Olympia man gets 30 days for shooting motor home that allegedly dumped sewage on street
A man who shot at a motor home after it allegedly dumped sewage in his west Olympia neighborhood will serve 30 days in jail, during which he’ll be allowed work release if he’s eligible.
The sentencing follows a guilty plea made Thursday in Thurston County Superior Court.
Richard J. DeForge, 57, pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as part of a negotiated plea agreement. He was initially arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault with a firearm in August, but was ultimately charged with second-degree assault.
Judge Chris Lanese granted DeForge a “first-time offender waiver,” which can be applied to people who have never been convicted of a felony before.
Scott Jackson, the deputy prosecuting attorney on this case, told The Olympian that the waiver changes the standard range of sentencing. A person convicted of second-degree assault would not be eligible for the same waiver, Jackson said.
“I think this strikes a balance of Mr. DeForge’s law-abiding behavior for all these years and recognizing this was a dangerous, dangerous situation,” Jackson said at DeForge’s change of plea and sentencing hearing Thursday.
DeForge was arrested the morning of Aug. 1, when Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies responded to shots fired on 20th Lane Northwest off Overhulse Road Northwest in west Olympia.
According to the accounts of deputies and witnesses in court documents:
One neighbor saw a man appear to close a valve to a septic pipe on a motor home and told a second neighbor he thought the man had dumped his septic tank. The neighbor said it was the second time waste had been dumped on his street.
The second neighbor told police that “she has been on high alert for drug activity and for the people who had dumped septic waste on her street.” When she saw a motor home driving on her road, she texted DeForge, her neighbor, about “the suspicious vehicle.”
As the motor home approached the two neighbors, the second neighbor told the first to try to block it. At that point, DeForge was coming toward them on an electric scooter.
The second neighbor said she approached the motor home driver’s window and asked, “Why would you do this?”
DeForge tried to get the motor home to stop on foot. From “a couple feet behind the vehicle,” DeForge shot two or three times at the motor home’s tires, and one neighbor said he then started shooting at the back of the vehicle.
Once the motor home stopped, DeForge was able to get the injured driver out of the vehicle.
The driver had a “small hole behind his right ear,” according to charging documents, but it wasn’t clear if it was a bullet or something else that hit him.
While the defense and prosecutors agreed on the first-time offender waiver, DeForge’s defense lawyer, Robert Flennaugh II, recommended community service rather than the prosecution’s recommendation for work release.
“The defense recommendation is based on the fact that Mr. DeForge has expressed genuine and sincere remorse,” Flennaugh wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “Also, he has no criminal history.”
In the memo, Flennaugh described DeForge as a “protector of the neighborhood” who led the organization of his community’s “block watch” and set up a group text. At the hearing Thursday, Flennaugh asked how many people in the courtroom knew DeForge, and three rows of people raised their hands.
There had been a recent influx of late-night foot and car traffic and drug paraphernalia in DeForge’s neighborhood, Flennaugh wrote in the memo, and DeForge had tried to take issues to the police. He wrote that the driver of the motor home “and/or others started fighting back” by taking down signs he posted warning that the street was private, driving close to him, and dumping raw sewage.
“Unfortunately, Mr. DeForge took the protection of his community too far,” the memo reads.
At the hearing Thursday, Flennaugh also brought up that DeForge is the caretaker for his wife, who suffers from “a debilitating illness.”
Attachments to the defense’s memo include several letters from character references and letters from DeForge himself.
“Endangering someone’s life by my actions on August 1, 2019 has had a devastating impact on myself and on my family,” DeForge wrote. “I very deeply regret what I have done and will live with this regret forever.”
DeForge wrote that he’s sought professional help to address his behavior, he stopped participating in neighborhood watch and group texts, he’ll never own a gun again, and that he’s been reliving the event and suffering from insomnia. At his hearing Thursday, DeForge said he may have to sell his house and move.
Judge Lanese said at the hearing that he was originally skeptical about granting the first-time offender waiver, and that he believes “someone could’ve died, and it could’ve been someone who wasn’t the intended target” that day.
However, Lanese said he determined DeForge is “an exceptional man who made an exceptionally bad decision.” But, he said community service, as the defense requested, would be “a step too far.”
DeForge was sentenced to 30 days in jail, during which he’ll be allowed work release if he’s eligible, then six months in community custody. He’s required to forfeit his firearm, pay $800 in fees, and pay restitution in an amount that hasn’t been determined to the driver of the motor home for medical bills. He was ordered not to have contact with the driver of the motor home for five years.
“I’m confident, as you stand here today and as I look at the people who support you, you are a good man who isn’t going to make this kind of mistake again,” Judge Lanese said.
DeForge can start serving his 30 days as late as Jan. 23, 2020.
.jpg)