Required To Rescue Mom Wants To Make It A Crime Not To Help A Victim In Danger Of Dying

Melva Levick still doesn’t know why two men beat her son so badly that the coroner told her not to come down to identify the body.

What she finds just as difficult to understand is why no one came to her son’s aid as he lay dying for 13 hours in a ditch off a highway.

“I can’t believe nobody tried to help Joey,” Levick said in a recent interview. “Where was their humanity?”

Now, the Federal Way woman is leading a crusade to pass a state law that would make it a crime not to help a victim who is in danger of dying.

Levick started a citizens petition drive in February, a little more than a year after two men were convicted in the death of her son. She and a cadre of volunteers so far have gathered 80,000 signatures for what sponsors are calling the “Joey Levick bill.”

They’re not sure whether 200,000 signatures and a new law are going to change society, but they think it’s a good start.

“If this law goes through, I know everything isn’t going to be hunky-dory,” said volunteer Jennifer Guerrero. “But it might just save somebody’s life.”

Two years ago, Joey Levick, 21, was beaten and left in a drainage ditch off Washington 509 just south of the South 128th Street on-ramp in Burien. After 13 hours in the ditch, Levick drowned.

In November, Jason Twyman and Jason Soler were convicted of second-degree murder. Twyman, 22, is serving 25 years in prison. Soler, 22, is out on $250,000 bond, awaiting a new trial.

Melva Levick said there were at least four friends of the suspects who visited the crime scene between the time Joey Levick was beaten and his death. Not one of them helped her son or called for aid, she said.

Failure to act when someone is in danger isn’t a crime - unless specified by law, such as a parent, guardian or teacher’s responsibility. Levick is trying to change that.

She says she has spent $20,000 to $50,000 on her campaign.

She has also solicited the help of state Republican Reps. Maryann Mitchell and Tim Hickel of Federal Way. The two, along with the King County prosecutor’s office, are planning to write proposed legislation for the January session.

“The issue is to draft a law that is narrow in scope,” Hickel said, “one which would make it a crime if someone knows that a crime has been committed and that a person was in critical need of assistance and still fails to do something.”

Hickel said there are problems with the way the Joey Levick bill reads today, reducing it to a citizens petition. For one thing, it proposes that the bill become retroactive. Hickel said this is unconstitutional.

But Hickel said a narrowly drafted piece of legislation combined with thousands of signatures should be very effective.

“Anybody who appears before the Legislature with petitions signed by thousands and thousands of citizens is going to have a big influence,” he said.

Levick hopes to take more than 200,000 signatures to the Legislature in January. If the Legislature doesn’t act, she’ll take her case back to the people.