News-Times Whidbey
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2014 | Vol. 124, No. 51 | WWW.WHIDBEYNEWSTIMES.COM | 75¢
COER leader must stay away from Realtor By JANIS REID Staff reporter
A District Court commissioner has ordered that jet noise critic Michael Monson stay away from Realtor Joe Mosolino. The order for protection from harassment was requested June 6 but was made final this past Friday. Court Commissioner Linda Kipling ordered Monson to
refrain from contacting Mosolino, a Realtor with Windermere Real Estate on South Whidbey. Monson must stay 300 feet from Mosolino’s residence and 30 feet from his person at all times, according to court documents. Monson has been a vocal critic of Mosolino for leaking what he considered confidential information on the Whidbey News-
Times website in January. An increasingly vocal opponent of the Navy’s touch-and-go operations at Outlying Field Coupeville, Monson claims that his brokerage, Windermere, did not offer him a noise disclosure to sign when he purchased his home near the field. However, upon reviewing his file, Windermere Realtors disSEE ORDER, A14
Ex-officer guilty of disorderly conduct
N. Whidbey suspect charged with rape
By JESSIE STENSLAND
A rape suspect who was caught hiding on North Whidbey June 14 after a brief manhunt has been charged in Island County Superior Court. Prosecutors charged Douglas L. Blackburn, 50, in Island County Superior Court Wednesday with third-degree rape and unlawful imprisonment with sexual motivation. Both were charged as domestic-violence-related crimes. If convicted of the charges, Blackburn could face up to a year and eight months in prison, plus an additional year for the “sexual motivation enhancement.” Blackburn is being held in jail on $150,000 bail. Deputies were first alerted to the alleged rape and kidnapping by a 911 hang-up call from a Moran Road residence. Blackburn is accused of holding his ex-girlfriend against her will inside a travel trailer in a secluded North Whidbey area for nearly a week; the 42-year-old woman claimed he raped her repeatedly, according to the report by a detective with the Island County Sheriff’s
By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Staff reporter
Former Coupeville deputy marshal Hodges Gowdey said accusations that he handcuffed his former girlfriend during a roadside squabble seven years ago and coached her SEE GOWDEY PLEA, A10
GOWDEY
Driver charged with vehicular homicide June 17 By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
An Oak Harbor woman faces a vehicular homicide charge after a woman she hit died from blood clots more than two months after the crash, according to court documents. North Whidbey resident Rochelle Ward passed away Jan. 14. The blood clots were a result of injuries sustained in the Nov. 5, SEE CHARGED, A14
Digging the low tide
From left, Ruby, 14, Mindy, 4, and Waylon, 7, all of the Butler family of Snohomish County, dig for clams and collect mussels last week along Penn Cove. Three generations have come to Whidbey because of the beauty of the island and easy access to shellfish for the children.
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Photo by Janis Reid/Whidbey News-Times
SEE RAPE SUSPECT, A14
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