RECORD SOUTH WHIDBEY
INSIDE: Kramer’s new racquet, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 | Vol. 87, No. 72 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢ Sports, A7
Photo courtesy of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office
Jean Huden, shown here in a booking photo taken by police in Florida, is expected to be a main witness in the Russel Douglas murder trials.
Key witness in Douglas murder has criminal past Brian Kelly / The Record
South End kids go back to school
BY BRIAN KELLY
Amid the bustle of smiling teachers and anxious parents, students headed back to class Tuesday for their first day of school. Above, Riley Willis and Brianna Blouin await their schoolmates to unload from the bus before finding their new teacher. At right, Michelle Forcier reads an introductory list to her son Adin, 6. It was Adin’s first day at South Whidbey in kindergarten teacher Suzanne Haugen’s class. Parents stayed with their kindergarten students for at least the first 30 minutes of class to review the classroom rules with their children including the library corner, arts and crafts station and bathroom passes. District officials said the first estimate of enrollment is expected Friday.
the Cameron Road resident was listed, she found he wasn’t — and no one else on Cameron Road was, either. “So then I looked at a few more roads. And I discovered nobody on Honeymoon Bay Road,” she added. Other areas followed, also empty of potential voters. The voter database also didn’t
Jean Huden, a key witness in the upcoming trials for the pair accused of the murder of Russel Douglas — and also the woman who led to the arrest of the suspected triggerman in the killing — is a convicted felon with a long history of drug possession and other crimes. Douglas was killed two days after Christmas 2003 as he sat in his car thinking he was waiting for a friend of his estranged wife to drop off a gift for her. Authorities allege that James “Jim” Huden and his mistress, Peggy Sue Thomas, plotted to kill Douglas and lured him to his death at a remote property off Wahl Road. Officials have yet to say, however, why the pair wanted to kill the former Langley resident and father of two. The sole connection between the accused and the dead man that authorities have noted is the victim’s wife, Brenna Douglas, who once worked at a Langley hair salon with Thomas. Jim Huden and Thomas have
SEE VOTERS, A3
SEE WITNESS, A9
South Whidbey Record
Ben Watanabe / The Record
Sewer opponents raise alarm about voters missing from rolls BY BRIAN KELLY South Whidbey Record
FREELAND — Opponents of the plan for a $40 million sewer system for Freeland are amazed — and alarmed — after discovering that as many as half of the voters who live within the boundaries of the Freeland Water & Sewer District aren’t on the county’s roll of voters. The revelation is timely, as mem-
bers of the group formed to fight the expensive sewer project view the November election as crucial. Two candidates, Lou Malzone and Marilynn Abrahamson, hope to unseat sewer commissioners Jim Short and Nolen “Rocky” Knickerbocker and take control of the three-member board. Malzone and Abrahamson have begun campaigning for the seats. But planning for the upcoming election took an unexpected turn
when Abrahamson, who gained fame as a member of POOPS (Property Owners Opposed to the Plan for Sewer) before announcing her election bid, recently received a protest letter from a property owner who wanted to go on record against the sewer expansion project. The letter came “out of the clear blue sky,” she said. And when Abrahamson checked the voter database to make sure