PORT TOWNSEND — A Jefferson County Superior Court jury has found Randall Lee Yackulic, 45, Port Hadlock, not guilty of first-degree assault and a mistrial has been declared in the case of Reese Arnold Halverson, 41, Port Hadlock, who also was facing assault charges.
The jury’s ruling on Monday almost completes the cases relating to three men allegedly taking the law into their own hands after a minor was allegedly sexually assaulted.
Richard Lance Cubley, 43, Port Hadlock, pled guilty to two counts of unlawful imprisonment on Sept. 5, and will be sentenced on Oct. 3.
According to Cubley, he was the one who masterminded and carried out the beating of Donald Steven Hassett Jr., 30, of Port Ludlow, and his wife, Harriet Elizabeth Smith, 39, also of Port Ludlow.
Cubley said he did it as an act of revenge for the alleged sexual assault of an underage girl whom Cubley knew.
He testified to that as a defense witness for both Yackulic and Halverson at their trials on charges of assaulting Hassett and Smith.
On the morning of May 3, Hassett and Smith were found “bloody and wounded” by the side of Four Corners Road near Port Hadlock after deputies investigated a report of a vehicle attempting to hit two people in the road.
Hassett and Smith told police they had been kidnapped and beaten by several men.
Hassett was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for treatment of wounds on his face, head and back, and was released later that weekend, investigators said.
By pleading guilty to the charges against him, Cubley acknowledged the fact that he had committed the act as a way to get back at the two for their involvement in a party in Port Ludlow on May 2.
