Chrisceda Clemmons' house wasn't the only casualty

There was another house in the lights that night.

Another place surrounded by police and shot with tear gas in the effort to capture Maurice Clemmons, who had killed four Lakewood police officers on Nov. 29, and was on the run.

Clemmons had called his aunt, Chrisceda Clemmons, at her Leschi home and told her he was armed and on his way. She went to Seattle police, who descended on her house and the one next door in the hope of finding Clemmons, who slipped away. (Clemmons was shot and killed by a Seattle police officer two days later).

This week, those neighbors, sisters Melissa and Jennifer Sokolowsky; their brother, Brett; his girlfriend, Heidi McDaniel; and their other roommate, Karen Grasso, are hoping to finally return to the home they rented on East Superior Street.

It has been a trial for these five folks, who had no connection to Clemmons and yet were swept into the fear, sadness and frustration he left behind.

As police descended on the neighborhood hours after the shootings, Brett, Heidi and Karen were escorted out of the house by SWAT team members. (Melissa and Jennifer were in Washington, D.C., visiting family).

In the two months since, they have lived as strangers in their own town. Home is a residential hotel, for which the city has paid $42,000. The Sokolowskys have spent another $10,000 in living expenses and lost wages, which their father has covered until the city reimburses them.

And they have been thrown into the thick of bureaucracy, making calls, filing paperwork and hoping that their house is safe for occupancy. (The owner of the house hasn't been involved in the restitution effort.)

"The city says it is trying to help," said Jennifer Sokolowsky, 37, a magazine editor. "But they sure don't make it easy. You have to engage in a complex game."

Melissa Sokolowsky, 32, a freelance Web designer, found the Leschi rental five years ago and fell in love.

"It's a respite in the middle of the city," she said. She wonders if it will ever feel that way again.

Five canisters of tear gas were shot through the basement window by police in their search for Clemmons. The gas seeped into the heating system and spread through the house, leaving residue on everything in it.

Why the house was hit isn't clear. The two houses stand close together, so police may have thought they were one property, said Bruce Hori, the director of risk management for the city of Seattle.

"Whether it was a mistake or intentional, it doesn't matter," he said.

The city has paid for everything to be cleaned, but the Sokolowskys don't yet feel safe about moving back in.

What's worse, last week someone slipped in through an open window and burglarized the place, taking two TVs, a camera, instruments, a samurai sword and an antique dagger that Melissa Sokolowsky bought during a trip to Angola.

"That would not have happened if we were occupying the house," Melissa said before breaking into tears.

I shared all this with Hori. He understands the Sokolowskys' frustration, but said the city receives 1,800 claims a year, and has only three claims adjusters to handle everything.

The house's contents have been wiped down, the air ducts have been cleaned and the furnace replaced, Hori said.

"If they want to have additional testing before moving in, that's fine," Hori said of the Sokolowskys. "I don't want to send anybody back into the house if it's not safe."

But at some point, Hori said, the house is going to be deemed clean and the Sokolowskys will have to move back in.

"We're trying to be as fair as possible while also being judicious with taxpayer dollars," he said. "We're trying to make things better."

I see both sides; the family that feels frustrated and upended, and the city that is trying to make it right, but with limited time and money.

At least that's all that's needed in Leschi. Time and money.

Compare that to the inexplicable loss being felt by the others Maurice Clemmons crossed. The police officers who died. Their families and colleagues.

Some things you have to wait for.

Some things you never get back.

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

See you at the house warming.

Information in this article, originally published February 9, 2010, was corrected February 9, 2010. A previous version of this story misspelled the names Heidi McDaniel and Brett Sokolowsky.