PORT ANGELES — A man described as a transient will be arraigned next week after he was charged Wednesday with the attempted kidnapping of a 6-year-old boy from Hollywood Beach on Sunday.
Arthur Delfield Crall, 56, was charged in Clallam County Superior Court with one count each of second-degree attempted kidnapping and second-degree assault.
City police said he pushed a man down on Hollywood Beach on Sunday at about 7 p.m. and tried repeatedly to grab the man’s 6-year-old son.
The father pushed Crall down into the water and called 9-1-1, police said.
Crall would later tell police he was trying to take the boy “back to his mother.”
Crall told police he did not know the boy.
Crall’s assigned defense attorney, Harry Gasnick of the nonprofit Clallam Public Defender, requested arraignment be set July 3 so he could secure reading glasses for his client and fully review the charges against him.
“We’re going to have some reading to do,” Gasnick said.
A mental evaluation of Crall prepared by staff at Peninsula Behavioral Health was also presented in court Wednesday, though neither Gasnick nor John Troberg, chief deputy prosecuting attorney, commented on the evaluation directly.
Both said after the hearing that they could not comment on the contents of the mental evaluation.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
