A 34-year-old Tacoma woman was furious when her friend asked her to move out, insisting her friend was “out of her mind.”
So the woman allegedly made threatening phone calls and set out to destroy the friend’s home, causing $30,000 in damages. Pierce County prosecutors charged the woman with first-degree malicious mischief. She pleaded not guilty to the charge Tuesday and was ordered jailed in lieu of $30,000 bail.
According to charging papers:
The victim ran into her old friend March 10 and offered her a place to stay since she had none. The woman, her boyfriend and her child moved into the victim’s house.
But it wasn’t long before the victim asked the woman to move out, fearing she also had brought cockroaches with her.
That’s when the threats started. Among several threatening text and phone messages was one left when the victim asked her father for help reclaiming a car the friend had been driving without permission, police said.
On Monday, the victim asked police to escort her home because she feared for her safety. They found a rather large mess.
Decorations and picture frames were smashed in the front yard. Televisions, coffee tables, couches, game consoles, closet doors and mirrors had been broken. Spaghetti had been dumped on clothing. Blinds were torn down, and two trash cans with burnt paper inside made the house reek of smoke.
The home was “completely destroyed,” prosecutors said.
The woman told police she had nowhere else to go and that she didn’t know what happened to her friend’s stuff.
“She later admitted she may have thrown a few things out of the front door, but said (the victim) probably broke her own stuff to set up the defendant,” court records show.
Stacia Glenn: 253-597-8653 stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com
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