J425 Reporting Adds Value to Community
Evaluating how J425's reporting has provided valuable information and stimulated necessary change
Examining J425’s Track Record of Valuable Reporting Since 2021
Since launching in 2021, The Journal 425 has published 1,581 stories, the vast majority of which went out with no paywall – and all of which were published without advertising. And while the volume of stories is high – som is the quality. J425 is published by the former Managing Editor of The Lake Stevens Journal – the region’s legacy weekly. Publisher Kevin Thomas Hulten was a three year Lake Stevens High School Valhalla editor, studied journalism at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State, and returned in 2006 to helm the Journal. In less than two years, Hulten won over 25 peer-reviewed awards for excellence in journalism including the 2007 state investigative reporter of the year from the Washington Newspaper Publisher’s Association. Hulten left journalism in 2007 and spent a decade working at the State Legislature, in county government and as a strategic and political consultant both in Washington State and the Bay Area. This political acumen – and the contacts developed through this experience – are now deployed in the service of J425 readers.
Over the last three-plus years, J425 has got by thanks to our paid subscribers as well as some grants from LION and other journalism orgs. In writing and publishing those 1,581 articles, J425 publisher Kevin Thomas Hulten has basically worked for free while attempting to fill the news hole left when the legacy weeklies and dailies went under in the 2010s.
As of June 2025, The Journal 425’s 3,000+ site subscribers make it one of the largest online newspapers in the Snohomish County area. As of last check, The Daily Herald was down to less than 400 subscribers in the greater Lake Stevens area.
Our reporting has returned value to the community. Sometimes direct cash value, like the time J425’s Hulten won a national contest for high school football reporting and donated the $10,000 check to Snohomish and Lake Stevens’ athletic departments with the request that the funds be used to help kids in need obtain uniform/gear/shoes needed for athletics.
Other times the value has come on the results we’ve helped to obtain. Here’s a couple of the major stories we’ve covered and the end result.
Predators in Public School:
The Journal 425 was runner up in the 2024 LION Journalistic Impact Awards for this series on abuse in public schools. The episodic series covered predatory teachers in several different instances across our coverage area.
J425 covered Lake Stevens basketball coach Mark Hein’s arrest and the criminal and district investigations into his conduct. Our reporting looks at the parallel tracked investigations of the school district and Lake Stevens Police detective Kristin Parnell. Both the district and LSPD examine the same material, but the level of inquiry and the findings were vastly different: where LSSD found reason only to provide Hein with a “non-disciplinary letter” in his file, Parnell found probable cause for four sex crimes involving a minor, and had Hein arrested and booked into county jail. The difference between how the police and the district – the local government agency charged with protecting children – view the actions of a predator was analyzed by J425 in a partial attempt to ascertain why so many predators populate the ranks of public school staffs. Hein was fired at the end of 2025, his victim is engaged in a civil suit with the district.
J425 covered a 25+ year history of predatory teachers in the Lake Stevens School District, and the district’s inability to separate themselves from the predatory staff members.
J425 broke the story of Julian Willis’ sexual misconduct at Kamiak High School, detailing the sordid story of his on-campus sex offenses with a high school girl. When we published our first story, Willis was still employed at Kamiak. The day after we published, he was fired. In the months that followed, we detailed Willis’ attempt to pursue a Lake Stevens girl in a grocery store, following her in his car before she got away. We also reported on Willis’ bizarre on campus behaviors and we broke the story that Willis had previously fled rape cases in three states – and we substantiated at least eight victims with credible accusations of sexual assault.Three years after breaking the story, J425 was there in the courtroom when the victim and her mother read victims impact statements that led the judge to reject an agreed sentencing recommendation, taking on several extra months jail time. Willis was convicted of one felony count of sexual misconduct with a child. He’ll do 7 months in prison and he faces lifetime sex offender registry.
When Archbishop Murphy teacher John Robert Doty was arrested on child porn charges, J425 was first to publish the full story – including Doty’s mind-blowing quote: “Oops, I did a crime.” Doty was fired by Archbishop and his case – an expected guilty plea – is pending.
Next: How many predators lurk in WA public schools? We know of at least 150+ coaches with sustained sexual misconduct findings in their files, but will we ever get a full handle on this epidemic of abuse…and can we make school districts and the teacher’s union forgo their chummy insider agreements that allow teachers guilty of sexual misconduct to not only avoid criminal penalties, but often to quit with an agreement in place that the school district will not inform future employers of the fact that the predator preyed on kids. There is much work to be done here.
Locally, the 2007 conviction of Eugene Brian Garvie, a former wrestling referee from Lake Stevens, is likely to factor in upcoming reporting, as the Lake Stevens School District is one of several named defendants in a civil suit brought by one of Garvie’s many victims, a former Lake Stevens student. Garvie pleaded guilty in 2007 to child rape and sexual exploitation of a minor. Garvie confessed to police that he had been trading drugs and alcohol for sex with teenage boys, and video evidence of these crimes was found at his home. As with many other sex abuse cases involving students at the Lake Stevens School District, the district apparently had an opportunity to act months prior to Garvie’s ultimate April 27, 2006 arrest, but failed to do so, according to court files that say a victim reported abuse to the principal in December of 2005 but the report wasn’t acted on prior to Garvie’s arrest some four months later. The Seattle Times quoted a law enforcement source in estimating that Garvie had as many as 50 victims. The full scope of his actions wasn’t publicly revealed. Garvie was sentenced to 13 years to life in prison. As of late 2024, Garvie was expected to remain incarcerated until he could convince the state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board to set him free, with the perjury conviction significantly hindering his chances for release in the near future.
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/detective-vs-alleged-predator-read
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/lshs-predator-unpacking-mark-heins
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/lssd-facing-two-new-sex-predator
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/that-time-when-lshs-super-predator
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/exclusive-heins-documented-misconduct
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/j425-investigates-sexual-predators
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/willis-written-up
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/julian-willis-sex-crimes-trial-set
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/lion-2024
Correcting Injustice: 18-year-old Released from Jail After J425 Reporting Changes Perceptions
In 2023, J425 was contacted by an Everett-area teen who repeatedly pleaded with us to look into the case against his friend, Mohammed “Mo” Jaiteh. The teen who contacted J425 swore that something was off. At the time we picked up the story, Jaiteh – 18 – was held in solitary confinement at the Snohomish County Jail on a $1 million dollar murder bond. However, J425’s reporting revealed the many flaws in the state’s case against Jaiteh, who was charged with shooting and killing a fellow gang member. In actuality, Jaiteh was walking home from school – due at work shortly. Waiting for Jaiteh, lurking across the street from his house in a car with recently installed false license plates were four young men who’d feuded with Jaiteh for months, going so far as to tell multiple students they intended to “slide” on Jaiteh on the very day in question. Our reporting detailed how the car that lay in wait for Jaiteh went into motion after getting tipped off on Jaiteh’s approach, driving down Casino Road before flipping a u-turn, pulling up behind Jaiteh, and at least two teens jumped out on him – one of whom not only had an unregistered glock clone on him, but was also a suspect in a recent drive by shooting. Jaiteh fired on the young men who ambushed him, a bullet hit the driver, killing him. None of this self-defense context was included in initial reporting by legacy media. J425’s stories – and our later volunteer work with the public defender’s office helped Jaiteh obtain a much lower bond figure, and he is currently awaiting trial from the safety of his family home in Everett.
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/help-my-friend-is-dying-volatile
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/does-murder-suspect-have-self-defense
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/podcast-murder-trial-of-mo-jaiteh
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/state-witness-in-mo-jaiteh-case-deemed
https://www.thejournal425.com/p/watch-judge-reduces-mo-jaitehs-bail
Athletic Trainer Charging Parents Exorbitant Fees While Sewing Discontent, Violating WIAA Rules
In the late winter of 2023, J425 became aware of a local athletic trainer who was contacting Lake Stevens football players and attempting to entice them to transfer to other high schools. Specifically, we heard this trainer leverage racial differences to try to convince non-white players that they weren’t welcomed, understood or appreciated in the 425, where “soft white boy” football is the norm. In addition to trashing the then reigning 4A state champion coach Tom Tri, this trainer was attempting to peel apart a state championship roster – many of whom trained at his popular footbal academy. Further, J425 learned that this trainer was milking many of 425-area parents at full rate fee schedules while offering to waive all payments and cover all expenses and travel for the players he targeted for transfer. We gave our audience a heads up via Instagram, posting a Story that told parents and players that they didn’t need to pay this man to slander their coaches and poach their teammates. The trainer’s unhinged reaction – threats on social media, complaints levied at the high school and school district – shoed J425 that there was more to this story.
Roosevelt Transfer Scandal
And it was from the above outburst that our work on the Roosevelt transfer scandal began. J425 was first to report that at least ten athletes with ties to this trainer had transferred en masse to Roosevelt High School in seattle prior to the 2024 season. Our follow-up stories examined how Roosevelt leveraged federal homeless school kid legislation to circumvent eligibility and transfer protocols…and after establishing relationships with on-the-ground sources, we reported on the existence of an exclusive on campus club that transfer athletes – to whom grade and attendance checks didn’t apply – could hang out in peace throughout the day. Multiple staff contacted J425, all of whom cited an all staff email sent by principal Tami Brewer that was bald-faced in its deception and mind-blowing inasmuch as it defended the indefensible actions of Roosevelt coaches and football program staff. Ultimately, J425 broke the story that an independent fact-finder would be tabbed to conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations. Months later, J425 was first to obtain and publish details of the fact-finder’s comprehensive report. Ultimately, the principal, the head coach and two assistant coaches were brought down by this story. Further, the punishment reached past school level, as the investigation also levied fines and probation against the athletic office for the entire Seattle Schools system. In the end, J425’s initial claims were once again sustained.
The Murder of Antonio Mays Jr at CHOP
In the summer of 2020, white insurrectionist LARPers masquerading as cops shot two unarmed black teens on the night of June 29, in the maelstrom known as CHOP. Antonio Mays, 16 was killed. His 14-year-old friend, shot in the head and back, barely made it. CHOP ended the next day, and Antonio’s murder at the hands of a white, AR-toting insurrectionist didn’t get anywhere near the coverage of, say for instance, Kyle Rittenhouse. And J425 is the only outlet that stayed on this story, ultimately surfacing new video and audio that directly reveals at least one of the two suspected murderers in this still unprosecuted case.
Regardless of the intersectional politics, grownmen had executed unarmed children on livestream and nobody did a damn thing about it. So J425 was on it. In early 2021, J425 obtained video footage that partially revealed the man who murdered Mays. Even more shocking was the audio, in which the security guard taunts the dying boy, shot multiple times by .223 rounds prior to crashing into a barricade. “Oh, you’re not dead yet?” and “Do you wanna get pistol whipped?” and then a sharp **crack** and a single bullet hole appears in the front windshield. Video obtained by J425 also showed BLM activists assisting the white shooter in disposing of evidence including spent cartridges before sweeping up the entire crime scene. Police wouldn’t be onsite for some five more hours. And despite the fact that dozens of BLM activists stood and watched Mays’ murder…and thousands more tuned in on livestream …no arrests were ever made. In the murder of an unarmed black child at a George Floyd protest, in 2020. The sharp irony here helped motivate our reporting, and over the years J425 collected additional materials. Ultimately, both J425 and a joint KUOW/Seattle Times report published the details of the Bond-villian taunts from white security personnel to the dying boy. Further, J425 narrowed down the list of those suspected of killing Mays to several likely shooters – including the trans furry leader (no, really) of the CHOP Security Dispatch – a person with the nomme de guerre “James Madison” and delusional notions of his self grandiosity that were apparent both in his behavior at CHOP and in an interview on a national podcast.
With the five year anniversary of Mays’ death approaching at the end of the month, J425 continues to report on what could be the biggest under-reported story in the entire media landscape. If Kyle Rittenhouse got that much attention, how much attention will the story of a city full of leftist woke-scolds deliberately looking the other way on the gruesome shooting murder of an unarmed black teen garner? And how much are Black lives worth to these people anyway? Because from here it looks like they value trans furry lives quite a bit more than the life of an unarmed Black child.
Focus on Girls Athletics
In the past two years, J425 has published over 1000 photos and videos documenting outstanding female prep athletes in the 425 area – much of this on our Instagram account. We’ve also written long-form features on athletes like Laura Eichert, the 2024 Gatorade POY for volleyball in WA. We are the only local outlet dedicating coverage like this to girls’ sports.
The Best Viking Football Coverage
Lake Stevens Vikings football games are the biggest events in the community, attracting upwards of 5,000 people to downtown Lake Stevens on Fall Fridays. The team broke through and won its first state title in 2022 and repeated in 2023. J425 archives on Viking football date back to 2006 and traditionally we’ve deployed professional-level assets to this beat, including a staff writer (Hall of Famer Mike Anderton, who wrote over a thousand game recaps before passing away in 2024), multiple photographers and videographers and a section editor. In 2010 we won the State Farm Friday Night Feats award for best high school football coverage in the country.
Local News, Politics and Events
J425 is the only site dedicated to updating you on local political events like school levy and bond campaigns, city council races, development issues, business openings and annual events like Aquafest. Our drone shots over Whiskey Ridge showed you what 1,000 new homes would look like before they were built, and our follow ups detailed the new home sales that would eventually house some 12,000 new residents. Our in depth features on the City vs. Sewer District legal battle provided the only deep dive on the topic. We’ve also covered things like the hunt for a new superintendent at Lake Stevens School District, the district’s adoption of gender policy, the city’s dedication to improving the public works department and the extended battle between the Sno Isle Library and the City over a co-located campus - a battle that ultimately resulted in the library and the city each going their own ways. Of the 1500+ articles published on J425 since 2021, over half fit in this category – and almost all were provided for free, without advertising and without a paywall.