Man who threatened autistic boy's family freed after apology

A South Seattle man who repeatedly threatened to burn down the home of an autistic child last year apologized in King County Superior Court on Friday and was released from jail.

Mark Levison, 48, was booked into the King County Jail in July and October for threatening members of the family because of their autistic child. He was convicted of malicious harassment — the state's felony hate-crime law — and of attempted malicious harassment, a misdemeanor.

Superior Court Judge Chris Washington ordered Levison's release from jail, saying that four months was enough time behind bars. Washington criticized Levison for blaming his tirades on alcoholism and ordered him to attend anger-management classes as well as substance-abuse treatment. The autistic boy and his family did not attend the hearing.

"That child was looking at my house and I took it the wrong way," Levison said during the sentencing hearing. "I realize that I made a mistake. It was something real stupid."

Levison, a longtime carpenter and construction worker, plans to move to Oregon in the coming days to live with relatives. He was ordered to serve two years of probation.

According to charging documents, the boy's family moved to the area in mid-June, and, not long after, Levison yelled at the 13-year-old boy while he was climbing a tree.

On July 8, Levison had yelled at the boy's mother, Acquinnette Engen, as she was sitting on her porch.

Engen said she had finished putting her three children to bed when Levison began yelling at her from his yard. She said Levison apparently was imitating her autistic son and threatened to burn down her home unless they kept the boy in the backyard.

On Oct. 2, Levison came out of his home in the 5500 block of South Leo Street around 11 p.m. and began "ranting and raving nonstop" at the boy's father, identified in court papers only as C. Anthony. Anthony told police that Levison said that he didn't want the teen "staring" at his home and challenged the man to a fight, court papers said.

Responding officers said Levison smelled of alcohol, charging papers said. Levison told the officers, "I pay $1,000 a month rent and shouldn't have to see that idiot spinning around and staring at my yard," according to charging documents.

Levison has a prior conviction for breach of peace in an unrelated incident, court records show. He was previously charged with assault and criminal trespass, and he has been charged with several misdemeanors and felonies in Oregon, records show.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com