Felony theft suspects skips arraignment
A $10,000 bench warrant was issued for the arrest of a Burlington woman who lives part-time on Orcas Island, and who is accused of using a credit card belonging to an elderly woman to purchase $500 in ferry tickets.
On Jan. 16, Sheri Denielle Deraimo, 25, failed to appear at an arraignment hearing in San Juan County Superior Court. She faces nine counts of identity theft, a Class C felony, and was released on $10,000 bail following a December 31 preliminary hearing and pending arraignment on the charges. If arrested and convicted, Deraimo would face maximum penalties of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.
According to prosecutors, Deraimo used the numbers of a credit card belonging to a 95-year-old Orcas Island woman to purchase $507 worth of ferry tickets online over a two-week period beginning in mid-August. The woman reportedly left the credit card at Island Market after buying groceries at the Eastsound store in early summer. It was retrieved by her daughter-in-law in late July.
With cooperation of the state ferry system and its surveillance cameras, and later with a search warrant served on Google, detectives targeted Deraimo as the primary suspect in the theft after tracing license plates, online ticket purchases and the email account through which the purchases were made.
SJ man accused of dealing heroin
A San Juan Island man accused of selling heroin and methamphetamine to an informant is slated to stand trial on a trio of felony drug charges in mid-March.
On Jan. 30, Troy Leonard Kirk, 44, pleaded not guilty in San Juan County Superior Court to two counts of delivery of heroin and to one count of delivery of methamphetamine, both of which are Class B felonies and carry maximum penalties of 10 years in prison, a $20,000 fine or both. Bail was set at $50,000 pending a March 16 trial.
A 38-year island resident, Kirk was arrested Jan. 16 at his Friday Harbor home following an investigation by the sheriff’s department this summer. He allegedly sold less than a gram of heroin on two occasions (a total of 1.2 grams for $175) and $20 worth of meth on one occasion to an informant who volunteered to make undercover drug buys as part of the investigation. The informant, who claimed to have bought drugs from Kirk before, hoped to gain favorable consideration from law enforcement on pending criminal charges by participating in the investigation. It’s the second time Kirk faces prosecution for alleged drug dealing in the past four years.
