Rambow faces assault, burglary charges

Shane Rambow is accused of choking his girlfriend, entering her apartment without permission and breaking her cellular phone, court documents show.

Prosecutors charged Rambow, a 23-year-old Oak Harbor resident, in Island County Superior Court Sept. 21 with assault in the second degree, burglary in the first degree and malicious mischief in the third degree. They are all filed as domestic-violence-related charges.

Oak Harbor Police Officer Tony Slowik investigated the incidents that occurred in the early morning of Sept. 18. Rambow’s 21-year-old girlfriend and her friend reported that they were at El Cazador restaurant in Oak Harbor when Rambow showed up. He confronted his girlfriend about a man’s phone number on her cellular phone.

Rambow threw the cell phone at the woman, but it hit the ground in the parking lot and broke. He started choking her until a passerby stopped him, the officer wrote.

Rambow’s girlfriend and her friend then went to her apartment. The two women were sitting, and one was holding a 7-month-old baby, when Rambow suddenly came in the door uninvited and starting choking his girlfriend again, the report claims. Her friend called 911.

Slowik wrote that Rambow jumped off the balcony to escape when the police arrived.

Rambow, however, later told the officer that he only held his girlfriend down to stop her from hitting him; he said he couldn’t remember if he put his hands on her neck, the report indicates.

Rambow was released from jail Sept. 24 after posting $50,000 bail. He could face more than two years in prison under the standard sentencing range if convicted of the charges against him.

Contact Whidbey News Times Assistant editor Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewsgroup.com or 360.675.6611 ext. 5056.

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