Followup: Where Ryan Cox’s case stands, after this week’s arrest

As promised, we followed up on the latest arrest of Ryan Cox, the West Seattle repeat offender who has been in and out of the criminal-justice and mental-health systems: The City Attorney’s Office tells WSB he will spend up to four more months in jail as a result of his most recent arrest. It dates back to the assault case in which he pleaded guilty last year. His original sentence ended New Year’s Eve. Three weeks after that, he was arrested for violating probation; though the CAO sought to have him kept in jail longer, a judge released him on personal recognizance after one day. Local business owners say he still wanders the area with disruptive behavior, and brought their concerns to the West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting again this past Tuesday. Both new Southwest Precinct commander Capt. Steve Wilske and Seattle Municipal Court presiding judge Kimi Kondo, who also hears cases in the city’s Mental Health Court, were there. During the meeting, we discovered via the publicly viewable SMC docket that another probation-violation warrant had been issued for Cox’s arrest, two weeks earlier. The wheels began turning after the meeting; the following day (Wednesday) he was arrested and jailed. Since then, he’s appeared again in court. CAO spokesperson Kimberly Mills tells WSB that while they wanted all remaining jail time to be imposed (about 11 months), Judge Pro Tem Robert Chung instead revoked the suspension of 180 days – six months – and “struck active probation.” With the time he has served so far, that would mean a release date no sooner than mid-June, Mills says. Side note: The short account of Cox’s Thursday hearing says the court was addressed by an SPD officer regarding “community concerns”; Capt. Wilske had promised Tuesday night that he would make sure that information was brought to the court’s attention.