July 4, 2009
- Portland, Oregon
Man jailed after alleged threat against autistic boy
The Engen's home is across the street from Levin. By KOMO Staff
SEATTLE - The parents of an autistic boy got a shocking threat from a neighbor who allegedly threatened to burn down their house if they didn't lock up their son.
Now the neighbor, Mark Levison, is in jail on $25,000 bail, charged with malicious harassment. But the Engen family is still reeling from the experience, which began shortly after they moved into their quiet South Seattle neighborhood last month. They say Levison, 48, apparently couldn't stand seeing their 13-year-old severely autistic son in the front yard. "Didn't want Anthony out there," said the boy's father, Craig Engen. "He didn't want to see him spinning around." Seattle police say one evening earlier this month Levison came across the street. Engen says, "That's when he became threatening, and that's when he threatened to burn down his bedroom ... my son's bedroom, if he didn't go inside." The boy's mother called police. When officers arrested Levison for the threat they say he smelled of booze. The police report says he kept ranting about the boy. "I pay $1,000 a month rent and shouldn't have to see that idiot spinning around and staring at my house," Levison said, according to the police report. The boy's parents have no idea why the sight of their son made Levison so angry. "But (the boy) doesn't say anything so there's no reason for him (Levison) to be upset," Engen said. Even though he was right there, the boy's parents say he was shielded by his autism. Craig Engen says, "From him yelling at him., he wouldn't have cared. He doesn't know him. He wouldn't have thought he was even talking to him," Prosecutors have asked Levison not to return to the neighborhood when he is released. |
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