Dori: Three Strikes felon Inslee pardoned twice now wanted in California

We all know that Governor Jay Inslee cannot be trusted because he lied about his promise not to raise taxes. Now we have to question his judgment as governor.

You see, one of the things governors can do is offer clemency to people who are in prison for life. We have not had the death penalty while Jay Inslee is governor because he refuses to sign death warrants, but what we can do with dangerous criminals is lock them up for life with the Three Strikes law. This law means that people who have committed three serious felony offenses — such as murder, rape, assault, robbery, or manslaughter — will go to jail for life, with no possibility of parole.

That is exactly what we did with a man named Tracy Hoggatt. In the late 1990s, this man already had some Three Strikes felony offenses, such as second-degree assault and second-degree robbery. For his third strike, he broke into a house and stole 27 guns. That landed him in prison for life.

Dori: Three Strikes offender on the run after twice being given clemency by Inslee

But there is one way you can get out of prison as a Three Strikes felon. You can have a bleeding heart, leftist governor commute your sentence. But if you already have two felony convictions toward your Three Strikes, and you are such a habitual criminal that you don’t care and go commit a third, does this seem like a guy the governor should trust?

In 2017, Hoggatt wrote to the Clemency and Pardon Board that he had found God and would not let anyone down in his promise to live an upstanding life from then on. And so Jay Inslee let this guy out of prison.

Of course, Hoggatt still had certain conditions he had to abide by for a probationary period, such as not being able to consume alcohol, having to live at an approved address, and not associating with known criminals. After just a few months, Hoggatt violated these terms, and so he went back to prison for life again. Story over, right?

No — this is Jay Inslee’s Washington. The story is never over.

The Three Strikes felon wrote to the board again with a plea for clemency and a promise to turn his life around again. No one would be stupid enough to fall for that twice, right? This guy has had so many chances. He had a chance after the first and second strike. He had a chance when he was granted clemency. But Jay Inslee bought this guy’s story and let him out of prison again.

There was only one problem with this God-fearing Tracy Hoggatt. When he got out of prison last August, he was ordered to go to a halfway house. He had to take a bus from Yakima to Kelso to get to that house. Well, he got on the bus in Yakima and made it to Seattle. But that was the last anyone saw of Tracy Hoggatt. Jay Inslee had been duped once again.

Now, five months later, the missing Hoggatt is back in the news; it turns out he is wanted for new crimes in California. These include resisting arrest, giving false I.D. to an officer, and possessing abalone, which apparently is illegal in California because of over-harvesting.

Hoggatt allegedly handed over false I.D. when approached by a park ranger because he did not want anyone to find out he was a Three Strikes felon on the lam. As rangers were checking his I.D., he ran off again. The rangers chased him, but he got away, and now remains on the loose.

If you know where Tracy Hoggatt is, do contact Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound or law enforcement. We have to get this guy back in prison so that Jay Inslee can give him clemency a third time.

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