Caught in Car-Keying Sting, Tearful Lawyer Takes Plea, Gets Community Service
Initially charged with a felony for “keying” several badly parked cars in a downtown parking garage and leaving rude notes for their drivers, a Seattle lawyer tearfully pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor today in King County Superior Court.
Ronald Clarke Mattson, 63, told the judge he has “taken the steps to become a better person,” reports the Seattle Times. He has already paid nearly $10,000 to repair the body damage to the vehicles he scratched with his keys and was sentenced to one year, suspended, and 240 hours of community service.
A family law practitioner with no prior criminal history, Mattson could also face a potential legal ethics case, his lawyer notes.
As detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, Mattson was caught in the act of keying a car after parking garage workers set up a tempting “bait” car, badly parked, in an area near whether two other cars had previously been scratched.
He reportedly drove by the bait car in his silver Porsche, backed up, drove away, walked up to the car and then was caught on surveillance footage keying the bait car, the Seattle Times reports..A security officer had also been posted in a nearby vehicle for the sting.
