Teens did $50,000 in damage to Pierce Co. home, owner says. Deputies detained 23

Teens did $50,000 in damage to Pierce Co. home, owner says. Deputies detained 23

Michael Legue was halfway across the country when he got a call from his sister-in-law that teenagers had broken into his Graham home, threw a party and allegedly vandalized it July 18.

Legue moved to the Kapowsin Highlands Drive East area in 2019 while he was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. His daughter recently moved out, so he and his wife decided to sell the house and they made the move to Oklahoma in early June.

"We actually had a buyer for the house," he told The News Tribune in a phone call Wednesday. "We close on the house in about a week and a half, two weeks. We're supposed to be closing on the house."

Legue said a day before the break-in, his real estate agent's assistant came out to the house and saw someone had been inside. Police came out and there were people inside, but they did not catch them, he said. A K9 police dog was brought in, but they did not find anyone.

"My realtor then went through, cleaned up the house, like locked up the house, made sure everything was secure. And as he was doing this, there were cars coming up to the property saying, 'Hey, is this where the party's at?' So they were actually going to throw this party Friday, I guess," Legue said.

Legue said his sister-in-law then went to check on the house Saturday and saw a "full-blown party" was happening there. He said police were already at the house, and his sister-in-law posted about the damage on different social media sites such as TikTok and Facebook.

Pierce County deputies were dispatched at around 9:15 p.m. to the property where 23 juveniles allegedly broke in and vandalized the house while having the party. Deputies detained and identified 23 juveniles, Sheriff's Office spokesperson deputy Carly Cappetto told The News Tribune via email Wednesday.

"This will be an ongoing investigation, and charges for felony burglary and malicious mischief will be forwarded to a juvenile prosecutor for review and charging for each of the juveniles," she wrote. "As of yesterday, forensics has been to the home and is conducting a forensics investigation along with detectives working with the homeowners and conducting interviews."

No referrals for charges have been brought to the Pierce County juvenile prosecution unit at this point, Adam Faber, spokesperson for the county's Prosecuting Attorney's Office, told The News Tribune Thursday.

Legue said he was on Facetime with his sister-in-law when she was at the house during the incident. Legue said he was "appalled" at the damage and teenagers sitting on the back porch, giggling and "just having a good old time."

Legue said he flew in Sunday afternoon from Oklahoma following the incident. When someone pulls into the driveway, they cannot tell that anything happened, but as soon as Legue walked into the house he said it was "crazy."

"I mean, every wall, almost every wall in the house is painted with graffiti, slang, ... swastikas," he said.

There were racial slurs painted on the walls in every room, and one spot had swastikas drawn on it along with the words, "We love Jews," Legue said.

When The News Tribune asked if the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, Cappetto wrote Friday that "nothing is off the table."

"It is still an ongoing investigation," she wrote.

If any of the elements of a hate crime under state law "can be determined in the investigation, then we would recommend charges for hate crime," she wrote.

The state's RCW 9A.36.080 says committing a hate crime offense is a class C felony.

The insurance company gave Legue an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000 to fix the damage to the house, he said.

"The sliding glass door that goes on the deck is shattered. There's a hole in the front window, like probably about a four-inch hole, in the front window of the house. Upstairs, all the bedrooms have paint on them," he said. "The garage, they got in there."

Legue said the garage door has to be replaced because it's broken. There's damage to the floors, and paint on the granite countertops, he said.

"... which hopefully they can get out. If not, that's going to cost me even more money to replace all the granite," he said.

He said some of the spray paint used for the graffiti appeared to be paint that he stored in the garage.

Legue said the buyers are still interested in pushing forward with the sale of the house, but the timing of that will be moved back, so that the house can be fixed up.

"I want whoever's in charge of putting this party together, whatever kid or even if it was an adult, whoever put this party together, whoever organized this party from my house needs to be held accountable," he said.