Edmonds native’s first year at Notre Dame
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Trial begins in 1995 killing Danny Ross Giles is accused of first-degree murder in the stabbing death of 26-year-old Patti Berry, whose body was found near the Everett Mall. By Scott North and Diana Hefley Herald Writers
EVERETT — More than 19 years after Patti Berry ran into a killer after work, the man Snohomish County prosecutors say is responsible went on trial Monday for first-degree murder.
Berry, 26, died before sunrise on July 31, 1995. A single mother with a daughter, then just 2, she was last seen headed home after working a shift dancing at Honey’s, a nude nightclub that used to be located along Highway 99 south of Everett. The investigation stalled for years, but was finally closed
using science that didn’t exist when Berry was repeatedly stabbed and her body dumped in a wooded area just south of the Everett Mall, dep- Patti Berry uty prosecutor was the single mother of a Craig Matheson daughter. told jurors. The blood that spattered and pooled in Berry’s car told detectives that’s where she was
attacked, and that her killer likely drove her to the site where her body was dumped. In 2004, more sensitive tests found a man’s DNA on the steering wheel. Four years later, the genetic profile was linked to Danny Ross Giles, a frequent felon who had lived in the area. The statistical probability of a random DNA match was calculated at 1 in 580 million, jurors were told. See GILES, Page A5
Art blooms in Mukilteo community garden
KEVIN CLARK / THE HERALD
Students from local artist Christine Awad Schmalz’s private art studio class (from left) Sarah Dahl, 16, Julia Harker, 15, and Sarah Forrester, 16, share a laugh while painting a colorful mural on a shed at the Mukilteo community garden Saturday. The students designed and created the mural after touring the garden. For more, see the article on Page A3.
Inmate escapes; jail had no clue The Marysville City Jail took two days to notice that a robbery suspect had gone AWOL after Bible study. By Eric Stevick Herald Writer
MARYSVILLE — An inmate is back in custody after slipping out of the Marysville City Jail last week while walking back from Bible study. Rhyan Vasquez, 19, had vanished for two days before anyone noticed he was missing, according to court papers. His absence was first noticed Sept. 24 when his attorney stopped by the jail to visit his client. “When the jail staff went to get him, they noticed he was missing,” a police report said. The Marysville man was first booked into the jail Sept. 16 on misdemeanor warrants out of Marysville Municipal Court. When he went AWOL, he was scheduled to be transferred to the Snohomish County Jail to be booked for investigation of first-degree robbery. In that case, he allegedly punched a new acquaintance in the back of the head and stole his cellphone, wallet and other belongings. Vasquez also is accused of hitting the man in the face with a closed fist, a blow that broke the man’s jaw and knocked out one of his teeth. Vasquez is being held on $200,000 for the robbery allegation and another $50,000 for the escape. Jail staff was able to retrace Vasquez’s disappearance from footage taken by jail surveillance cameras on Sept 22. See JAIL, Page A5
Lawmakers hear pleas for public records relief Herald Writer
OLYMPIA – Debate continued Monday on what cities and counties can do when they question the motive behind public records demands requiring hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to deliver.
And a Snohomish County official urged members of a legislative committee to explore avenues of relief, citing the case of one resident who she said uses the Public Records Act as a “weapon of retaliation and a weapon of harassment.” This resident has filed 302 requests since Jan. 1, 2013,
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including five on Monday, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sara Di Vittorio told members of the House Local Government Committee. More than 1,600 hours of labor have gone into responding to those requests, with half those hours spent fulfilling ones that were not picked up, she said. “We need help. We don’t have the resources in the act to protect our employees,” she said, adding she expects another batch of requests once the person learns
Boyz only To be broadcast on ESPN? Iceland will hold a United Nations conference on gender equality — to which only males will be invited (Page A6). After a day of talking about gender issues, attendees will enjoy a playoff game as NFL Commissioner Roger Dear Abby . . . B3 Good Life . . . . B1
of her testimony. Problems with public record disclosures have emerged as a major concern of local governments in recent years. Lawsuits stemming from failure to disclose records, or to do so in a timely manner, resulted in significant fines against some entities. Earlier this month Snohomish County agreed to pay $575,000 to settle a lawsuit in which the county was accused of failing to respond to several records requests “in a timely manner.”
Goodell’s guests in his personal luxury suite. Comcastic new job: Seeking to repair a lessthan-stellar reputation for customer service, Comcast has appointed a University of Washington graduate to the new position of senior vice president of customer experience (Business
Horoscope . . . B8 Lottery . . . . . . A2
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Briefly, Page A7). According to Comcast, the new VP will examine everything the company does with customers, which means he’ll be cooling his heels at home waiting for a service rep to show up sometime between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Age of consent: In an Short Takes . . B4 Sports . . . . . . C1
The suit was brought by activists promoting environmental causes in farming areas who had filed more than 275 requests. Gold Bar even pondered bankruptcy because of a large legal tab spawned from its handling of requests. A 2013 analysis by the William D. Ruckelshaus Center tried to determine the extent of reports that abuses of the law cost cities, counties, and school districts See RECORDS, Page A5
experiment run in London, people who signed up for free WiFi access signed terms of use that required them to give up their firstborn children (Page A8). They obviously didn’t read the terms. Or maybe they did — right after their firstborn smeared peanut butter into a sibling’s hair.
— Mark Carlson, Herald staff
Octoberish 60/53, C6
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“We need help,” a Snohomish County official said at a public hearing, citing the case of a local resident who has filed hundreds of record requests in the last couple of years.
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