Man jailed for threat to release city official’s address to rapists, sickest offenders

Published 1:30 am Friday, January 20, 2017

A 35-year-old man is being held in jail on $100,000 bail for allegedly threatening to give out the address of the Oak Harbor city attorney to “rapists and the sickest violent offenders,” according to court documents.

After making the alleged threat, Jeremy Dawley, an Oak Harbor resident, filed a public records request with the city, asking to review records of people who committed violent offenses and sexual assaults.

Prosecutors charged Dawley in Island County Superior Court last week with two counts of intimidating a public servant, which carry a standard sentencing range of three to eight months in jail.

In her Jan. 11 report on the case, Officer Lisa Powers-Rang wrote that Dawley called 911 a total of 124 times over the prior nine months to report traffic, animal and public assist complaints.

Powers-Rang wrote that Dawley’s behavior escalated over the prior month and that he has become a risk to the community.

On Jan. 8, officers responded to a traffic complaint from Dawley, who was walking through town with his dog. Dawley became agitated and warned an officer not to get out of his car or his dog would attack.

The officer responded that he would be forced to shoot the dog if it attacked.

The next day, Dawley called the dispatch center and reported that the officers placed him in “an ambush situation” and threatened to shoot his dog. He called multiple times the following days and left agitated messages, the police report said. Dawley told a dispatcher that he would look up the officers’ houses on Facebook and “enforce the laws at their houses,” the police report alleges.

He also left a rambling message with the Oak Harbor Police Chief Kevin Dresker.

Dresker and Powers-Rang called Dawley back and put him on speaker phone. Dawley said he could do a records request and get the home addresses of the chief, the major and the police chief. Dawley allegedly said he would give out the city attorney’s personal information to rapists and violent offenders; he threatened to give the chief’s personal information to jaywalkers, the report states. He told them it was not threatening to look up the personal information and disseminate it to whoever he wants.

During the rambling conversation, Dawley told the officers that he has a sniper rifle; he also said he knows how to deal with motion sensor lights and would be able to cover them and enter through a window, Powers-Rang wrote.

In a later conversation with the city attorney, Dawley told her that he is a law abiding citizens, not a murderer, and is not “going after you guys,” the officer wrote.

She asked him about the comments he made to the chief about her personal information; he said he wasn’t going to give her address to pedophiles but felt others in the community would like to know her whereabouts, her picture and pictures of her children.

“Dawley further mentions that speaking hypothetically that he would do a direct mailer to the pedophiles, the rapists and the violent offenders and have them sent to her house,” Powers-Rang wrote.

On Jan. 10, Dawley went to the police station and filled out a public records request form. He wrote that he wished to review records of violent offenders, including those who committed sexual assaults.

Dawley walked across the street to City Hall and went into the legal department, where staff members hit the panic alarm. A detective arrived and arrested Dawley on suspicion of intimidating a public servant.

Dawley’s attorney could not be reached for comment.