KITSAP COUNTY, Wash. — The Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office told KIRO 7 that it’s reviewing a case involving the North Kitsap School District superintendent for allegedly stealing campaign signs.
ALLEGED STOLEN CAMPAIGN SIGNS:
KIRO 7 reached out to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office to get more details. A spokesperson said the county prosecutor’s office is currently reviewing the case after he had shared brief details about its investigation.
KIRO 7 requested public records from the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office to get further details about the case, including photos of evidence deputies collected and captured.
According to the public records, deputies said they began investigating reported thefts of campaign signs on Friday, January 26, at about 7:54 a.m.
Scott Henden and Kim Gerlach told deputies that they and several other members within the community formed a committee called NKSD Bond, opposing the 2024 Capital Bond Measure that will be voted on in the upcoming election on February 13.
Henden and Gerlach told deputies that they had purchased signs to place around the community, however, a lot of them were stolen recently, including on Cliffside Road, near Eglon.
KIRO 7 spoke with Henden and Gerlach about the reported thefts.
“We lost signs consistently in this location,” said Henden. “It went from us replacing them a few times to now, I’m kind of ticked off. Hey now, play fair. I replace the signs. They would be thrown in the woods and the stickers, and that kind of thing, and about that time, I thought, let’s get some game cams.”
“It’s happening so frequently. All over on the north end,” Gerlach said.
Henden told KIRO 7 that he put grease on several signs to help deter the suspect(s). He also placed game cameras around them to capture the next possible incident.
“I want to know who’s doing this,” he said. “So I started with the game cams.”
One of his cameras captured a person caught in the act on Little Boston Road, between Cliffside and Hansville, on Friday.
Henden said he was hiding in the brush when the incident happened.
“I believe it was a woman getting out of a truck, going to the side,” he said. “I think her blonde hair had shown some. It looked like a smaller truck to me.”
KIRO 7 saw the video recording, which shows a person taking a sign out of the ground and tossing part of it away.
“It makes me angry,” he said. “This is about our freedom. The ability to have freedom of speech. We’re placing legal signs in legal right of ways.”
Henden said he called Gerlach about the incident and notified her about the truck.
PERSON OF INTEREST:
Gerlach told KIRO 7 she captured a photo of the suspect’s truck and followed it to Sons of Norway in downtown Poulsbo.
The public records document indicated the truck turned onto Stottlemeyer Road and pulled off onto the shoulder, between Rova Road and Bond, before it arrived at Sons of Norway.
Deputies said Poulsbo police initially responded to the call.
Gerlach said the person she saw walk into Sons of Norway shocked her.
“I was so shocked because who I saw walking in that building and the truck I saw parked in that parking lot,” she said. “I couldn’t believe who it was. “Superintendent Laurynn Evans is who I saw walking into that building and that’s whose truck was parked in the parking lot.”
According to the public records document, the 2021 Ford Ranger parked at the Sons of Norway is registered to Laura Evans.
Evans also confirmed to deputies at the scene that the truck belonged to her.
When deputies asked Evans about the accusations, she denied taking the signs involved in the investigation, and had been “putting out a lot of signs in support of the NKSD Bond.”
She also claimed that her signs have been getting taken down as well, adding she drove straight to Sons of Norway Friday morning and did not stop along the way.
Evans told deputies that Henden and Gerlach had been harassing her and trying to frame her for something she did not do.
KIRO 7 asked Henden and Gerlach about the accusations.
“We’re not harassing her,” Gerlach said. “We do speak out on board meetings. I do post on Facebook. I post facts. I’m not harassing her. I’m not harassing her as a person. I’m trying to get accountability in this district and make sure what this district needs for our students to be successful and for our teachers to be happy.”
Henden said, “I never met her personally. In a public meeting, I’ve never been closer than 40 feet than I know of.”
“I never touched her. I never touched her vehicle,” he added.
EVIDENCE:
At Sons of Norway, deputies said Evans opened the rear tailgate of the truck and they found a stack of “SUPPORT NK STUDENTS & SCHOOLS VOTE YES” along with a mallet for hammering stakes into the ground.
Shortly after, another deputy arrived at the scene with “VOTE NO NKSD BOND” signs he had found from Stottlemeyer with green/blue grease on them.
A different deputy looked at Evans’ truck and “observed two places on the inside of the tailgate and one in the bed of the truck that had faint smudges of the same green/blue grease that were on the ‘VOTE NO NKSD BOND’ signs.”
Evans continued to deny that she took the signs and said she did not know how the grease ended up on the bed of her truck, the document wrote.
Soon after, deputies said they found a pair of gardening gloves, and a yellow towel in the dumpster next to where Evans had parked. The gloves and towel were wrapped in a paper that had the words “SUPPPORT NK STUDENTS & SCHOOLS VOTE YES” printed on it.
The items had spots of the same green/blue residue that Henden had put on his signs, the document indicated.
Henden told deputies that his videos captured similar theft incidents on January 6, 13, and 18, which all involved a woman.
The documentation indicated “the quality is poor, but it appears to be the same female that removes the signs each time. She is wearing the same black down jacket and has the same hair length and style.”
“The female appears look very similar to Evans,” the document wrote. “I did not get a picture of Evans but I believe she was wearing a similar black down jacket when we contacted her.”
Gerlach told KIRO 7 that she wants people to be able to express their political views fairly.
“Our focus is on this bond,” she said. “Our focus is letting the community know, what this bond is about.”
Henden said if the accusations are true, he wants the school district to be held accountable.
“If it’s true, that she is a person, should she be leading our district?” He asked. “The district should do an investigation. When I was on the board, we did them consistently. The teacher did something that is questionable, you find what the facts are.”
“If it’s determined that she did in fact do this, that the appropriate action is taken by the board to get a new superintendent,” he added. “She needs to be either resigned or fired without benefits. This is not acceptable.”
NORTH KITSAP SCHOOL DISTRICT:
KIRO 7 reached out to the school district to get further details and its response to the accusations.
The district shared the following statement:
Per our policies, and out of respect for the privacy of individuals, we do not comment or speculate on personnel matters.
We showed up to the district’s office to get more details.
“The only thing I can tell you now is that per our policies and out of respect for the privacy of the individuals, we cannot comment on personnel matters,” Jenn Markaryan, communication coordinator for North Kitsap School District, told KIRO 7. “What I can tell you is that we’re focused on ensuring our children are getting a quality education each and every day in our schools and that’s what we’re focused on.”
KITSAP COUNTY PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE:
KIRO 7 reached out to the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office.
An official said the case is currently being reviewed by the office.
Chad Enright, the county’s prosecutor, also said it may take several months before a court date is set by the court -- if charges are filed -- since the suspect is not in custody.
Enright said his team is working on expediting the review but does not anticipate any public action will be taken this week.
A decision on filing possible charges in this case has not been confirmed as of Monday late afternoon.
POULSBO POLICE DEPARTMENT:
KIRO 7 spoke with Poulsbo’s police chief Ron Harding after deputies said Poulsbo police received the initial call.
According to a recent report by the North Kitsap Sun, Harding arrived at Sons of Norway and spoke with one of the deputies.
Harding told KIRO 7 that he received a text from Evans requesting to file a harassment complaint on Friday morning as he was driving to work.
He later got a phone call from Evans, he said, saying she was fearful that people, allegedly harassing her, would film her and cause a disturbance.
Harding said he drove to Sons of Norway since he was a couple of minutes away, and that’s when he saw deputies asking Evans questions.
He told KIRO 7 that he later removed himself from the situation and explained to a deputy why he arrived, adding that he was not there to interfere with the investigation.
Harding said part of his responsibility is to understand what’s taking place in the community.
Evans later contacted Harding and “unsolicitedly” explained the accusations against her were not true and that she had not done anything wrong, adding her accusers were angry. Harding told KIRO 7 he later asked Evans if she had an attorney.
KIRO 7 asked Harding about his relationship with Evans.
He said that he and Evans are just colleagues and leaders within the community.
Continue to stay with KIRO 7 on this developing story.
If you have a story within your community that you would like KIRO 7′s Louie Tran to look into, please contact him at ltran@kiro7.com.