Tent-city residents deal with warrants

By Young Chang
Seattle Times staff reporter

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After the arrests of two Tent City 4 residents last week on outstanding warrants, six other campers yesterday headed to various law-enforcement agencies to resolve their outstanding warrants, said Bruce Hollander, a resident of the tent city in Bothell.

The homeless encampment's organizers decided over the weekend that anyone with outstanding minor warrants should take care of them before tomorrow ends. They asked anyone with criminal warrants to leave the camp immediately. No one has had to leave.

"We have never been asked to screen for warrants before," Hollander said yesterday. "We only screen for sex offenders."

Also yesterday, the city of Bothell, which last week filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court against the church that's hosting the tent city, announced that a hearing has been scheduled for June 9 and 10.

Bothell sued St. Brendan Catholic Church to determine whether the church violated the city's zoning regulations by agreeing to host the homeless community on its land.

The tent city has been pitched for about a week on church property. Since the encampment arrived, the neighborhood's three schools have stepped up security, while Bothell police officers have consistently patrolled the streets surrounding the tent city.

Though one of the two men arrested last week had been asked to leave because of "erratic behavior," no incidents have been reported.

That man was found wandering the neighborhood and screaming that people were trying to harm him, said Bothell police Capt. Bob Woolverton. He was arrested on an outstanding warrant for escaping community corrections.

The other man was arrested on an outstanding Auburn warrant over domestic violence and for violating a no-contact order. When police approached the man, he was in the company of the person who had filed the no-contact order.

Young Chang: 206-748-5815 or ychang@seattletimes.com

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