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CLARK COUNTY - A Battle Ground massage therapist is accused of groping a woman’s breasts during a February massage session.
Justin C. Lien, 32, appeared Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court on a summons for a charge of indecent liberties. Lien entered a plea of not guilty. Judge Suzan Clark granted him supervised release. His trial is scheduled for July 14, court records show.
Battle Ground police responded Feb. 14 to reports of a sex crime. Officers contacted the woman who said she had a massage from Lien at Sage Wellness and Massage in Battle Ground. She said during the massage, Lien moved the sheet and exposed her breasts. She said he then massaged her bare breasts, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Afterward, she told Lien she’d never had her chest massaged to that degree, she said, and he replied that he thought he would relieve her tightness. The woman said since the visit, she’s felt violated and suffered from emotional distress, court records state.
When officers spoke with Lien, he walked them through his procedures for massages. They said he told them he has a habit of closing his eyes to focus on the massage, and he sometimes doesn’t know what body part he’s massaging. He said there could be times he accidentally grazed someone’s breasts because his eyes were closed, according to the affidavit.
Lien’s attorney provided police with a statement after he was contacted by the state Department of Health about the incident.
In the statement, investigators said Lien went through all of his sessions with the woman. He wrote that he recalled one time when the woman scratched her nose during a massage, which he said caused the sheet to fall and expose her chest. He said he immediately covered her up, according to court records.
He also said it’s common for clients to move around on the table and inadvertently expose an intimate area. When that happens, he said he covers them up and continues the massage, the affidavit states.
PULLMAN - Two young adults spent most of Thursday in the Whitman County Jail following their arrest on the Washington State University campus after officers found freshly glued posters objecting to the pending visit of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Charged with obstruction and malicious mischief was 26-year-old Jeremiah W. Paparazzo, who as of 2021 was the secretary of Spokane County Young Democrats. Also arrested on the same two misdemeanor charges was 21-year-old Alisa L. Bennett. Neither were current WSU students, and both listed addresses in Moscow.
WSU Police Chief Gary Jenkins said the charges stemmed from two things: allegations that they ran from police officers who were investigating the protest posters and time and cost to fix any potential damage caused by the glue used to post the signs on cement walls.
Jenkins said the case had nothing to do with Paparazzo’s and Bennett’s constitutionally guaranteed right of free speech.
“We do have rules about posting signs and where they can do it on campus,” Jenkins said. “If it is a violation of our school rules, we will just take them down and not pursue them criminally. But when it takes staff time and money to repair, that’s where it causes a problem.”
According to the Whitman County Jail, Paparazzo and Bennett were both held on $2,000 bonds. Both were booked Thursday morning and released some time after 4 p.m.
While they did not get into the specifics of the case, Bennett and Paparazzo both said in an interview that they felt they spent more time in jail than they should have for the alleged crime. Bennett said they were jailed from about 3 a.m. to just before 5 p.m. on Thursday.
“We were exercising our fundamental rights to express our view of a fascist takeover of our government,” she said. “An institution like WSU has an obligation to fight for our fundamental rights and support our young people.”
Paparazzo, who’s originally from Spokane, criticized the school’s handling of the incident.
“Inviting Charlie Kirk to speak with everything that Trump is doing is exactly the opposite of what we should expect from WSU,” he said.
According to Jenkins, the case started about 2:40 a.m. when a WSU Police officer found a sign glued to a cement wall near the Holland and Terrell Libraries on campus.
“The glue appeared to be wet. (The officer) radioed another officer and got on our camera system and saw some people in the area,” Jenkins said. The camera footage showed “three people gluing signs to surfaces.”
The officers then began to search campus, he said.
“They found three people and started chasing them. They ended up catching two. One was with the assistance of the Pullman Police Department,” Jenkins said.
The two arrested were identified as Bennett and Paparazzo, who were booked on the misdemeanor charges of malicious mischief for the glue and obstruction for running from the officers, Jenkins said.
The poster in question had a picture of Kirk with a circle and a slash through the photo. Under the photo was written: “White Supremacist Not Welcome at WSU,” Jenkins said.
Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, a right-wing nonprofit organization that for years has supported and had strong ties with President Donald Trump.
Kirk often makes himself available to debate students about his right-wing views on visits to dozens of campuses as part of his “You’re being brainwashed” tour.
But his visit to Pullman on Thursday was uneventful, Jenkins said, in that it caused no disturbances that required police interaction.
As for the anti-Kirk posters, Jenkins said the department continues to investigate after several more similar posters were placed days ago.
And the news could get worse for any suspects tied to those actions.
“We’ll pull up the videos and compare those,” Jenkins said. “If the damage ends up being more than $750, it would be a felony.”
SEATTLE - A 19-year-old man, a 24-year-old man, and a juvenile face hate crime charges following an incident that happened back in February.
Prosecutors allege the suspects harassed and fired a water pellet gun at patrons of the Pony Bar on Capitol Hill. Police said the three circled the block at least 10 times, yelling anti-gay and anti-transgender slurs
“What prosecutors thought is that this criminal action was motivated by bias, by the perceived sexual orientation of the victims,” Casey McNerthney with the King County Prosecutor’s Office said. “When you do that, under the law, it’s considered a hate crime. When you look at the totality and the investigation that Seattle Police gave us, it’s pretty clearly a hate crime.”
King County sees hate crime spike amid Capitol Hill bar incident
No one was seriously injured, but the incident sparked fear in the LGBTQ+ community in Capitol Hill. With these three charged, King County—just four and a half months into the year—is just one number shy of hate crimes charged in all of last year. McNerthany finds that troubling.
“It sure feels like people in general think they can get away with hate crimes against people because of their sexual orientation or perceived gender,” he said. “The message prosecutors and police want to send is that you can’t. And if you do that, you’re going to get charged with a hate crime.”
The two adults appeared in a King County Courtroom Thursday morning. Both pleaded not guilty. The juvenile is expected in court next week.
SEATTLE - Imagine standing at a King County Metro stop in Seattle—coffee in hand, messenger bag hanging from your shoulder—when you notice a man with a missing chunk of his face. Then you start noticing the putrid scent of weed. Finally, the bus that was previously two minutes away according to your app suddenly disappears, becoming one of the many so-called “ghost buses” plaguing the area. Seattle is thriving.
I got to the bus stop around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning. It was more packed than usual, with three homeless people (a couple, and a single man) camped out at the bus stop. One looked high, the other two giggling and talking. At the time, the Transit app said the bus was about ten minutes away.
More and more people started to crowd the bus stop. And out of the corner of my eye, I see one man approaching. He was tall and skinny, and coughing up a storm. Others turned toward him, but I didn’t because there have been many instances of riders hacking up a lung, hopping on a bus with the rest of us. I moved away from my spot waiting for the bus so he could get on before me and I could sit as far away from him as possible.
A King County ghost bus revealed a homeless man without half of his face
Seven minutes left before the bus was supposed to arrive, I started to hear a weird noise. An airy sucking; the sound you make when you’re slurping soup. Two women to my left kept looking, somewhat discreetly, towards the coughing man, then back at each other. Again, I assumed they were just annoyed that he’d be getting on the bus and spreading all his germs around. Again, I thought nothing of it.
Looking at the Transit app, the bus was scheduled to arrive in two minutes. Those two minutes came and went, the weird airy-sucking sound kept going as the coughing man started to pace to my right, and when I checked the Transit app again, the bus had disappeared. It became a “ghost bus”—a bus that is scheduled to arrive, shows up on metro apps, then just completely disappears. King County Metro is plagued by this issue and never seems to have an answer. It’s gotten so bad that the King County Council is now involved.
Needless to say, I was annoyed. The annoyance grew more intense when I started to smell the weed that one of the homeless people started to smoke at the bus stop. The idea of waiting there for another 10-plus minutes for the next bus, if it arrives at all, prompted me to walk to the next stop. It was nice out this morning and I enjoyed the walk.
But when I turned to walk away, headed in the direction of the coughing man, I realized why people kept looking his way. The airy-sucking sound was coming from the fact that he was missing almost the entirety of his left cheek.
This is Seattle compassion
The man was homeless. He had a bandana wrapped around his face, apparently to support the skin around his jaw. I saw his gums and teeth. I saw red flesh that looked to be rotting. He didn’t appear to be in any pain, and he didn’t even look uncomfortable. He was just going through his morning, coughing up a storm, and sucking the saliva back into his mouth, though there was a thread of some dropping from his chin.
Welcome to Seattle, where “compassion” means exporting our problems onto the streets and expecting riders to just grin and bear it.
No consequences, no dignity
Metro used to be the domain of working commuters squeezing into morning buses and college kids zoning out with headphones as they made their way to the University of Washington. Now it’s a front‑row seat to the city’s failures: untreated mental‑health crises, rampant drug use, and a bureaucracy so protective of “compassion” that common‑sense enforcement has gone missing—just like that homeless guy’s cheek.
When you smoke weed in public or pass out on a bench, you’re supposed to get help—or at least a polite nudge. When you’re walking around with a missing cheek, you need help. Desperately. But they don’t get it.
Instead, Seattle’s “tolerance” turned into policy: do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. The result? A rolling social experiment on wheels, with paying customers effectively trapped inside. And you better not complain for fear you’ll be labeled uncompassionate.
Safety on hold
King County Metro drivers simply call dispatch when situations deteriorate, leaving riders to swap horror stories instead of schedules. Meanwhile, the county touts “fare enforcement” as the solution—but where this so-called fare enforcement is happening is a mystery to me.
Seattle city and King County leaders brag about unprecedented spending: billions poured into housing, mental‑health programs, and outreach teams. Yet every sweeping plan seems to raise the same unanswered question: if we’re spending so much, why are so many people still on the streets?
Commuters pay high fares and risk their safety for the sake of a city that treats its most vulnerable like afterthoughts. And the homeless? They stay in the same vicious cycle—neglected, unmanaged, and often dying on our doorsteps.
If Seattle truly cared, we’d enforce basic standards: no open‑air drug dens; mandatory mental‑health assessments; real penalties for public intoxication. We’d pair enforcement with real rehab, secure housing with rules, and accountability with services.
Seattle’s problem isn’t a lack of heart—it’s a lack of backbone. And until we grow one, our buses will stay the last refuge for those we’ve let down.
OLYMPIA - The Washington State Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s ruling that held Spokane’s so-called “Hansen Initiative” exceeded the scope of the local initiative power. The initiative, overwhelmingly supported by voters, added a new “never-camp” zone in much of downtown Spokane in order to address homeless encampments. It prohibited encampments within 1,000 feet of schools, day care facilities, and parks.
The Washington Supreme Court concluded that the initiative was administrative—it “administer(ed) the details” of an existing, comprehensive city policy on homeless encampments—rather than legislative in nature, which alone is permissible for local initiatives.
Because the initiative merely tinkered with implementation steps already adopted by the city of Spokane, it fell outside the people’s power to legislate directly at the local level. The decision was 6-3.
Implications of the decision
Bothell-based attorney Mark Lamb argued you can’t understate the implications of this ruling, in an exclusive interview on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. He concurs with the dissent that this “decision effectively guts the local initiative power in Washington state.”
“What they’re really saying is that if a city takes a policy position and stakes it out with any kind of enforcement or administrative mechanism, the voters can’t do anything about that,” Lamb explained. “That is antithetical to everything that we understand about our state constitution. It’s everything that we understand about being a state where we want to have the people involved. Candidly, it’s deeply troubling in an era when we’re lectured about democracy being under attack, that 75% of the voters of the City of Spokane made a policy choice and made a policy choice that I think the dissent correctly identified was well within the rights to do it, and the majority simply discards it.”
What the majority argued
Under state law, the Washington Supreme Court said that a local initiative is only valid when it declares a new policy. But it is invalid if it executes or amends a plan already in place.
Lamb, who represented the respondent Brian Hansen, countered the claim that his client’s initiative was administrative in nature. He argued a camping ban falls under the city’s general police power, not zoning. He also noted that the initiative established a new public-safety policy meant to protect children.
The Court of Appeals sided with Hansen, saying the initiative was not in conflict with state law. But the Washington Supreme Court disagreed.
Dissent raises alarms
In the dissent, the Washington State Supreme Court justices argued that the Hansen Initiative “does not simply amend one small provision” of existing law.
“Instead, it represents a significant shift in the core policy expressed by the ordinance. The majority acknowledges this, observing that the Hansen Initiative ‘greatly expanded Spokane’s criminalization of camping’ and ‘effectively reverses Spokane’s comprehensive homeless camping policy,'” the dissent reads.
The dissent argues that, “It is well within the local initiative power for the people of Spokane to pass measures that take a different policy direction from the legislative enactments of the city council.” It says the majority “effectively eliminates the local initiative power altogether.”
Regardless of the Washington Supreme Court decision, the Spokane City Council can choose to turn the initiative into legislation if it chooses. Lamb hopes they opt to do just that.
ARLINGTON, Wash. — Nolan Hollingsworth wanted to become a cop to give back to his community.
Now, he's on that path.
Hollingsworth is one of 30 members of the inaugural class at the state's new Criminal Justice Training Commission Academy in Arlington.
"It's good," Hollingsworth said. "I feel like I haven't really gotten started yet. I'm still in the academy, but I'm excited for it for sure."
The academy opened less than a month ago and its classes are already full with cadets from all over the north sound.
Previously, all recruits from western Washington would have to travel to Burien for 19 weeks of training.
It is a major reason Washington has had the fewest cops per capita of any state in the nation for more than a decade.
Being close to home in Snohomish County is a huge selling point for Hollingsworth.
"I have a family," said the recruit. "Instead of commuting two hours a day one way or staying down in Burien, I get to go home, have dinner, put my son to bed, and see my wife."
At one point there was an eight month wait to train to become a police officer in the state of Washington.
With the new academy opening up that wait time is down to zero.
Since 2023 the state has opened three new training facilities in Pasco, Vancouver and now Arlington for a total of five.
That means aspiring new officers not only get to train closer to home, they get to work in the communities where they live.
"It gives us the opportunity to get people hired, get people trained and on the road patrolling their communities at a much faster rate," said Northwest Regional Commander Paul Bakala.
The current class of recruits will graduate at the end of July.
After additional training with their respective departments they'll be on the street by the end of the year.
Another full class of 30 cadets will quickly take their place.
Nolan Hollingsworth will be patrolling the streets of Monroe -- happy to serve that community in any way he can.
"I'm excited," he said. "I'm excited just to change tires for anybody who pops a tire on the side of the road. It's just the little things."
AUBURN, Wash. — Kent police say it appears a flash-bang fired by officers during a SWAT standoff caused a fire that destroyed at least one Auburn business on April 8.
Zanadu Studios, an event venue in Auburn, used to host bingo nights, weddings, and cabaret shows.
Its Chief Operating Officer, Marlene Cobb, broke her silence Thursday and said in an email, "Evidence so far shows that the fire was likely caused by a ‘flash-bang’ device fired by police. ... I am devastated by the loss of my business and the death of my dog Tigger in the fire."
When KING 5 followed up with Kent Police Department about the allegation, Assistant Chief Jarod Kasner said, "It appears that was the listed cause. We have not seen a copy of the report nor do we have the report, however, when we obtain a copy we will review it to get a full assessment of the determination."
Cobb also said in her statement, "When all the facts are in, I trust that those responsible will be held accountable."
Pending further updates, Kent police are still working to find Cobb's husband, Avon Cobb, 51, who they presume to be on the run.
Kasner said both Valley SWAT and firefighters were at the business' location in Auburn last Tuesday after officers thought Cobb was hiding inside his wife’s event venue business with a gun. Earlier that same morning, police said he was the suspect in a domestic assault call, but managed to get away from officers.
With Zanadu Studios now a complete loss, at least a dozen staff members have been laid off.
"Honestly I was shocked," said Taz Petro, who said he's spent many fun nights at the event space. "Many moons. Many moons... to see it like this, this is sad."
Petro was a frequent promoter, event booker and DJ for the venue.
"This was a place where you can come to and be yourself, no matter where you came from," said Petro.
He said the studio served as an inclusive hub for BIPOC and LGBTQ communities. Petro is a close friend of the owner's family, and he said they likely invested roughly $1 million into the business.
“We’ve had this place packed out, I believe the occupancy was well over 300," said Petro.
He said well-known hip-hop and R&B acts also performed at Zanadu, like Ne-Yo and Adrian Marcel.
“I'm here to show my love and support," said Petro. He said he hopes the community rallies around Zanadu Studios, alongside him. “You just got to pick yourself back up, you know? And rebuild."
A verified GoFundMe has been set up in the business owner's name, with a goal of reaching $50,000 through the help of the community.
Anyone with information about Avon Cobb’s whereabouts is asked to call the tip line 253-856-5808 or email KPDTipLine@kentwa.gov. If your information is time sensitive, you can call 911.
PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — When Brett Ryan was arrested for DUI in 2023, the Lakewood defense lawyer he hired quickly referred him to a substance abuse treatment clinic.
“It was obvious he needed help. That was his way to get it,” Ryan’s mother, Judy Russo, said of her 36-year-old son.
But interviews and public records obtained by KING 5 reveal that both the lawyer and the treatment clinic “failed” Ryan and many other clients, in what state health investigators described as “an extensive pattern of corrupt practices.”
Last November, State of Washington Department of Health investigators shut down the three branches of Rainier Recovery Centers in Lakewood, Puyallup and Gig Harbor. They accused CEO Jeremiah Dunlap of hiring unlicensed counselors, falsifying urinalysis test results, and reporting false information to judges on clients who had court ordered treatment, among other violations.
In an agreed order signed in December, Dunlap did not dispute the state’s findings, including statements that Dunlap had a “deal” with “a particular law firm” that “generated maximum revenue” for Rainier Recovery.
The KING 5 Investigators learned the attorney is longtime DUI defense lawyer Barbara A. Bowden, who represented Brett Ryan and many other DUI defendants she referred to Rainier Recovery.
Public documents released so far do not identify by name any of the individuals targeted in the state’s investigation.
But interviews with four former Rainier Recovery employees reveal how the agency routinely failed patients like Brett Ryan during a critical part of their intake process known as the “assessment.” That is when a state-licensed counselor, or a counselor trainee with proper oversight, evaluates a client’s level of addiction and makes a treatment plan.
Patients' results altered
Employees said Dunlap would “change patients assessment results … pursuant to the attorney’s direction” so that the “level of care would be changed ‘down to a bare minimum from needing a higher level of care,'” according to state records.
“And then it would be … we were just trying to make the attorney happy. Regularly it would kind of be just burned into your head, that’s the moneymaker,” said Alyssa Keane, who was Rainier’s director of operations and a licensed counselor until May of last year. Keane admitted she altered patient assessments based on Dunlap’s instruction, believing that he was a more experienced counselor.
Keane and three other former employees who did not want to speak on the record identified Barbara Bowden as the unnamed lawyer in state records.
Judy Russo said her son was a long-time drug and alcohol abuser. “He was probably about 17,” she said, when he first started using drugs that eventually included heroin.
He had a 2017 theft conviction that was alcohol related, and he had been ordered into treatment by Bonney Lake Municipal Court.
But records provided by Russo show a Rainier Recovery counselor trainee assessed Ryan as “NSP,” no significant problem, the lowest level of diagnosis that generally requires minimal treatment.
Bowden’s law firm submitted that report to the Pierce County District Court, which generally accepts treatment recommendations from state-licensed clinics. When he was sentenced in January of last year, Ryan received no jail time and three months of continuing oversight from Rainier Recovery – a minimal sentence.
“They’re the pros. They’re the ones that should have picked up on it right away,” an angry Judy Russo said of Rainier Recovery’s lenient recommendation to the court. “He should have been hauled off to a treatment center right then and there."
Within weeks, Brett Ryan was using drugs again.
Motivated by money
Employees and state records say money was the motive in the “deal” that brought more business to Rainier Recovery and the Law Office of Barbara A. Bowden.
“Management’s corrupt practices are motivated by financial considerations,” state investigators wrote in their November 26 enforcement order suspending Rainier Recovery’s license.
In the December “agreed order,” investigators said “this arrangement would give the law firm better success rates and make them popular” with clients. A defense attorney who gets lighter sentences and fewer treatment requirements in court is going to attract more clients. And Rainier Recovery benefitted with a steady stream of paying clients referred by Bowden’s legal team.
Bowden did not respond to several emails and phone calls to her Lakewood office.
“I have to go to court,” she said, refusing to answer a KING 5 reporter’s questions outside the Pierce County courthouse when she left a court hearing in March.
This isn’t the first time that Barbara Bowden has been the subject of a KING 5 Investigation.
Ten years ago, she was linked to five corrupt treatment clinics in Pierce County that were shut down by the State of Washington after the KING 5 series Sobriety for Sale.
Tomorrow, the KING 5 Investigators reveal more on that part of the story, plus they track down the counselor trainee who evaluated Brett Ryan and reveal Ryan’s fate after he started using drugs again.
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — One person was hurt in an overnight crash in the Federal Way area Thursday.
It was captured by Washington State Department of Transportation cameras on northbound Interstate 5 near South 296th Street.
The Washington State Patrol said a driver lost control, hit a barrier, and then rolled back into the lanes of traffic. It was then hit by another car, forcing it to strike the barrier a second time.
Troopers said the causing driver, a 27-year-old Federal Way woman, was likely under the influence of drugs or alcohol. She was not hurt.
The driver of the second car was taken to a local hospital.
EVERETT, Wash. — A Snohomish County judge ruled Thursday that statements made by the man charged in the crash that killed Washington State Patrol Trooper Christopher Gadd will be allowed at trial.
Gadd, 27, was killed in a crash just before 3 a.m. on March 2, 2024, while working a DUI patrol on southbound Interstate 5 in Marysville. Gadd was sitting in the driver’s seat of his marked WSP patrol car parked in the grass on the right shoulder of the freeway when the crash happened.
Defense attorneys for Raul Benitez-Santana argued that statements made by Benitez-Santana immediately after the crash and later at the hospital should be thrown out, claiming he wasn’t read his Miranda rights and wasn’t in the right state of mind to speak with officers. Defense attorneys also argued in court last week against the legality of a blood draw taken after the crash, claiming the lack of a warrant should have rendered it invalid. However, the judge disagreed saying law enforcement had a right to draw blood before medical personnel treated Benitez-Santana and possibly corrupted any evidence.
Prosecutors said Benitez-Santana was impaired and going 112 mph, hitting the brakes just a half-second before slamming into the back of Gadd’s patrol unit at 107 mph. In probable cause documents for the suspect's arrest, a deputy said Benitez-Santana admitted to smoking weed and drinking two beers earlier that night.
Body camera video released in court shows the initial moment officers arrived at the scene the night Gadd was killed. In the video, Benitez Santana initially told officers he was disabled on the freeway and someone hit him, but then later said someone cut him off and someone hit him as he tried to swerve out of the way.
“We don’t have footage to see when Miranda was given and what Mr. Benitez's physical, emotional, (and) mental state was at the time,” defense attorney Tiffany Mecca argued.
On Thursday, the judge ruled that all evidence was admissible, including blood that was drawn.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Benitez-Santana is a citizen of Mexico and was living here “unlawfully” at the time of the crash.
Prosecutors charged Benitez Santana with vehicular homicide and vehicular assault.
Records show he’s in custody on $100,000 bond.
TACOMA, Wash. — A former Sumner High School boys' basketball coach was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison, three months after he was found guilty of 19 sex crime counts against his teenage basketball players.
Prosecutors say Jacob Jackson groomed and manipulated eight teen boys between 2018 and 2022.
In front of his convicted abuser, a former Sumner high school student at Jackson's April 17 sentencing urged a Pierce County judge to keep Jackson locked up for years.
"Standing here today is not an easy task, but I will not let shame and fear silence me," the former SHS student said. "I stand here today to demand accountability, to shed light on the truth, and to ensure that no one else has to endure what I have."
A parent of another former Sumner student described feeling fooled for years by someone they once viewed as a trusted mentor.
"What I somehow failed to recognize over a two-year period of time is that you're grooming, communicating inappropriately, molesting, and raping my son," the parent said. "For that, I will never forgive you."
Washington law states the maximum penalty for these crimes to be 120 months, or 10 years, behind bars.
However, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Philip Sorensen ruled there is a basis for an exceptional sentence of forty years in prison, which is half of the proposed sentence the state had requested.
"These crimes are aggravated by the number of people, by the number of offenses," Judge Sorensen explained.
The Washington Supreme Court states an exceptional sentence can only be approved when “there is some extraordinarily serious harm or culpability resulting from multiple offenses which would otherwise not be accounted for in determining the presumption sentencing range.”
Jackson's defense argued 120 months in prison would be appropriate, and in court documents stated all offenses were "non-violent," except for one count of kidnapping. Jackson's attorney also pushed for him to have a chance to improve himself after release from prison, including a psychosexual evaluation and 72 months of community custody.
Jackson was ultimately handed 480 months, and the judge ruled he maintain no contact with two victims.
Jackson's sentence came down after the court heard emotional testimony from victims and their families who demanded Jackson be held accountable, and described lifelong impacts from what they called repeated, calculated abuse.
Attorney Cole Douglas represents some of the eight former players tied to the incidents...
"I think the 40 years is a ruling that will impact Jake and his decisions," Douglas told KOMO.
He adds that while moving on from the trauma may be a lifelong battle, it's one the now-young men are facing head on.
Sumner police began investigating when they received the first report on Aug. 31, 2022, after one parent found secret messages between Jackson and their child on that teenager's phone. Some of the victims then told police they met Jackson as early as the sixth grade while attending Jackson’s basketball camps and compared their relationship with Jackson to a second father figure growing up.
Multiple players then reported that Jackson consistently asked for inappropriate pictures and messaged them continuously on Snapchat. Others reported they did yard work at Jackson’s home, where some of the abuse also reportedly happened.
At the time of Jackson's arrest, an attorney for the victims told KOMO News that many of Jackson's accusers thought he would never be punished for his inappropriate and illegal actions.
“It’s been horribly difficult for them, their fear this entire time that he would not be accountable in any way, that simply no charges would be filed, so they’ve had to sit and wait and wait,” said attorney Loren Cochran in May 2023.
At the time of his arrest, court documents detailed some of the abuse, where Jackson urged players to keep quiet about the abuse, saying phrases like “to the grave," "lifelong," and "this stays between us.”
Cochran also told KOMO News that through their investigation, they found evidence there were complaints about Jackson’s inappropriate behavior long before it was initially reported to police in 2022.
“There were complaints regarding Jackson back in 2018,” Cochran said, “There were concerns about him individually texting players, there were concerns in 2020 that were brought up to the school district and the WIAA that he was Snapchatting kids, and to the best, we’ve been able to find, no one intervened to stop him.”
Jackson appeared emotionless throughout the Thursday sentencing until he gave a statement and cried, apologizing to each victim, their families, and his family. He asked the judge for grace and mercy, and a second chance at life to prove he's a changed man.
The judge didn't buy it, saying he believed Jackson was only sorry he got caught.
Jackson has 30 days from sentencing to appeal the ruling.
SEATTLE — Casey Cain opened a dictionary and the first word he saw was “Eager.”
He says it was that moment when he picked his now-notorious graffiti tag, which has been spray painted thousands of times on public and private property across Seattle for years.
Cain, 38, has faced several felony charges in the last two years, with prosecutors estimating his tagging has caused hundreds-of-thousands of dollars in damage.
But Cain says he now has a new project – cleaning up graffiti.
“I didn’t know it was that big of a deal, but now that I know, I know what I can do for it,” Cain told KOMO News in an interview on Thursday.
Cain is joining his friend, former graffiti tagger Jay Volkman, in a new graffiti-removal business called "The Buffman."
“When something gets erased on the wall, the buff man got to it,” Volkman said, noting how he came up with his company’s name. “People can have their doubts, but the proof will be in the pudding. We’re not afraid to get out there and do it."
The crew spent the day cleaning up a large tag off a building in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District.
“Personally, I know we can do a better job because we know how it works,” Volkman said.
Graffiti has been a controversial issue in Seattle and a personal gripe of Mayor Bruce Harrell.
“Not only does tagging and graffiti detract from the vibrancy of our city, there are tangible impacts on communities targeted by hate speech, small business owners whose shops are defaced, and residents who rely on City signage for information and guidance," Harrell said when he launched his graffiti initiative in 2022.
Since then, Seattle has spent millions cleaning up unwanted graffiti and attempting to deter vandalism through community outreach. According to city data, there were more than 29,000 requests received by the city related to graffiti cleanup in 2024.
Prosecutors have also stiffened their stance on graffiti tagging, charging dozens of felony cases in King County in the last year against taggers accused of defacing public and private property. Cain was ordered to spend 80 hours cleaning up graffiti as part of a plea agreement on a felony malicious mischief case in 2024.
Cain suffered a serious accident in 2024 and was in a coma. He's still recovering but says he wants to change the face of graffiti in Seattle.
"My advice to others is to stay away from tagging on businesses," Cain said. “They’ll probably want to pay you to add something nice. I’m teaching them a way how to make it work for them.”
Cain, Volkman, and other artists believe the city should offer an outlet for graffiti.
“With all that money being spent, there still is a lot of tagging," Volkman said. "Give people second chances and be open to the idea of joining forces or collaboration. We've got to move forward and try."
Volkman pointed to other cities that offer designated graffiti areas.
"To find the middle ground, I don't think it's that hard," he said. "As with any medium, you just need an area to practice and hone your craft. Up until now, it's just been 'where do you practice graffiti?'"
SEATTLE — Seattle police have announced new safety measures for Alki Beach, a year after it was declared a "crime hotspot."
The update on crime prevention comes shortly after a man was arrested for allegedly threatening people with a knife at the popular location.
One of the key changes involves adjusting Alki Beach's summertime hours. Normally open until 11:30 p.m., the beach will now close at 10:30 p.m. during the summer months.
"We don’t see a lot of good happen after dark, so we are appreciative that they are closing it earlier," said Andrew Gonzales, a nearby resident of Alki Beach.
This marks the fourth consecutive summer that the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the Mayor's office have decided to close Alki Beach an hour earlier than usual. Additionally, SPD will assign two patrol officers to the area every night during the summer to monitor potential trouble spots.
"(The goal) is to go to these hotspots and spend time in each of these areas," said Capt. Krista Bair, Commander of SPD's southwest precinct.
These areas include locations near the home of Gonzales, who noted that he's seen, "a lot of street racing, some activity after dark when the park is supposed to be closed."
West Seattle's park rangers have also been active at Alki Beach, responding 315 times since their introduction last year, primarily for liquor violations, illegal fires, and trespassing.
"We’ve had a couple of interactions with park rangers, and they’ve been nothing but helpful and really great," said West Seattle resident Rachel Benzing.
The new hours for Alki Beach will take effect on May 23, coinciding with the start of Memorial Day weekend. According to Seattle police, year-to-date crime numbers for Alki Beach show a 16% decrease in violent crime and a 12% decrease in property crime compared to the same period in 2024.
EVERETT, Wash. — A judge is expected to rule on whether statements made by the suspect in a crash that killed Washington State Patrol Trooper Christopher Gadd will be allowed at trial.
Gadd, 27, was killed in a crash just before 3 a.m. on March 2, 2024, while working a DUI patrol on southbound Interstate 5 in Marysville. Gadd was sitting in the driver’s seat of his marked WSP patrol car parked in the grass on the right shoulder of the freeway when the crash happened.
Prosecutors say the suspect, Raul Benitez-Santana, was impaired and going 112 mph, hitting the brakes just a half-second before slamming into the back of Gadd’s patrol unit at 107 mph. In probable cause documents for the suspect's arrest, a deputy said Benitez-Santana admitted to smoking weed and drinking two beers earlier that night.
Body camera video released in court shows the initial moment officers arrived at the scene the night Gadd was killed.
Defense attorneys argue that statements Benitez-Santana made immediately after the crash and later at the hospital should be thrown out. They claim he wasn’t read his Miranda rights and wasn’t in the right state of mind to speak with officers.
“We don’t have footage to see when Miranda was given and what Mr. Benitez's physical, emotional, (and) mental state was at the time,” said defense attorney Tiffany Mecca.
The judge is also weighing whether blood evidence should be suppressed, since it was drawn before a warrant was issued. Prosecutors argue they were running out of time to get that evidence.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Benitez-Santana is a citizen of Mexico and was living here “unlawfully” at the time of the crash.
Records show he’s in custody on $100,000 bond.
Thursday’s hearing is scheduled for around 2:30 p.m.
TACOMA - Two people were injured and sent to a hospital after a shooting in Tacoma last weekend. Four days later, one of the victims, a juvenile, died at the hospital from injuries suffered.
According to the Tacoma Police Department (TPD), officers were sent to a local hospital just after 10 p.m. April 12 after staff reported that two victims arrived with gunshot wounds. The shooting occurred on Portland Avenue, between E. 43rd Street and E. 44th Street. The second victim injured in the shooting, an adult man, was in stable enough condition to drive both him and the critically injured juvenile to the hospital.
“Over the following four days, the juvenile male died as a result of his injuries,” TPD confirmed in a news release via social media. “At this time, no arrests have been made.”
Investigation ongoing for weekend Tacoma shooting
Both detectives and crime scene technicians are actively investigating the case.
If anyone has any additional information regarding the Tacoma shooting, they are encouraged to contact TPD or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers.
TUKWILA, Wash. — Police responded to a report of a shooting that left a man injured overnight Thursday.
The scene is along Baker Boulevard, not far from the Lowe's along Andover Park East.
We don’t have much information so far, but are working to find out the extent of the victim’s injuries and if police know who was responsible.