PORT TOWNSEND — Chimacum High School Principal Rex Whipple, accused of voyeurism for surreptitiously videotaping a 15-year-old girl in various stages of undress in his Port Ludlow home, posted $25,000 bail and was released Friday from Jefferson County jail.
But less than four hours after his release, Prosecutor Juelie Dalzell was in Jefferson County Superior Court, asking Judge Craddock Verser to issue a warrant for Whipple’s arrest.
Two Jefferson County District Court clerks testified that a man they recognized as Whipple, 45, came into their office at about 2:30 p.m. to inquire about obtaining a passport.
“The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘How fast can I get a passport,”‘ District Court Clerk Leanne Dotson said during testimony before Verser.
During Whipple’s initial court appearance Tuesday, which was broadcast on courtroom television monitors from the county jail in Port Hadlock, Verser asked Whipple if he had a passport and, if so, to turn it over to his lawyer.
Whipple said he did not have a passport.
“It seems to go against common sense for him to come into this courthouse and ask for a passport,” Verser said Friday.
Senior District Court Clerk Erin Kennedy testified that the man she recognized as Whipple asked if the passport application form she gave him was the same one his 19-year-old son could use to apply for a passport.
Kennedy said Whipple made reference to his son once she started to look at him strangely, as if she recognized him.
Dalzell said she could call Jefferson County Sheriff’s Detective Joe Nole to testify that Whipple’s son is in Arizona, so the passport application form couldn’t have been for him.
“There’s no doubt in your mind that it was Whipple?” Dalzell asked Kennedy.
“I would lay my life on it,” Kennedy said.
Both Dotson and Kennedy said they have family members who attend Chimacum High School, so they know what Whipple looks like.
Plus, they said Whipple’s picture has been in the newspapers throughout the week.
Lawyer rebuffs story
Once the court clerks’ testimony concluded, Verser asked to get Whipple’s attorney, Alton McFadden of Bainbridge Island, on speaker phone.
McFadden said Dalzell had contacted him about the allegation and that it was impossible for Whipple to have been in the courthouse trying to obtain a passport.
McFadden said he had talked to Whipple and had a receipt for the Marriott TownePlace Suites in Kent, showing that Whipple had checked into the hotel at 2:24 p.m.
“That’s terribly disconcerting because we’ve got two people here who have testified they saw him at 2:30 p.m.,” said Verser.
McFadden said he would fax the receipt to the courthouse, but Verser said it wouldn’t be necessary.
Verser decided not to issue an arrest warrant, but said he wanted to see Whipple in court at 9 a.m. Monday.
“He just wants to see the whites of his eyes,” Dalzell said after the hearing.