Local News

Your guide to the latest news from around the Northwest

The Associated Press

BELLINGHAM — A Bellingham accountant accused of gluing an ex-girlfriend’s doors shut, turning off her home’s natural gas and dumping paint remover on her car has pleaded guilty to stalking.

The Bellingham Herald reports that 54-year-old Charles Lysander Storrs IV harassed the woman for almost a year and a half before police had enough evidence to arrest him.

The victim told Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Deborra Garrett on Thursday that during that time she couldn’t return home without checking to see if something new had been changed or vandalized.

Court records show that in the summer of 2012, video cameras caught clear images of Storrs pouring paint remover on the woman’s car.

Storrs told the judge he agreed to plead guilty to the gross misdemeanor because he works as a private tax preparer and couldn’t do that with a felony on his record. He was sentenced to 20 days of jail alternatives and 80 hours of community service. The sentence includes suspended jail time.