Error put abuse suspect on street, police say

Spokane Valley police officials contend that a burglary suspect, who told an officer that he could have killed his last victims, should have been in jail Saturday instead of out in the community. Now, he’s facing new charges of molesting two girls that day.

In the past three weeks, investigators had arrested 30-year-old Charles Robert Kyle three times and charged him with seven burglaries that included a church, a hospital and an occupied home, police spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.

“This is the guy that jails were designed for,” Reagan said. “If he had been in jail, he wouldn’t have had access to those two children.”

Kyle was arrested Saturday on two counts of second-degree child molestation, Reagan said. He is accused of molesting 12- and 13-year-old girls.

Judge pro tem Kevin Stewart ordered Kyle on Monday to remain in the Spokane County Jail on $50,000 bond.

After the hearing, Kyle’s wife, 25-year-old Lindsay Kyle, proclaimed her husband’s innocence.

Asked why her husband had been arrested, she replied: “Because they are mad because they didn’t get him on the burglary. He may be guilty of that, but that is not molestation. That is totally different.”

Sgt. Steve Barbieri agreed, saying Kyle shouldn’t have been out of jail. Barbieri said he typed up the charging documents from the previous burglary charges on April 25 and delivered them by hand to Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Carlin Jude.

He also warned Jude about Kyle’s “escalating behavior” and his threats to commit more crime. “She really didn’t say anything,” Barbieri said.

In an interview Monday, Jude acknowledged that she had that conversation with Barbieri. However, Jude said, she had a death in the family last week and didn’t file the paperwork in the 72 hours required by law to keep Kyle in jail.

“I wasn’t able to get it done before I was ready to leave,” Jude said. “At that point, what I had was two second-degree burglaries and a residential burglary. There was no hint he would turn to a sexual offense or anything like that.”

Jude said she was not looking to make excuses but said her office gets so many property-crime cases that they often don’t make the 72-hour rule. However, the state has three years to refile the charges once the suspects are released.

“Everyone is short-handed. I’m not looking for excuses. It’s nobody’s fault but mine,” Jude said. “But if we had additional staff, it would help.”

In an apparent coincidence, Prosecutor Steve Tucker is scheduled to make his pitch today to Spokane County commissioners for more funding to hire more staff.

Prosecutor’s Office Administrator Debby Kurbitz declined to comment Monday on the details of that request, saying that the commissioners should be given the presentation first.

That won’t help investigators in this case, who feel they did all that was required of them, Reagan said. “We can arrest them, hand cases over to the prosecutors and it’s out of our hands.”

Barbieri’s Property Crimes Task Force started building its case against Kyle when it got reports on April 14 of a residential burglary in the 1100 block of North Fox and the break-in the same day of the New Life Assembly Church at 11515 E. Broadway.

The task force executed a search warrant April 16 and found evidence linking Kyle to both those cases, Barbieri said. Kyle didn’t spend 72 hours in jail before he was released.

Then, on April 20, officers again arrested Kyle after a camera captured video images of him taking an employee’s wallet from Spokane Valley Medical Center, Reagan said.

Barbieri said it appears that Kyle posted a $10,000 bond and was released, but the paperwork wasn’t filed.

Four days later, officers arrested Kyle for the third time after they were called to a home in the 13600 block of East Fourth Avenue, Reagan said. A resident awoke and found a suspect ransacking his home office and stealing a laptop computer.

Officers responded and found Kyle walking a short distance away. On his trip to jail, Kyle told Officer Michael Wall that he had found the homeowner’s guns, Barbieri said.

Kyle “said he could have easily taken one of the guns and killed the victims,” Wall wrote in his report. Kyle said “he was going to make sure the Spokane Valley Police were so busy with crime reports that they would not have time for anything else.”

Barbieri said those comments were why he personally delivered the charging documents to Jude.

“He went from doing church burglaries to residential burglaries during the day to occupied burglaries at night. And then he made comments about how he could have killed the homeowners,” Barbieri said. “To us, that means he’s escalating very quickly.”