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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS June 12, 2014 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Sentenced to more than 2 years in bulldozer case
Swegle gets prison
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Steve Johnson, manager of the Nippon Paper Industries USA Port Angeles mill, stands outside the boiler building where a component is scheduled for replacement to bring the mill’s cogeneration plant online.
BY JEREMY SCHWARTZ PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A Gales Addition man who used a logging bulldozer to tear through his neighbors’ homes and other property last year apologized Wednesday. Barry Swegle, 52, expressed remorse as he was sentenced in Clallam County Superior Court to a little more than two years and four months in prison and ordered to pay restitution. “I’d like to say I am sorry to all the parties involved in this,” said Swegle, who pleaded guilty May 23 in the May 10, 2013, bulldozer rampage that made international headlines. “I am not the type of person that wrecks property or tries to hurt people — never have been, never will be.” But for the son of one of Swegle’s victims, those words and the sentence handed down were not enough. “I don’t believe him,” said Dan Davis Jr., 58, after the sentencing hearing. “I think it was just a great injustice for the public,” he added, referring to the plea deal the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office negotiated with KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS Swegle and his attorney, Karen Unger of Port Angeles. Barry Swegle signs his sentencing papers in Clallam County Superior
Pleaded not guilty
Court in Port Angeles on Wednesday as his attorney, Karen Unger, looks on.
Swegle had pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree malicious mischief, both class B felonies, and three counts of gross misdemeanor reckless endangerment. He was accused of destroying or damaging four homes, a tractor, a boat, a pickup truck and several outbuildings, and knocking down a power pole, causing an outage that affected thousands of Clallam County Public Utility District customers. Jefferson County Superior Court
Judge Keith Harper, who replaced Clallam Superior Court Judge George Wood, who was presiding over a trial in Jefferson County, imposed 29 months in prison, the maximum sentence allowed. John Troberg, chief deputy Clallam County prosecuting attorney, had recommended 24 months. “The acts that occurred here were quite remarkable and extraordinary and unusual,” Harper said. Dan Davis Jr.’s 75-year-old father,
also named Dan, was one of several people in the subdivision east of Port Angeles whose home or other property was damaged or destroyed during the rampage. The elder Davis’ primary residence and a manufactured home he owned on East Pioneer Road, as well as numerous pieces of property, including a boat, a tractor and his beloved Ford F-250 pickup truck, were destroyed. TURN
TO
SWEGLE/A5
Nippon boiler remains offline BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Nippon Paper Industries USA’s upgraded $85 million biomass cogeneration plant, which has not been fully operational since it was dedicated in November, continues to be shut down and will undergo major surgery this fall. The new facility’s mud drum, a water-pressurized main component of the new boiler, and 1,560 pieces of piping will be replaced beginning in September, mill manager Steve Johnson said Wednesday, predicting the new facility should be up and running by October. “We don’t know how much the final cost is going to be, but it will be substantial,” Johnson said. “It will be what it is to make it right.” Nippon’s aging No. 8 boiler, which will be replaced by the new boiler, has been upgraded and is providing steam for the factory without any slowdowns, Johnson said. TURN
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NIPPON/A4
Bomb scare nets Consultant deal approved to devise time behind bars Firm plan for Sequim 21⁄2-year sentence for PA incident BY JEREMY SCHWARTZ PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man has been sentenced to more than 2½ years in prison after pleading guilty to his role in a bomb threat that cleared the Clallam County Courthouse and Armory Square Mall for about two hours March 28. Anthony James Deason, 43, was listed on the roster of the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton on Wednesday. He was sentenced to 32.25 months in prison after he entered a guilty plea in Clallam County
Superior Court on May 29 to one count of solicitation of threats to bomb or injure property.
Restitution Restitution that Deason also must pay, connected with costs incurred from the courthouse closure, will be determined at a July 18 hearing, according to court records. Police say Deason told Steven Alan Fortman Sr., 49, to call in the bomb threats because Deason wanted to avoid a court date. TURN
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SCARE/A5
stormwater flow BY JOE SMILLIE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
SEQUIM –– A Seattle consulting firm will develop a longrange plan for handling stormwater, though some City Council members fear the plan will be a precursor to a new utility fee. The council voted unanimously to approve a $121,335 contract with Herrera Environmental Consultants of Seattle. Concerns from Councilmen Ted Miller and Erik Erichsen prompted the council to say that a grant from the state Department of Ecology will pay 75 per-
cent of the cost. Miller said managing stormwater should be the lowest priority of Sequim’s government, since the city’s 18 inches of annual rain rarely produces flooding. “What problem are we solving?” Miller asked. “There is no city in Western Washington that has a lower concern over rainwater dissipation.” Erichsen agreed, noting that a stormwater utility would be “way too premature and also inappropriate at this time.”
Stormwater utility? Miller said he feared the plan would be just the first step in forming a city stormwater utility, which cities typically fund through fees charged to utility users. “There’s nothing that says we
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Miller and Erichsen eventually voted in favor of the contract, saying the plan could provide useful information at a minimal cost to the city. “There’s nothing wrong with finding out what’s going to happen,” Miller said. “I think we have to think carefully, though, about what we are going to do after this study is complete.” City Engineer David Garlington said Ecology has offered the city a grant to help pay for 75 percent of the study. TURN
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WATER/A5
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