Dori: Another local judge releases suspect considered ‘a danger to the community’

For the second time in less than a week, a King County District Court judge rejected prosecutors’ efforts to hold a suspected criminal they call “a danger to the community” and decided to release the previously convicted felon with no bail.

According to documents filed by the King County Prosecutor’s Office and obtained by The Dori Monson Show, Judge Pro Tem Justin Walsh refused to hold Blake L. Kirvin, 31, in a March 27 case where he is accused of pointing a handgun at a woman in a Federal Way parking lot.

In their affidavits, prosecutors told Judge Walsh that the woman – who had witnessed an argument between Kirvin and another man – was threatened by an armed Kirvin. Court records show she thought her “life was going to be taken.”

When apprehended in this case, Kirvin was found in a car with 12.28 grams of cocaine, 190 amphetamine tablets, another firearm, and three children, ages 2, 4, and 11.

Kirvin, who was released from federal prison three days before the Federal Way incident, has racked up nine criminal warrants since 2009. As a previously convicted felon, Kirvin is prohibited from possession of any firearms.

Despite Walsh’s efforts to let Kirvin walk, federal law enforcement officers learned of his release and took him into their custody. He is now being held in a federal facility.

Hear Dori’s take on another judge released a second considered `dangerous to the community’

The Federal Way incident occurred the same day a Seattle dad tried fighting off an “out of his mind” intruder who broke into the man’s Georgetown neighborhood home.

Homeowner Clint Berquist told the Dori Monson Show on Wednesday that he struggled with a “wiry” invader, who got past him and started scrambling up the stairs to where the man’s son and wife were seeking safety. Moments later, one of Berquist’s neighbors jumped in and helped drag the suspect outside until police arrived.

Hear Dori’s March 30 interview with Georgetown home invasion victim here

As in the case involving Kirvin, Judge Walsh also released the suspected Georgetown home invader with no bail – despite the prosecutor’s arguments to hold him because he, too, was deemed a danger to the community.

Cases like these are under greater scrutiny in the wake of King County Superior Court Judge Averil Rothrock. Earlier in March, she released two teens suspected in a violent Federal Way pawn shop robbery to house arrest with ankle bracelets. Police records show the boys, ages 15 and 16, cut off the electronic tracking monitors. Days later, Tacoma police detectives believe, the armed teens were named suspects in the robbery and murder of Tacoma pot dispensary worker Jordan Brown.

Rothrock also presided over a case involving then 18-year-old Alrick Hollingsworth. He was charged with shooting five people – some of them randomly – in downtown Seattle during a busy evening rush hour near Third Avenue and Pine Street. In that case, Rothrock handed Hollingsworth a nine-year sentence – reducing the discretionary part of his sentence by nearly half. At the time, it was considered an “exceptionally lenient sentence” by law enforcement and prosecutors who were seeking 15 years.

“These judges,” Dori told listeners, “are willing to let people die so they can show how compassionate they are to criminals.”

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