PORT ANGELES — A 60-year-old Port Angeles man has been ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation after telling Victoria Express owner Jack Harmon that he had placed a bomb aboard the passenger ferry.
Steven Stan Hanseth is scheduled appear at 1 p.m. today before Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brooke Taylor. He made an initial court appearance on Tuesday.
Hanseth is being held in Clallam County jail on one count of making a threat to bomb or injure property. Bail was set at $5,000.
According to court documents, Harmon called Port Angeles police at 7:45 p.m. Saturday — the first day of Victoria Express’ spring-summer ferry service to and from Victoria — to say he was standing behind a man at a bus stop in the 200 block of East First Street who stated that he had placed a bomb aboard the vessel.
A Port Angeles police officer said police were already familiar with Hanseth, having dealt with him several times during the past month.
A records check found numerous previous contacts with the Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff’s Office, court documents said.
At the First Street site, Hanseth told a police officer that he had been misunderstood: He only stated that the bomb was aboard the ferry, not that he placed it, according to the documents.
Then he began “ranting about dead bodies and murders aboard the Victoria Express,” the documents said.