On Friday, we noted the release of repeat offender Ryan Cox, barely a day after he was arrested on a warrant related to his most recent assault conviction, following a discussion at last week’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting. This morning we have the promised followup information from City Attorney’s Office spokesperson Kimberly Mills, who has just spoken with the deputy city attorney on the case.
Mills says the warrant was issued because Cox “needs to report to probation to comply with conditions of mental-health and chemical-dependency evaluations and follow-up treatment,” but has now failed to, twice. With the second failure to report, “the city asked the court to strike probation and impose 60 days, since this was the 2nd time he failed to appear.” But instead, the judge denied that and granted the defense request to give Cox another chance to report to probation: “The court said it would allow him one more chance because the case was fairly new.” So if he fails to report today, apparently another arrest warrant would be the next step.
Cox’s jail stay last Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon was his third in less than two months; the previous warrant had him in jail January 10th through 13th, and his guilty plea in the case kept him in jail December 12th through 31st.
SIDE NOTE: The challenges in his ongoing saga include our state’s laws regarding mentally ill offenders and what it takes for them to be involuntarily committed. A proposal to change those laws has been introduced in Olympia, as our partners at The Seattle Times reported this past weekend.
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