned out to be a simple Google search by my fellow Kitsap Sun reporter, Elaine Helm, was key in bringing together one of today’s front page stories.

Elaine, the military and ferries reporter, had googled the name of a man whom Washington D.C. authorities had just busted for attempted to solicit sex over the internet from underage teens.

His name didn’t turn up immediately; but his father’s did.

In November 2005, Rodger J. Arntt, Sr., was convicted of first-degree child rape. Court reports and a chat with the Kitsap prosecutor on the case, Kelly Montgomery, told us that Arntt Sr.’s son – arrested in D.C. – was also sexually abused by his father.

The statistics of offenders who were abused as children is all too tragic – around 60 percent. We felt this was a critical detail to reporting the story.

Arntt Jr. won’t be making a court appearance until June 8 in U.S. District Court, back in D.C. We’ll keep you posted.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

18 Times

I read many driving under the influence (DUI) arrests each day here in Kitsap when I go and to the local police stations and the sheriff’s office.

It’s safe to say that none of them compared to this story out of Lithuania, written by the Associated Press.

A truck driver had the blood-alcohol level 18 times – yes 18 times – the legal limit.

Click here to check it out.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

BB Gun Suspects Never Found

Sadly – and nearly tragically – two CK teens were shot with a BB gun from a car near Brownsville Monday night. The assailants, who haven’t been caught, nearly took the two boys’ eyes out, and shot them from the distance of about eight feet.

Scary as that is, it got me thinking about the last story I did on BB guns – and remembered in that case, too, no suspects were caught. The story, dated Nov. 22, 2005, was called “Deputies Searching for Vandal,” and concerned a culprit or culprits who were going about town shooting out windows with a BB gun.

Continue reading →

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Parents: Deaths were Accidents

It has been an unimaginable and traumatic week for students and families of Kingston Junior High School.

And on top of the stress and sadness of two student’s deaths and a campus lockdown last Tuesday, a relentless rumor mill has swirled through the north end of the county.

As I spent the day in Kingston last Tuesday — near campus during the lockdown — it became increasingly apparent that students believed the deaths of Blake Whitworth, of Hansville and Zachary Kvistad of Gamblewood, both 14, had died from suicide.

Then later in the week, a story appeared in a Seattle newspaper and on at least on broadcast station stating that the deaths could be the result of “the choking game.”

Continue reading →

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

A Unique Kind of Training

Bremerton Police Lieutenant Greg Rawlins recently invited me to participate in a very hands-on type of training that each officer goes through about four times a year.

On Monday, I went out to the police’s shooting range and strapped on all kinds of protective gear. I was given an “air soft” pistol that fired Co2-charged white BBs at about 300 feet per second.

The training, he said, was to let officers prepare for an event so rare they’ll likely never have to do it during their law enforcement careers: fire their sidearms.

I got to experience the following scenario for myself.

Continue reading →

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post