West Seattle Crime Watch followup: Nicholas Broughton sought by police, days after a plea bargain

Remember Nicholas Broughton, who crashed a stolen car through a fence near a relative’s home in The Junction back in January? Just days after he struck a plea bargain in that case and an earlier identity-theft case, it’s confirmed that he is the man police were looking for last night in the 35th/Myrtle area. Washington’s Most Wanted reports that Broughton, 33, and girlfriend Jennifer Lasky were the targets of the search. She was arrested and is in jail in connection with a $3,000 Pierce County warrant (for failure to appear in court in connection with a driving-with-suspended-license charge). He is still on the run.

Online records show Broughton was in court just last week to plead guilty to reduced charges in the two cases facing him. The first case involves that January night when he drove an SUV, stolen from Tacoma, through a fence near a relative’s home southwest of The Junction. The vehicle had come to police’s attention because it was equipped with LoJack. When charges were filed, Broughton was described as “an 11-time felon.”

Two weeks later, a judge let him out on bail; just weeks after that, Broughton was charged in a separate case, accused of identity theft related to credit/debit cards stolen in multiple car prowls, with at least one West Seattle victim.

After a failure to appear in court, a warrant was issued for him, and Broughton was re-arrested. He was in jail until mid-July, and was scheduled to go on trial this week, but the trial was canceled when he struck a plea bargain involving both aforementioned cases, and a reduction of charges. Documents show he was in court last Friday related to that, pleading guilty to the reduced charges – two counts of second-degree identity theft, one each of hit-and-run and possession of a stolen vehicle (a lesser charge than auto theft). The plea bargain also included a charge of criminal trespass, but documents say that is to be dismissed at his sentencing, which is scheduled for September 26th. It’s too soon to say how/whether this latest skirmish with police will affect that case. Meantime, WMW says there’s a reward out for him, and you can call 911 or 800-222-TIPS if you have information.

21 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch followup: Nicholas Broughton sought by police, days after a plea bargain"

  • Laura September 1, 2014 (1:20 pm)

    At some point, this guy needs to pay for his multi felon lifestyle. Apparently reduced sentencing doesn’t work. I’m all for alternate forms of punishment if it works. At this point, I would be pleased seeing him work on a chain gang (of sorts). Maybe we could get some things cleaned up around town that way.

  • fj September 1, 2014 (1:57 pm)

    a Kia? Crime doesn’t pay. seriously.

  • JanS September 1, 2014 (2:40 pm)

    fj, when you’re stealing them, I’m thinking it doesn’t matter ;-)

  • KT September 1, 2014 (4:01 pm)

    If you don’t see that our criminal justice system is broken then I don’t know what could make it plainer. Out on bail after the WS arrest; charged in a second case two weeks later; failed to appear in court and arrested again and released again… Seriously, this guy couldn’t be denied bail? Why would there be any type of plea bargaining with this defendant?

  • Eric September 1, 2014 (4:12 pm)

    Oh for bleeps sake! Put the guy away already!! What a complete waste of space. I just hope he and his girlfriend don’t procreate!

  • flimflam September 1, 2014 (4:28 pm)

    jeez, revolving door for felons? really? is this the best we can do?

  • tinah September 1, 2014 (5:11 pm)

    Would a person of color get the same lax treatment?

    • WSB September 1, 2014 (5:33 pm)

      RT – “three strikes” doesn’t apply to every crime. I can’t find the link right this second but many “property crimes” don’t qualify.

      Tina, I wish there were an easy way to statistically check that.
      .
      All I can say is that we have covered repeat offenders of various ethnicities these past seven years of publishing news on WSB, and the “in-and-out-and-in-again” types have been of various ethnicities.
      .
      Just a few cases that come to mind … here and here. (The latter went back to jail in July, months after leaving prison, and is still there.) Conversely, one of the longest sentences we’ve seen levied lately was this one. Caveat, again, that’s just anecdotal … TR

  • RT September 1, 2014 (5:19 pm)

    What ever happened to “three strikes and you’re out”? RT

  • B September 1, 2014 (6:12 pm)

    Why were the police looking for him? I’ve read the article and I can’t seem to find why they were looking for him now.

  • ScubaFrog September 1, 2014 (6:43 pm)

    I’m so tired of seeing this terrorist in the news. He’s victimized so many people. I hope the plea deal is nixed, and that he’s forced to remain in custody with no bail. He should face trial, with a 3-strike life sentence. COME ON SEATTLE JUDGES/PROSECUTORS. 11 felonies… 3-strikes must only be applied to minorities in our community (I understand it’s up to the prosecutors when/who to apply it with). If a criminal like Broughton can escape the 3-strike law, then it shouldn’t ever be applied.

  • wetone September 1, 2014 (8:38 pm)

    Criminals organized and non love Seattle easiest place in the nation for them to do as they wish with the smallest repercussions. Getting worse daily. Don’t really care about what our Seattle government and police say on how crime is down, anyone who has lived in this town a long time knows better and has seen the decline. Theft has been an all time high in many areas of this city this last year. Small stuff to large fraud cases involving the elderly with little help from our judicial system. I see it only getting worse with the people we have running this town. No better proof than stories like this one involving Broughton……

  • Get a Clue September 1, 2014 (8:52 pm)

    OK, Seattle, mostly non-violent felon here. Just like your average marijuana dealer. So with dope, you all voted to just let everyone go and legalize it. So what do you want to do with guys like this? Clearly, jail is not the answer….right? I mean, how stupid is it to make our incarceration policy a baseball analogy (“three strikes”) when all that does is clog our jails with non-violent offenders. Come on, Seattle, we’re liberal enough to say “it’s all good” with dope, so let’s legalize guys like this — maybe we can have a dunk tank he’s got to sit in, or something. Let’s have a referendum! It’s fun!

  • brandon September 1, 2014 (10:08 pm)

    If we hadn’t nixed a new jail, we’d have had a place to put him.

  • Eric September 2, 2014 (4:57 am)

    @Get a clue, I hope you’re joking. Comparing someone smoking marijuana, to someone who steals people’s identities? Identity theft can ruin (other) people’s lives. This guy needs to be put away. Oh and before you use the “well what if the marijuana smoker was driving and crashed into your family’s car and hurt or killed a family member?” Well smoking marijuana in Washington state is legal within certain places, like alcohol. Driving under the influence is illegal.

    @tinah. Well I seem to remember Alan Polevia (sic?) getting some pretty lax treatment not all that long ago. The Latino guy who just stole the SUV with the baby inside had this on his on him:

    The man who was arrested was booked into King County Jail just after 7 pm and is being held for investigation of kidnapping and vehicle theft; three domestic-violence cases are listed in his entry on the jail register – one listed as violation of a no-contact order. and the other two as fourth-degree assault.

    Eric: In June this is what he did:

    The suspect, who turns 25 years old tomorrow, has a home less than a block away from today’s incident, according to court documents from the June case involving the no-contact-order violation. The case involved an incident in June at the home of the suspect’s girlfriend, in the Puget Ridge area – he allegedly took her car without permission, and, according to the documents, almost left with the girlfriend’s 7-year-old daughter in the car. The girlfriend tried to stop him from driving it away; the court documents say, he used a Taser-type device to hurt her. Her daughter got out of the car before he left with it; he later abandoned it, the court papers say, after crashing it into a utility pole.

    Eric: I’d say that is pretty lax treatment for this guy to have been out after doing that. I don’t care what their color is. I think all three of the guys should be put away for a while.

  • anonyme September 2, 2014 (6:28 am)

    I personally think it was a mistake to do away with work programs (“chain gangs”) in prison. Clean up trash, make license plates, repair our crappy roads – there’s lots to be done. As it stands, there is no way for criminals to pay back society. They should all be given ‘jobs’ in prison so that they know what it feels like. But first, they have to make it to prison…which is where this guy belongs.

    City government has a million ways to work the stats to tell any story they wish. They may say “crime is down” only because they’ve refused to charge felons with crimes, or bargained down the charge.

  • CB100 September 2, 2014 (1:26 pm)

    I watched this unfold Sunday night while unloading my car. Heard lots of yelling and looked up to see the cops chasing this guy. He jumped a fence and they tried to TASER him but missed. Should have shot him. Not sure how he got so far so quick because there were cops everywhere and one in a car right on his tail.

  • Eric September 2, 2014 (2:39 pm)

    Well CB100, I guess he’s just really good at his um “job”.

  • datamuse September 2, 2014 (3:52 pm)

    You might want to do some research on those work programs, anonyme. For example, everything UNICOR manufactures is made by convict labor.

  • Ex-Westwood Resident September 2, 2014 (5:27 pm)

    Datamuse,
    UNICOR is a Federal program, not a state program.
    The Federal Bureau of Prisons runs it. The BoP also has work details at ALL its facilities. Inmates that have skills are put to work in that field. If they show initiative and want to learn a skill they ask to be detailed to a work crew. They do get paid, not alot, but it’s not slave labor and anything they buy through the commissary puts that money in the system for inmate recreation, i.e. new TVs, exersice equipment…etc.
    I don’t believe the WA DoC has a program like that.

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