Clyde Hill News: Clyde Hill PD arrests resident on firearms charges after finding child pornography
Homeland security, King County prosecutors, Major Crimes Task Force involved
Clyde Hill police officers, working closely with Homeland Security and other agencies, executed search warrants on a resident’s homes in Clyde Hill and found child pornography in December, according to court documents published by a local reporter. Officers searched the resident’s two Clyde Hill homes, seizing four firearms and approximately $60,000 in US and foreign currency, as well as other material. The resident has been charged with firearms violations. It’s not clear at this time from the available materials if other charges are pending.
Content warning: some of the details in the report about the allegations are simply horrendous. I am reporting on this matter so that the community can see the positive impact of their police department and the complexity and challenge of their work.
A local independent reporter, Steve Hickey, broke this story in an Instagram post (link) making the rounds among local residents. For convenience, here’s a link to that same video on his YouTube channel:
Disclaimer: while I am a council member on the Clyde Hill City Council, I write this newsletter in my capacity as an individual resident. Any opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily the position of the city. City information and references here are from public sources. I welcome email responses — and if the topic is about city business I will respond from my city email account.
Clyde Hill resident charged
A King County prosecutor, in a two-page document posted online by reporter Steve Hickey (link), appears to charge the Clyde Hill resident with four counts of “Unlawful Possession of a Firearm in the Second Degree:”
The document refers to a previous felony conviction in King County of “Possession of Depictions of a Minor Engaged in Sexually Explicit Conduct in the Second Degree.” State law in Washington appears to prohibit individuals previously convicted of a felony from possessing firearms (link).
Separately, federal charges appear to have been filed in US District Court against the same resident:
Clyde Hill’s police at work
King County court documents posted online as part of Steve Hickey’s reporting (link) include four pages from Clyde Hill Police Officer Alexander Donchez.
Titled “Certification for Determination of Probable Cause,” the document describes the police work leading up to the charges filed by prosecutors.
Officer Donchez, acting on a report from the resident’s parole officer, requested a search warrant “for digital devices that could contain child pornography.”
According to the document, after a King County judge approved the request, Officer Donchez contacted a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations as well as an officer and a detective with Seattle PD for assistance and “equipment capable of scanning computers and hard drives in the field.”
“On 12/18/2024 around 0700 hours, members of the Major Crimes Task Force, HSI, and Seattle PD met” in Clyde Hill for a briefing. Action started at 7:47am.
“Officer [Cameron] Hanson deployed a drone/UAV which monitored the scene,” according to the report. The report describes the roles of several other Clyde Hill PD officers in executing the search warrants, including then-Corporal Nathan Cobrea, Commander Dawn Hanson, and Chief Kyle Kolling.
The report describes finding “a large sum of money in US currency, EUROs,” and Hungarian currency, as well as firearms and photography and staging equipment.
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Dean Hachamovitch