A hearing is set Wednesday for the man arrested Friday night in connection with one of the recent “flasher” incidents. As reported here on Saturday, the 37-year-old man was jailed for investigation of indecent exposure and failure to register as a sex offender. We’ve learned a bit more about the case today, now that we’ve been able to check with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
This incident happened last Tuesday evening near Beach Drive and Orleans (map). The victim (whose comment here is the only reason we knew about the case) is quoted as telling police that she was walking north on Beach Drive when she saw a Nissan Pathfinder parked northeast of the intersection. A man inside yelled over to ask her if she knew where Hanford Street is; she walked closer and saw through its front windshield that he was exposing, and holding, himself. She walked away, making note of the license plate and other descriptive factors. Police responded and went to the Admiral-area home of the car’s owner, who told them his son had been driving the vehicle, a 1998 silver Pathfinder, parked there and still warm (though the suspect was not found). After further investigation, the suspect was arrested on Friday. The probable-cause document makes note of the two similar incidents in West Seattle over the past two weeks – one in Admiral on July 15th, in Gatewood on July 17th – but does not say if he is officially suspected; we’ll see what happens if and when charges were filed.
His status as a Level 2 sex offender is related to what’s described as convictions for arson and burglary with a sexual motivation in 2000; the court documents are not available online so we don’t have details of the case. He was reported to have moved out of state in 2007, apparently to Idaho, where he was found guilty of failure to register in 2008, and should have registered within three days of returning to this state, which might have been as long as two years ago. Since he was arrested Friday, a bail hearing was held Saturday, and bail was set at a total of $100,000; the suspect posted bond and was released from jail afterward, and is due back in court Wednesday afternoon, by which time we might know about charges in the case.
TUESDAY EVENING UPDATE: The suspect, Duane Atwood, is now on the sex-offender registry, so we are identifying him with this public information now published on the county website. No photo with the listing, though.
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