PORT ANGELES – The last of three Port Angeles High School vandals has pleaded guilty and has been sentenced.
Christopher D. Brogan, 18, was sentenced Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court to 16 months in prison for his role in the spree that caused more than $500,000 worth of damage to the school in early March.
Brogan pleaded guilty to second degree burglary, malicious mischief in the first and second degrees and third degree theft.
When given a chance to speak in court, a soft-spoken Brogan apologized to the people at the Port Angeles High School and to the community.
He said he plans to go to college when he is released and “put this as far behind as possible.”
An arson charge was dropped, both to facilitate the plea agreement and because the school’s surveillance cameras showed that a younger vandal, a 14-year old boy, set most if not all of the fires when he initially broke into the school’s Hundred building alone.
He brought Brogan and another vandal, Nathan Terry, back to the school later that night.
“My sense is the community will probably be appalled the sentence is only 16 months and that that’s the maximum allowed,” said Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams to Brogan.
“Turn around, or next time the sentence will be higher.”
Nolan Duce, the school district’s director of maintenance, said the current damage estimate is more than $500,000.
“The cost estimate we won’t know for several months,” Duce said.
“It’s over $500,000 and may go to $600,000 or $700,000.”
According to court documents, when Brogan was arrested, he confessed right away to police.
He said the 14 year old visted his house bragging about the vandalism and invited him and Terry to join him for another destructive visit to the school.
The juvenile is not being named due to his age.
Brogan’s statements match video surveillance taken from the high school, a point that Brogan’s attorney, Harry Gasnick, made before sentencing.
“From both the codefendants and from video . . . Chris was not a party to setting any of the fires involved,” Gasnick said.
The largest fire, one in the school’s staff mail room, was set during the second burglary, but “it was not set by Brogan or set in his presence,” Gasnick said.
