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TUESDAY, 07.08.2014
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EVERETT, WASHINGTON
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Ex- Reardon aide sentenced 24 pot By Noah Haglund and Scott North Herald Writers
ARLINGTON — A onetime aide to Aaron Reardon, the former Snohomish County
executive, will pay a $1,500 fine and serve five days on a Skagit County work crew for tampering with evidence during a criminal investigation. Kevin Hulten received that sentence Monday after pleading
guilty to the gross misdemeanor. If Hulten for some reason can’t serve on the work crew, Cascade District Court Judge Jay Wisman said he must return for a new sentencing hearing. Hulten also was ordered to pay nearly $2,000 in court costs and fees. Wisman said Hulten’s behavior was “reprehensible.” Hulten, 35, now lives in California. As part of a plea
agreement he admitted that he downloaded a data-wiping program onto a county-owned laptop in March 2013. That was evidence tampering because Hulten knew he was under investigation by King County detectives. They planned to examine the computer as part of an effort to See AIDE, Page A2
Taking a stand in Stanwood Students team to rid Church Creek Park of vandalism, drug use
STANWOOD — The mural is about transformation. It’s about overcoming struggle. It’s about finding a voice. That’s how seven Stanwood teens describe “Project STAND,” their work painting a mural for Church Creek Park at 27116 72nd Ave. NW. The teens and other volunteers are working with Stanwood police to clean up the 16-acre park, where vandalism, damaged play equipment, and drug and alcohol abuse have led to prolonged closures, especially during school hours.
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When Police Chief Rick Hawkins visited the park last fall, the gate was locked, closing off the entrance, and young people were hanging out inside. At the sight of him, they scattered into the bushes. He waited them out. They all got to talking. He asked them for ideas to make the park vibrant again. As chief, Hawkins didn’t like the idea of a park being closed because of a few people committing crimes there, he said. “We’re supposed to prevent that,” he said. “Let’s stop the damage and criminal activity and get it fixed up and cleaned up, where people want to be a
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part of it.” Around the same time the chief was thinking about the problems at the park, Krystal Roig, 32, stopped by the police station, to report issues with graffiti at a local grocery store. She’d recently moved to Stanwood from Florida. She and the chief talked. When people have problems, he likes to hear their ideas for solutions, he said. Hawkins learned that Roig has a master’s degree in criminal justice, and she had experience working with young people. Hawkins asked her for help with the park. That’s how the project got
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started: “STAND,” for Stereotypes Alternatively Defined. Church Creek Park has a negative stereotype, Roig said. She assembled a team of teens who volunteered from Lincoln Hill High School, an alternative campus in town. “They put a lot of hours into this, since the beginning of February,” Hawkins said. The teens created a mockup for the mural. They recently presented it to the school board, and are now painting the final piece, a 10-by-4-foot two-piece plank of plywood, at the Community Resource center. See PARK, back page, this section
See POT, Page A4
DAN BATES / THE HERALD
Herald Writer
A retail marijuana outlet in Smokey Point is scheduled to open Sunday, and stores are coming to Camano Island and Langley.
SEATTLE — Washington state issued its first retail marijuana licenses Monday with a middle-of-the-night email alerting bleary-eyed pot-shop proprietors that they’ll finally be able to open for business. “We’re pretty stoked,” said John Evich, an investor in Bellingham’s Top Shelf Cannabis, in a 2:30 a.m. interview with The Associated Press. “We haven’t had any sleep in a long time, but we’re excited for the next step.” Randy Simmons, the state Liquor Control Board’s project manager for legal marijuana, said Sunday night that the first two dozen stores were being notified so early to give them an extra few hours to get cannabis on their shelves before they are allowed to open their doors at 8 a.m. today. The store openings are expected to be accompanied by high prices, shortages and celebration. The state licensed 14 stores in western Washington and 10 in eastern Washington. Snohomish County’s first marijuana retailer in Smokey Point is scheduled to open at 11 a.m. Sunday, while Island County is get its initial stores in Camano Island and Langley. Elsewhere, Spokane has three stores. Vancouver, Tacoma and Bellingham each have two. Seattle and the other cities on the list have one each. The issuance of the retail licenses marked a major step that’s been 20 months in the making. Washington and Colorado stunned much of the world by voting in November 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, and to create state-licensed systems for growing, selling and taxing the pot. Sales began in Colorado on Jan. 1. It remained unclear how many of the pot-shops being licensed in Washington planned to open today. Officials eventually expect to have more than 300 recreational pot shops across the state. At Cannabis City, which will be the first and, for now, only recreational marijuana shop
Mural project coordinator Krystal Riog (left) enjoys a lighter moment working with recent Lincoln Hill grad Nick Platt, 18, on the design of a dragon he is creating for a Church Creek Park mural.
By Rikki King
shops get state licenses
THE BUZZ: The state’s first pot stores open today: Too bad you can’t get Green Stamps anymore. Page A2
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Kevin Hulten, who pleaded guilty to evidence tampering, will pay a $1,500 fine and serve five days on a Skagit County work crew.
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