CRIME WATCH FOLLOWUP: Suspect charged in clinic burglary
Earlier this week, we reported on an arrest made by police after the Virginia Mason Franciscan Health clinic at Westwood Village was broken into late on New Year’s Day night. The suspect is now charged with one count of second-degree burglary. He is 29-year-old Derrick D. Sanders, Jr., of Kent, who remains jailed in lieu of $30,000 bail. The charging documents tell the same story as the narrative on which our previous story was based, with a few more details – that he’d allegedly pried open a locked rear door to get into the clinic, and that the items with which he was found included a VMFH security badge and ID. Our inquiry with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office also yielded charging documents for another burglary case in which Sanders is awaiting trial – he was arrested after allegedly breaking into an elementary school in SeaTac last July. In that case too, court documents say he was taken into custody while still inside the burglarized building. But in that case a judge released him on personal recognizance the next day, though prosecutors pointed out he’d had 10 arrest warrants over eight years. His next court appearance will be arraignment in the West Seattle case on Monday;