Judge Sets $500,000 Bail for Sequim Man Held as Fugitive on 2003 Virginia Child Sexual Battery Charge

A Clallam County Superior Court judge set bail at $500,000 last week for a 58-year-old Sequim man who was arrested at his home on a Virginia warrant accusing him of sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl.

Alexander Holmes Wright was taken into custody at about 6:55 p.m. on Tuesday, August 25, at his travel trailer on Williamson Road, just outside the Sequim city limits, according to a Clallam County Sheriff's Office arrest report. 

He was booked into the Clallam County jail as a fugitive from justice.

The Virginia warrant had been issued earlier that day by a magistrate for the Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, charging Wright with aggravated sexual battery of a child under 13. The offense allegedly occurred on October 25, 2003. 

At a preliminary appearance on Wednesday, August 26, Judge Simon Barnhart found probable cause to hold Wright as the person named in the Virginia warrant, appointed the Clallam Public Defender to represent him, and set bail at the amount requested by the state. Wright declined to waive extradition.

The Allegations From Virginia

The Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney's Office filed the Virginia warrant and a Fairfax County police summary with the court as the basis for its probable cause motion.

The police stated that an 11-year-old girl and her brother were walking their dog on Oct. 25, 2003, in a park near Kent Gardens Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. 

The girl noticed a man who appeared to be circling them near a wooded area. The man approached, blocked her path, mumbled something she could not make out and grabbed her, and she believed he was trying to pick her up. According to the police summary, the man sexually assaulted her during the grab. Her brother kicked the man while yelling, and the man ran off.

The girl described the man as 20 to 30 years old, with a recent buzz cut and dark circles under his eyes, wearing blue jeans and a red sweatshirt with an insignia, according to the summary.

On Nov. 13, 2003, Fairfax County police received a law enforcement teletype from Camden County, Georgia, advising that Wright had been taken into custody there following the attempted abduction of an 8-year-old girl. 

During an interview in Georgia, the summary states, Wright admitted to the McLean incident as well as incidents in other jurisdictions.

The summary states Wright was charged in Georgia with the kidnapping and molestation of the 8-year-old, whom he saw alone inside a motel her father owned or managed, and that same week was charged with the kidnapping and molestation of a 2-year-old girl found alone outside in a trailer park. 

Wright told investigators his compulsions began in his early teens and admitted to an earlier assault on a girl at another McLean elementary school when he was a teenager, according to the police summary.

Wright was imprisoned in Georgia and later paroled on the kidnapping offenses, the summary states. In 2020, his parole was violated after he admitted returning to the Georgia motel where one of the offenses occurred 17 years earlier.

Virginia has no statute of limitations for felonies. Aggravated sexual battery under Virginia Code 18.2-67.3 carries a sentence of one to 20 years in prison.

Held for 30 Days Pending a Governor's Warrant

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Tracey Lassus filed a criminal complaint on Aug. 26 charging Wright under RCW 10.88.320, the state's fugitive from justice statute, and moved for a probable cause determination. Judge Barnhart signed the order the same day.

At the hearing, the court reviewed Wright's rights as a defendant and as an alleged fugitive and appointed the public defender's office.

Judge Barnhart's order committed Wright to the county jail for 30 days and authorized release only on $500,000 cash bail or a security bond. If released, Wright must surrender for arrest when a governor's warrant is issued.

Other conditions require Wright to remain at his Williamson Road residence, restrict his travel to Washington, bar him from contact or communication with anyone under 18, and prohibit him from possessing firearms or other deadly weapons or using drugs other than those prescribed by a physician.

Because Wright did not sign a waiver, Virginia must now seek a governor's warrant through Washington's extradition process before he can be returned.

Wright is scheduled to return to court at 1 p.m on Friday, September 4, for an extradition review hearing.