Community
Community
Where in South Kitsap? scenes from the holidays
Couple bringing coffee, yoga to waterfront locale
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Sports Wolves get a shock in tournament opener
INDEPENDENT Page A10
PORT ORCHARD
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2011 ■ Vol. 120, No. 52 ■ www.portorchardindependent.com ■ 50¢
Sk8Town sues MMA promoters
Our year in review By TIM KELLY Editor
It may sound clichéd, but the top news stories of 2011 in Port Orchard could be regarded as the good, the bad and the ugly.
Big crowd attended, but lawsuit says duo staging the event kept all the money
THE GOOD
By TIM KELLY
That, of course, would be the phenomenal community support of the first Jingle Bell Run/Walk in Port Orchard. A yearlong effort led by Sheila Cline to plan and promote the event, a fundraiser for the Arthritis Foundation, culminated Dec. 3 when well over 1,000 people lined up at the 5k event’s starting line on Bay Street in front of City Hall. The huge turnout and a fundraising total of roughly $50,000 far exceeded Cline’s expectations for the inaugural event, not to mention the very high fun factor for all involved as they enjoyed prerace activities including a costume contest and impromptu street dance.
THE BAD At the opposite end of the calendar was a Jan. 23 shooting that left two Kitsap County sheriff’s deputies
Walmart shooting Jan. 23
Editor
Jingle Bell Run Dec. 3
Myrhe’s fire July 1
wounded and a 31-year-old Utah man and his 13-year-old female companion dead in the Walmart parking lot. A Washington State Patrol investigation concluded that Anthony Martinez ran away from the deputies who were questioning him outside the store and shot them both as
they chased him. He was then shot in the leg by a third deputy, Krista McDonald, who arrived on the scene and saw Martinez firing at deputies John Stacy and Andrew Ejde. When Martinez was shot and fell, 13-year-old Astrid Valdivia got out of the parked van the pair had been traveling in and ran to where he lay on the asphalt. Martinez fatally shot her and then turned the gun on himself. Validivia was a runaway who had been living in a foster home in Utah, and she and Martinez had left the state five days before the shooting. The deputies were dispatched to
Walmart look for Martinez after an acquaintance he contacted in Port Orchard had notified authorities, saying something didn’t seem right about the relationship between Martinez and the girl, whom he said was his daughter. Ejde was hit by two shots, in his left shoulder and right bicep, and Stacy was hit in the right shoulder. Both recovered from their injuries and returned to patrol duties, and in September they and McDonald were presented awards for their actions.
They took the money and skated. That’s what the manager of Sk8Town alleges in a lawsuit filed against the promoters of an event that drew about 1,000 people for a night of mixed-martial arts fights at the South Kitsap skating rink earlier this month. The lawsuit filed Dec. 7 in Kitsap County Superior Court says the promoters — Jennifer N. Manley and Carl J. Halliburton, whose business is called Revolution RepubliQ — took all the money from tickets sold at the door for the Dec. 3 event and have not repaid Sk8Town for expenses in staging the event, nor have they split the net proceeds with Sk8Town after expenses were covered, as the contract calls for. Tickets for the all-ages MMA event, which was billed as “Liberation,” cost $15 in advance and $20 at the door. There also were $45 tickets available for front-row seating and $75 tickets for a VIP lounge where alcohol was served. Staff hired by the promoters collected tickets and admission SEE SK8TOWN, A2
Index Opinion Robert Meadows Scene & Heard Sports Thinking Allowed Business
SEE YEAR IN REVIEW, A3
South Kitsap’s Source for News & Information Since 1890
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