Food bank board member arrested for trespassing

By Kirk Boxleitner
Posted 7/16/24

 

Wednesday, July 10, saw the arrest of a member of the Jefferson County Food Bank Association’s board of directors, at the Quilcene Community Center, which hosts the Quilcene Food …

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Food bank board member arrested for trespassing

Posted

 

Wednesday, July 10, saw the arrest of a member of the Jefferson County Food Bank Association’s board of directors, at the Quilcene Community Center, which hosts the Quilcene Food Bank for which she’s volunteered for four years.

According to the probable cause report generated by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, sheriff’s deputies responded at 10:31 a.m. July 10 to a report of an unwanted person at the Quilcene Community Center.

According to the probable cause report, which was provided by the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office, 66-year-old Quilcene resident Ann “Kit” Kittredge was arrested at 11:18 a.m. July 10 on a misdemeanor charge of criminal trespass in the second degree.

The report identified Kristopher Mokma, manager of the Quilcene Food Bank, as the reporting party, who stated that Kittredge was a former volunteer who’d recently been asked not to return to the food bank, and had refused to leave when asked.

According to the report, Mokma stated that Kittredge had been asked to leave “numerous times,” and had been relieved of her volunteer duties due to “some type of disturbance she had instigated at the food bank the previous week.”

The report further cited Mokma as stating that he was “unable” to open the food bank until Kittredge left the premises, because “he was concerned she would cause additional disturbances,” thereby delaying service to the food bank customers waiting outside.

Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy Drew Radford, who authored the report, wrote that he spoke to Kittredge, who complained that she was a food bank board member, and therefore had a right to be at the food bank.

“I advised her Mokma had said she had been working as a volunteer and had been relieved of those duties, and I didn’t believe being a board member gave her privileges outside board-related meetings, which weren’t occurring now,” Radford wrote in the report. “She began telling me all about some issues going on with the board that she disagreed with, and refused to leave.”

According to Radford, he advised her that she could be arrested for refusing to leave the property, and “she said she was okay with that.”

Radford’s report continued, “I attempted to de-escalate and reason with her for several minutes, however she told me to save my breath as she wasn’t going to change her mind and leave willingly, and wasn’t afraid of jail, stating she’d been arrested for more serious crimes.”

Radford concluded the report by attributing Kittredge’s arrest and booking for criminal trespass in the second degree to her “refusing to leave the premises when told to.”

When contacted by The Leader on Thursday, July 11, Kittredge stated that she volunteered regularly at the Quilcene Food Bank on Wednesdays, but had been upset the previous week when a nine-year volunteer was “fired” from that food bank.

According to Kittredge, she had expressed her concerns at the time, telling Mokma, “Shame on you. That’s not how you treat personnel,” to which she said Mokma responded “a few days later” by telling her that, either she could tell the rest of the food bank staff that she was “taking a break,” or he would tell them that he’d asked her to leave.

Kittredge confirmed that she’d arrived at the Quilcene Food Bank July 10, after Mokma had made that statement to her.

Her intention had been to volunteer at the food bank that day, just as she’d done on previous Wednesdays. Kittredge confirmed that when Mokma responded to her arrival by telling her she shouldn’t be there, she asserted what she saw as her right to be there as a food bank board member, both to Mokma and to the sheriff’s deputies who responded.

Kittredge likewise confirmed that she’d told the sheriff’s deputies to arrest her, adding that her husband was able to affect her release from the Jefferson County Jail “a few hours later” on $500 bail.

Kittredge, who spoke with The Leader after her hearing July 11, noted that she pleaded “not guilty” and was told her trial would start in September.

She said the impact of departing board members, the hiring of a new executive director and the appointment of an acting manager had been “rough waters.”