SEQUIM — A teenage boy has pleaded not guilty to first-degree malicious mischief after a State Patrol vehicle’s windshield was damaged by a rock thrown at the car as it drove down U.S. Highway 101.
The car was traveling eastbound at about 2 a.m. Monday near the Dungeness River bridge when the rock, thrown from a hill on the south side of the highway, hit and “heavily damaged” the windshield, the State Patrol said.
The trooper was not injured, said State Patrol spokeswoman Trooper Krista Hedstrom.
The windshield was shatter-proof.
A search for the rock thrower by the State Patrol and Sequim police turned up nothing that morning.
But police later identified a 15-year-old boy who lives outside of Sequim, not far from where the rock was thrown, as the culprit.
He was arrested Tuesday and was charged in the juvenile division of Clallam County Superior Court on Wednesday.
He pleaded not guilty Thursday. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 7.
The teen faces up to 30 days in detention along with 150 hours of community service and 12 months probation if convicted.
Sequim police Sgt. Ken Almberg said police have received no other reports of rocks being thrown at vehicles.
Almberg said police believe the teenager simply did it for kicks and “probably didn’t look to see what kind of car it was.”
Hedstrom said the patrol car had to be taken out of service while the windshield was replaced. She didn’t know Friday if it was back in service.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
