PORT ANGELES –– A man accused of assaulting a sheriff’s deputy Sunday and who was mistakenly released from jail Monday turned himself in Wednesday.
After an all-night manhunt by law enforcement officers across the North Olympic Peninsula, Matthew Kevin McDaniel, 27, walked into the lobby of the Clallam County jail shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday and was arrested and booked, Chief Corrections Deputy Ron Sukert said.
McDaniel, a transient, had been set free by the Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Monday after he was arrested Sunday night for investigation of allegedly assaulting Deputy Mark Millet.
McDaniel now awaits a first appearance in court after prosecutors Tuesday filed a charge of third-degree assault on a police officer, a Class C felony, for a Sunday night altercation at Railroad Bridge Park in Sequim.
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Mark Nichols said McDaniel likely would see a judge for the first time this afternoon.
Superior Court Judge S. Brooke Taylor issued a warrant and fixed a $10,000 bond for McDaniel when the charges were filed Tuesday.
McDaniel remained in jail Wednesday afternoon.
Law enforcement agencies at the city, county and state levels were alerted that McDaniel was wanted and on the loose Tuesday, Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron said.
“Everybody was out looking for him all night,” Cameron said, adding when asked that he did not know the cost of the manhunt.
McDaniel was arrested for allegedly shoving Millet as the deputy reportedly was trying to evict McDaniel from the parking lot in front of the park, where McDaniel was sleeping in his vehicle, shortly before midnight Sunday. The park closes at dusk.
McDaniel allegedly shoved and shouted obscenities at Millet before the confrontation ended with Millet using a stun gun on McDaniel.
Investigators reported that they found a loaded Springfield XD .40 pistol with 16 rounds of ammunition, along with evidence of alcohol and marijuana, while searching McDaniel’s car after they impounded it.
Prosecutors, Nichols said Tuesday, made a “mistake” in ordering McDaniel’s release Monday.
An unusually heavy caseload of weekend arrests, coupled with short-staffing in the Prosecutor’s Office, forced a deputy normally assigned to the office’s civil division, which represents the county and its agencies and officials, to work on criminal cases.
McDaniel was released with the intent of charging him at a later date, Nichols said.
In a phone call Monday night, McDaniel told the PDN he recently lost his job as a welder and has been living out of his vehicle.
Nichols said McDaniel should have been charged or kept in jail on a 72-hour hold.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
