Man admits pulling gun on children

A homeowner who said he wanted to keep his neighborhood safe pleaded guilty Thursday to intimidating four children with a pistol because two of them twisted a neighbor’s newspaper delivery box.

Deputy Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz said some of the children, ages 12 to 15 at the time, were so scared they wet themselves when 39-year-old Danny Joe Roske forced them onto their stomachs June 4 with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol.

“I thought the man was crazy the way he kept screaming at us and pointing his gun at us,” a 13-year-old girl said. “I was crying so hard I couldn’t breathe, and I threw up on the street.”

The girl is the daughter of Spokane police Lt. Judi Carl, whose unarmed, pajama-clad intervention cost her a one-day suspension because of the foul language she used.

Also held at gunpoint were Carl’s son and his girlfriend, both 15, and a 12-year-old girl.

The 12-year-old and two other girls who ran away when Roske confronted them were guests in a sleepover at Carl’s nearby home. The younger girls, chaperoned by the boy and his girlfriend, were returning from toilet-papering the homes of two friends.

Roske told Spokane County District Court Commissioner Virginia Rockwood there had been vandalism and other crimes “every weekend” in the vicinity of his home in the 8600 block of North Pamela Drive.

“I just wanted to stop the crime in my neighborhood,” he said. “I really did. I wanted a safe neighborhood.”

About two dozen neighbors and friends were in court to support Roske, but only he and his attorney were allowed to speak on his behalf. Some of the victims were in court with Carl, and their written statements were read by a victim advocate who identified them by initials.

Carl’s son wrote that he asked Roske to call his mother, “but, no, he had to be the big hotshot and scream to the whole neighborhood that he had us.” He said Roske forced him, his 15-year-old girlfriend, his 13-year-old sister and a 12-year-old friend of hers to lie face-down on the street.

The boy said he extended his hand to his weeping girlfriend when Roske “just kept yelling and screaming profanities at us.” At that point, he said, Roske straddled him, brought the gun’s muzzle within a foot of his head and used an obscene expression to order him not to move.

“I remember hearing the girls all scream loud and his wife say, ‘Stop,’ ” the boy stated. “Right then, I knew it was my time to go.”

All three girls said they thought Roske was going to shoot.

Police spokesman Cpl. Tom Lee said in an interview that Judi Carl, a night-shift patrol commander, was acting “as a mother” when she went to the scene and told Roske to put away his gun. But neighbors knew Carl was a police officer, and officers aren’t allowed to use the kind of language she did, Lee said.

Carl drew another rebuke Thursday from Rockwood.

“I am perplexed at why 12- and 13-year-olds are out about midnight toilet-papering a house,” the court commissioner said. “It’s asking for trouble to have a group of four or six kids out prowling around after midnight.”

Roske said he took his pistol because “there were so many of them and I couldn’t tell how large they were.” Rockwood said she believed he took the weapon to “intimidate these kids,” not to protect himself.

Roske said the neighborhood has been crime-free since the incident for which he pleaded guilty, and he believed his action was responsible.

“You’re paying a big price for it,” Rockwood said, and Roske agreed.

“Would I do it again? Never,” he said.

Steinmetz said there was “absolutely no evidence” that Roske’s victims were responsible for the crimes that prompted his vigilantism. The deputy prosecutor said he has handled numerous cases in which someone has been killed in “very similar” circumstances.

Defense attorney Scott Staab called Roske “a real gentleman” who had never been in trouble before. Police had recommended second-degree assault charges, and Roske could have faced “years in prison” if convicted, Staab said.

Staab said Roske’s gun was unloaded, but conceded it made no difference. As Rockwood pointed out, the children’s perception was all that mattered.

All of the children said Roske repeatedly told them he had “a fully loaded 9 millimeter.”

Staab said Roske agreed to plead guilty to four counts of intimidation with a dangerous weapon, a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, out of devotion to his family.

Rockwood went along with the plea bargain, which called for Roske to get a year in jail with all but 10 days suspended. Roske will be allowed to serve his time in work-release at the Geiger Corrections Center.

The sentence also included a suspended $5,000 fine, an order to have no contact with the victims during two years of probation and an order to complete a hunter-safety class.