COTTONWOOD, Ariz. — A 31-year-old Port Angeles woman who allegedly set up an armed robbery near Sequim last month and subsequently jumped bail has been arrested by U.S. marshals in central Arizona.
Jennifer M. Brady was picked up in Cottonwood, Ariz., on Monday night by the U.S. Marshals Service’s Arizona Wanted Violent Offender Task Force, in cooperation with local police, Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. John Keegan said.
“The plan as of right now is the U.S. marshals will escort her up here to a local facility,” Keegan said.
“We’re working with the marshals on that. That’s my next phone call.”
Brady was charged in Clallam County Superior Court with first-degree robbery as an accomplice Jan. 15.
She pleaded not guilty at her Jan. 18 arraignment and posted a $5,000 bail bond Jan. 22.
A week after Brady posted the bail bond, Friendship Diversion Services in Port Townsend reported that she had failed to report for a supervised urinalysis, which was one of the conditions of her release.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood issued a bench warrant Feb. 8 after defense attorney Karen Unger reported in a status hearing that she had not been in contact with Brady.
Brady was scheduled to go to trial next week.
Sheriff’s investigators said Brady helped set up a robbery.
Brady had contacted a man on Facebook and told him that they had mutual friends, then convinced him to meet her at
7 Cedars Casino on Jan. 7, investigators said in the arrest narrative.
Brady and the man drove in separate vehicles to Sequim Bay Lodge and booked a room at about 4 a.m. Jan. 8, investigators said.
When Brady left the room to retrieve an iPad, two men armed with semiautomatic handguns entered the room, tied the victim with twine, stuffed a pillow case in his mouth, and hit the victim with their guns and a chair, court papers alleged.
The victim told investigators he could hear Brady whispering to the armed men in the bathroom.
The man was robbed of his wallet, backpack, iPad, iPhone, a Samsung cellphone, hat, rental car, radar detector, a safe containing a statue, tablet, digital scales, sunglasses, Taser, BB gun, between $700 and $1,500 and 2-3 grams of heroin, court papers said.
After Brady and the two men left the scene, the man freed himself from the twine and phoned 9-1-1 at about 4:50 a.m., investigators said.
After the warrant for Brady’s arrest on bail jumping was issued, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office asked the U.S. marshals for assistance in finding Brady during a recent warrant sweep in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Meanwhile, Forks police developed information that Brady allegedly had made statements that she was going to head “south” and that she could not “go to jail,” Keegan said.
The U.S. Marshals Service said they found that Brady had spent several nights at a Sedona, Ariz., resort with her boyfriend and two others.
A U.S. marshals task force arrested Brady at a Cottonwood motel at about 9:30 p.m. Arizona time Monday.
“Ms. Brady thought she could avoid justice in Washington by fleeing to the Southwest,” said David P. Gonzales, U.S. marshal for the District of Arizona, in a statement provided by Keegan.
“Unfortunately for her, the U.S. Marshals Service was hot on her trail the moment she failed to appear in a Clallam County courtroom,” Gonzales said.
“Brady’s arrest sends a clear message that state lines are no barrier to the U.S. Marshals Service and its local law enforcement partners.”
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
