News-Times Whidbey
SPORTS: Legion competes in Skagit County. A9
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2013 | Vol. 114, No. 55 | www.whidbeynewstimes.com | 75¢
Explorer accused of impersonating police officer By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Owen Midgett, 6, holds up a fish Saturday at the Kids Fishing Derby in Oak Harbor. His father, Brandon, and brother, 4-year-old Ethan, are in the background.
Hooked ON
fishing Staff reporter
By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Justin Burnett / Whidbey News-Times
Breanna Lewandowski, 8, holds up the first catch of the day.
See derby, A20
out permission, unlawful possession of a firearm and several theft charges. A judge ordered Capellan held on $15,000 bail July 5. Chief Green said the allegations are a little embarrassing for the department, but he also sees the case as a learning experience. “It gives us a reason to evaluate our systems,” he said. “Are there things we could have done differently? It’s really a self-audit.” See explorer, A5
A resident, a firefighter and a dog suffered injuries in a Monday night house fire in Oak Harbor, but they all are recuperating nicely. Chief Ray Merrill with the Oak Harbor Fire Department said the couple who live in a one-story house on Southeast Barrington Drive left home at about 9
p.m. The woman returned at about 10:30 p.m. and discovered a house filled with heavy smoke. The woman went into the burning house twice to look for her dog and found him in the bedroom. The pooch was barely breathing and was rushed to a veterinarian’s office by the male resident. See fire, A20
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Ed Green, Oak Harbor police chief
Two people, dog injured in fire
By JUSTIN BURNETT
Bouncing up to the scale with her prize clutched tightly between two tiny hands, Breanna Lewandowski’s ear-to-ear grin was absolutely infectious. The 8-year-old fisherman had just become the first to land a fish at the 33rd annual Kids Fishing Derby in Oak Harbor Saturday and it didn’t matter that her catch was barely three inches long. She was ecstatic. And dedicated. A slip and few sloshes later, the fish was weighed and Lewandowski was back at her post with a line in the water. She was going to catch many more, she said confidently, as this wasn’t her first time fishing. “I think I was 3 when I first started,” she said matter-of-factly.
A member of the department’s Explorer program stole a patrol car, a badge and a Taser and masqueraded as an officer on the Navy base in May, according to Oak Harbor Police Chief Ed Green. Josue A. Capellan, a 20-year-old Oak Harbor resident, allegedly told a detective that he wanted to know what it would feel like to pull someone over by himself. He denied actually doing so, but investigators are downloading video feed from the car to check what he did on the alleged joyride. Detectives arrested Capellan July 4 on suspicion of impersonating an officer, taking a motor vehicle with-
“This absolutely is not a representation of what these kids are like.”