By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
The Olympian reports a 45-year-old man never before in trouble with the law was sentenced yesterday to three months in jail for felony harassment after he told someone in January he wanted to kill a Thurston County sheriff’s deputy.
Michael Kruegel was under the mistaken impression the deputy fatally shot 26-year-old Keith Miles while Miles was in handcuffs, back in November 2012 in Littlerock, according to news reporter Jeremy Pawloski.
Pawloski writes Kruegel has been locked up awaiting trial since his arrest and is expected to be released from jail on Sunday since the judge gave him credit for time served.
Read more here
What the article doesn’t say is that dude stalked the deputy and found photos of the cops family and address. This guy had the intent and culpability to harm a law enforcement officer based on misinformation. Hes blessed to be let off with a 90 day slap on the wrist. When’s the last time a Wal-Mart greeter or a Dennys waitress was hunted down for a moot issue?
It’s hard to start a career, as a criminal, at the age of 47. Most people are set in their ways by then. I doubt he’s in the habit of breaking the law, or at least getting caught. What gets me is he plead guilty. Why? If the testimony of two men is valid, and the landlord is the only other person who witnessed and testified on the comment besides himself, he should have shut up, pleaded the 5th, and let the case be dropped due to a lack of evidence.
What does it matter if he has never been in trouble before? Every criminal starts somewhere.