Just a few additional details about today’s story regarding the City of Tacoma’s refusal to mitigate a claim filed by the family of Zina Linnik, the 12-year-old girl who was kidnapped, raped and killed in July 2007.
The family filed a $32 million claim for damages against the city in July. (The amount was not in the story.) The family also has filed claims against Pierce County and the State of Washington.
The 24-page claim states, “The rape of Zina Linnik was not Adhahn’s first rape. Nor was it his first rape of a child. Adhahn had been known to authorities for nearly two decades. Yet multiple government agencies allowed him to slip through the cracks, failing to adequately treat, supervise, classify, report or track Adhahn.”
The claim points out missed opportunities to track Adhahn, a convicted sex offender, and to deport him because of criminal convictions. It also alleges the City of Tacoma did not pursue Adhahn for failure to register as a sex offender or made any attempts to locate him.
The city refutes the fact that Adhahn was last registered in Tacoma.
“Sex offender registration records maintained on Adhahn clearly establish his last registered address as Spanaway, Washington,” the city’s letter to the Linnik family states. “The Spanaway address was registered in April of 2002, and was the last address on record until Adhahn’s arrest in 2008.”
Adhahn was classified as a Level 1 sex offender by the state Department of Corrections. Those in that category are considered less likely to reoffend and typically get the least scrutiny.
The claim also hammers the Tacoma Police Department on its decision when to do an AMBER Alert.
The claim from the family states Zina’s father provided police with a complete license plate number of the van he saw driving away after his daughter was abducted.
The city says the father provided only a partial plate and provided the numbers “667″ or “677.” The city’s response letter included a copy of a drawing of the back of the suspect’s van and partial plate numbers. The drawing is date July 5, 2007, and signed.
There are times when people, young and old, sometimes knowingly put themselves into dangerous situations that have tragic outcomes.
The fact is: a young girl wandered into a dark alley alone, there was an individual there who took advantage of the opportunity.
It’s tragic when anyone is lost this way but I don’t feel the City of Tacoma, Pierce County, or anyone is to blame except for the one who commited this horrible crime.
Law enforcement personnel are bound by laws which protects everyone until one is proven guilty. Should these laws be changed, probably since such tragic events can occur.
If you want more action from law enforcement then give them to tools to do their jobs.
Why should citizens be in charge of government? It’s our money, our services and our right. This is not the land of the ‘Holier then Thou’ professional.
It wasn’t a dark alley and she wasn’t alone, until the last minute. Her father was within earshot. He heard her scream and saw the vanpull away – enough to get a good description and partial license plate. It was evening on the 4th of July – other kids were with her, she was just the last one. In the neighborhoods of Tacoma these alleys are backyard to backyard, this wasn’t a seedy alleyway. The cops had the tools and information to do their jobs – n this case they didn’t. They had every requirement met for an amber alert – they didn’t issue one until she was already dead.
Whether or not the City of Tacoma did the best it could have done is easier to see in retrospect than in the heat of the moment. Regardless, I have a hard time seeing how suing the City helps anything but the family’s bank accounts. It’s not like the City is some evil organization that should be punished for one man’s horrible deeds. The City is you and me, and it’s our tax dollars that the family is chasing. If $32 million were divided evenly over Tacoma’s 200,000 citizens, they are asking each of us to pay them $160 because their child was killed. I am truly sorry that this happened, but I can’t afford to give them my family’s share of nearly $500 because it did.
scottsch111: unfortnately in this day and age, in order to get any goverment entity to step up and do the right thing, someone has to sue for a huge amount of money. If someone had done their job over the 2 decades Adhahn had been on their radar, maybe he would have been better supervised and this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.
It is sad to see that a trial lawyer is trying to get rich at expense of the citizens. It is a tragedy, it is horrible, it is sick but it is not the fault of the citizens but a sick minded individual. I feel family’s pain and sorrow but this is not correct.
to the commenter joyce: so you think innocent people should be the ones “Locked away” then? Because that’s what your implying. Let’s limit the freedom of innocent people and children because the sickos have free reign and it’s their fault if they go into an alley or wherever these creeps decide to be. It’s not right. This happens over and over again. Look at the Jaycee Dugard case, if this guy had stayed behind bars like he SHOULD HAVE that nightmare, along with countless others would not have happened. Wake up. The laws need to change and the public needs to start speaking up. If that means lawsuits, than so be it. If the only way to get attention to this matter is hitting the cities and state of WA in their pocketbooks, then that’s what it takes.
The City of Tacoma, Pierce County and every gov’t agency in the USA does not respond until a) massive media attention paints a negative picture {see Abu Ghurayb in Iraq or David Brame in Gig Harbor}, b) fiscal accountability is assigned {read any of the NYC cases} or c) someone loses his/her job. The TPD police union has such an influence that they received back pay and a 6% increase in salary while other city employees received little or none. This lawsuit is the best method available for people with grievances against the city. The David Brame/Crystal Judson fiasco ended with a principal person receiving 100% disability…Why aren’t the citizens of Tacoma upset about that?
We are, those of us who know. We’re probably in the minority.
lawsuit….blood money and, right out of our pockets
While I feel sorry for these folks, I’m sick and tired of paying my tax dollars for someone to win the lawsuit lottery.
This is another case of an attorney going after the deep pockets. I feel extremely sorry for the family. I raised a daughter and have a granddaughter. How do I protect them from every conceivable harm that may befall them? How do I expect the various police and judicial jurisdictions to track, limit, incarcerate, etc anybody and everybody that may cause harm? It is impossible. The family was not negligent that night. The answer to this problem is to have a one strike you’re out law with no plea bargains, no second chances. It is interesting that motor vehicle laws prohibit the reduction of a speeding ticket in a school zone, but, the law allows plea bargains when it comes to the safety of children. There is no 100% safe place for our children. I’m sure this attorney will find some government agency culpable for the disappearance of the young girl in McCleary, when or if the sex offender is ever found. Isn’t society as a whole responsible, when it refuses to tax itself to give government the ability to get these people off the street?