Friday, March 22, 2013
www.centralkitsapreporter.com
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Sailor shoots hand while cleaning gun By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
The Kitsap County Sheriff ’s Office reports that an active duty sailor who lives at Naval Base Kitsap - Bangor accidentally shot himself in the hand while cleaning a handgun in an apartment in the 12000 block of Cloudy Peak Lane NW in Silverdale on Saturday afternoon. The man told police he was cleaning a .45 caliber Glock 21 semi-automatic handgun when it accidentally discharged. In order
to clean the gun, it needs to first be cleared and the trigger must be pulled. The victim told police that “he normally catches the chambered round while clearing the weapon,” but in this case it discharged, a Winchester Hollow Point bullet went through his hand, struck a flat screen television and remained lodged there. A deputy later observed gun cleaning equipment on the floor and the pistol was lying on a TV stand. “The magazine had been removed and was lying next to the pistol,” a
deputy wrote in his report. “I also observed a bullet hole in the screen of the TV. I checked the back of the TV and did not find an exit hole indicating that the bullet stayed within the TV. I observed a blood trail leading from the living room to the kitchen area and out to the front door. The victim met medics at the door and walked out to the aid unit under his own power.” The man who shot himself in the hand was transported to Harrison Medical Center in Silverdale before being
airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Deputies report that he was stable and never lost consciousness. Deputies also notified the man who leases the apartment, also an active duty sailor at Bangor, about the shooting.
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Man arrested for child pornography By KEVAN MOORE kmoore@soundpublishing.com
Police arrested a 28-year-old Kitsap man on March 9 after a lengthy investigation for the possession of child porn. Robert Ritchie was charged in Kitsap County District Court on March 11 with possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the second degree. Police say that Ritchie has several aliases, some of which were legal name changes. Ritchie has a previous conviction for communication with a minor for immoral purposes in 2006. Ritchie has lived in the Bremerton area and most recently resided on Bainbridge Island. Ritchie (using a different name) pawned a laptop computer for a loan
SHERIFF CONTINUED FROM A1
time-keeping role. The auditors’ report states that “internal controls at the county were not adequate to safeguard public resources.” It lists three weaknesses: not all payments were being receipted, deposits were not made daily and there was inadequate review of deposits to ensure they were being made and matched receipts. The sheriff ’s office, however, disagreed with one of the findings in the auditors’ report. According to Wilson, the issues stemmed solely from the employee and the sheriff’s office had the necessary internal controls in place. “We don’t necessarily agree with that statement (by the auditors’ office),” Wilson said. “The individual review controls
earlier in 2012 at a local Bremerton Pawn Shop. Ritchie defaulted on the loan; therefore the pawn shop took ownership of the laptop computer. An employee of the pawn shop began to review the contents of the laptop, preparing it for sale. The employee found what was believed to be child pornography and contacted the Bremerton Police Department. Detectives conducted a forensic exam of the computer and found 28 movie files downloaded from the internet to have titles which indicate the user was intending to download child pornography. Some of the titles appeared to contain video which correspond with the age of children depicted in the title. All of the children in the videos appeared to be 12 to 16 years of age.
have always been there and were being followed.” In the sheriff’s office’s written response to the State Auditor, however, it said, “This failure pointed to a need to improve our management controls over our entire process.” Wilson pointed out that the auditors’ report states the internal control issues reside within the county as a whole, and not necessarily the sheriff’s office. “The inadequate independent review problem is part of both the sheriff’s office and the county,” Wilson said. “There are issues ongoing all over the place.” The auditor’s office interviewed the employee in January 2013. According to the report, she told auditors “she did not make the deposits because she did not have enough time to reconcile receipts to payments.” Auditors found that records supported the employee’s claims except
in the case of undeposited payments that did not require reconciling. Auditors said they could not conclusively determine if any loss had occurred because there was a lack of internal controls. Matt Miller with the auditor’s office said if internal controls had been properly in place, the auditor’s office would have been able to properly track all deposited funds to determine if any fraud had taken place. As it stands with the information available to them, Miller said auditors found no evidence that fraud had occurred. The sheriff’s office is in the process of conducting its own internal investigation. The responsible employee was removed from service and has been at home on paid administrative assignment pending the investigation’s results since October 2012.
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