BOTHELL, Wash. — The 23-year-old man accused of entering a home near Bothell and sexually assaulting an 11-year-old had been arrested at that apartment complex before.
The Bothell man, who KING 5 is not naming as he has not been formally charged, was arrested on suspicion of burglary and molestation for the Sept. 6 incident.
The suspect appeared in court Tuesday. The judge set his bail at $500,000.
The alleged assault happened late last week at the Bailey Farm Apartment Complex, located near North Creek Park. According to court documents, the suspect had been seen there and reported several times over the last year- including as recently as the end of July. That includes being arrested for burglary and voyeurism last October.
In the most recent incident, the suspect is believed to have entered an apartment through an unlocked sliding glass door and assaulted an 11-year-old girl who lived there. After the suspect left, the girl and her sister told their mother that a man had been in their room and she called 911.
The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) responded, and they learned that a similar incident at that same apartment complex had occurred in the past. They identified that suspect as a person of interest in their investigation.
A neighbor at the apartment complex reached out to law enforcement, informing them that they were the victim of an attempted burglary by the suspect in the past year. The neighbor said she reviewed her surveillance camera footage and identified a man, who she believed to be the same suspect, walking by the back door of her residence at around midnight that night.
On Sept. 9, detectives working on the case learned where the suspect was staying, and used a ruse to verify that he was currently at that location. Deputies responded and took the suspect into custody on a warrant of second-degree trespass.
In an interview with detectives, the suspect denied being at the apartment complex in the early morning hours of Sept. 6, when the incident took place. However, when he was shown an image from the surveillance camera, he said the subject in the photo was him. He later walked back that statement, saying he did not wear hats, like the person in the photo.
The suspect was arrested on charges of first-degree burglary and second-degree child molestation and booked into the Snohomish County Jail.