ORIGINAL 12:13 PM REPORT: Ryan Cox, the 32-year-old man with multiple vandalism arrests in West Seattle in the past year and a half, is in jail again, and due in court today. We discovered this while checking the King County Jail Register for an unrelated case. Police confirm he was arrested for graffiti vandalism in the 7100 block of Fauntleroy SW (map) just after 10 am Saturday. He is scheduled for arraignment this afternoon in the Mental Health Court program of Seattle Municipal Court. What is most notable here is that after his last arrest in February, for a tire-slashing incident, he pleaded guilty and was given a suspended sentence of nearly a year in jail. John McGoodwin from the City Attorney’s Office later told the Morgan Community Association (covered in this WSB report) that if Cox got into trouble again anytime “soon,” that sentence could be reinstated. After his previous arrests, for multiple incidents of graffiti vandalism (often involving a profane slur linking homosexuality with pedophilia, and police say this case involved “homophobic” graffiti as well), Cox was twice found incompetent to stand trial, with charges dismissed as a result, and sent to Western State Hospital for evaluation both times, but not committed. (The above photo was released by police while Cox was being sought in the cases for which he was arrested last December; we’ll let you know what happens today in court.)
2:03 PM UPDATE: We’re at the downtown city courthouse, where Cox’s brief hearing has just concluded. Read on for details:
Deputy city attorney Jennifer Grant pointed out Cox’s history to Judge Edsonya Charles, including the fact he is on probation for the February tire-slashing case to which he pleaded guilty, and her office’s concern about this being “ongoing behavior over time.” The city requested bail be set at $5,000, and the judge granted that, as well as the request that Cox be sent to Western State Hospital, again, for evaluation. This time, Grant told the judge, the city is asking that the evaluators consider what it would take to “restore” – medicate to the point of competency – Cox so that he could answer this as a “serious offense.” (That was not done in previous cases, but if it is decided that this will proceed that way, it would allow him to be held longer for treatment.)
Cox’s lawyer, from the public defenders at Associated Counsel for the Accused, said Cox would not object to the evaluation. He made that clear, having said loudly to his attorney, early in the hearing, that he would rather be at the hospital than in the county jail, and then asking the judge toward the hearing’s end, “Can you have me sent there tomorrow?” Judge Charles replied that she had no control over the timetable; she set his next hearing in her court for August 30th, at which time the results of the evaluation will be known.
We’ll continue to follow the case.
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