Prosecutor Declines to Charge Lake Stevens Teacher with Minor-Involved Sex Crimes Referred by LSPD Investigation
After a 15-month criminal investigation, Lake Stevens police recommended prosecutors hit 55-year-old Mark Hein with multiple charges relating to his relationship with a minor female student.
UPDATE 9/22/23 — Lake Stevens School District provided an on-the-record response to J425’s inquiry re: Hein’s employment status. Here it is. - KTH
“Mr. Hein remains on paid administrative leave with Lake Stevens School District until the completion of our investigation, which remains ongoing at this time. We understand the interest in this matter, and are committed to being as transparent as possible while maintaining the confidentiality of those involved.”
Original Post — Sept 19, 2023
(J425 Exclusive) EVERETT, WA — The Snohomish County Prosecutor’s office is declining to charge Lake Stevens High School teacher Mark Hein with the minor-involved sex crimes referred by the Lake Stevens Police Department, after its 15-month criminal investigation of Hein’s relationships with underage female students resulted in a slate of recommended charges.
The county’s top law enforcement officer’s decision not to bring charges against the 55-year-old former LSHS basketball coach brings to a close the criminal portion of a multi-year probe that saw investigators subpoena troves of district documents, while conducting over 50 taped interviews with teachers and students, including a bizarre interview with Hein himself.
How We Got Here
Almost a year and a half ago, a therapist filed a report with the Child Protective Services, detailing concerns that a 16-year-old girl had been groomed and subjected to predatory behavior by a Lake Stevens teacher.
The patient, a 16-year-old Lake Stevens girl, was incapacitated by involuntary stress related seizures and was unable to attend school following a series of events involving her math teacher.
The therapist’s report was routed from DSHS to the Lake Stevens Police Department, and the LSPD assigned the matter to a detective specializing in crime against children.
That’s how the criminal misconduct investigation into Lake Stevens High School teacher and coach Mark Hein began.
Here’s how it ends: after reviewing a criminal referral from the Lake Stevens Police Department recommending Hein be charged with multiple minor-involved sex crimes, the Snohomish County Prosecutor will decline all charges against Hein, in effect bringing the criminal matter to a close.
Predictable Decision
As J425 reported earlier this month, looming statute of limitation deadlines made it no secret that a decision was imminent.
And several clues pointed heavily towards the prosecutor declining charges: first, the prosecutor’s office is a choosing to decline criminal charging referrals from area police at a rate never before seen in Snohomish County.
The current elected Prosecutor is declining charges with 60% more frequency than his predecessor, citing a backlog of some 6600 unreviewed referrals.
That backlog is forcing prosecutors to triage cases based not on merit or order received, but instead on the presence of a pending deadline.
The aforementioned criminal referral was delivered by LSPD to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office in late January 2023, as police arrested and booked Hein into Snohomish County Jail on the aforementioned charges.
For the next nine months, prosecutors considered the recommended charges against Hein. And now, with statute of limitations deadlines days away from rendering the entire matter moot, J425 is exclusively reporting that the prosecutor will decline charges.
Whether the charging decision is a result of deficiencies within the LSPD referral or due to the backlog of some 6,600 unreviewed cases is unknown at this time.
What’s Next - School District to Speak?
Among the most pressing issues facing the district now include — in plain terms — what to do with Hein. Will the district send him on his way or view the prosecutor’s decision as a clearing of Hein’s name?
With the criminal matter completed, the path is clear for the Lake Stevens School District to address the community on the matter for the first time since Hein was placed on paid administrative leave 14 months ago.
In addition to the criminal matter, Hein faced multiple administrative investigations including a likely Title IX probe as well as mandatory district inquiries into the allegations brought forth by each alleged victim that came forward (J425 is aware of at least three at LSHS).
To date, the district has declined to comment on the matter citing the confidentiality and the ongoing criminal investigation.
However that may change this week. When J425 contacted the district for comment on the charging decision and an update on Hein’s employment status, a district spokesperson indicated that they’d have a response later this week.
Among the most pressing issues facing the district now include — in plain terms — what to do with Hein. Will the district send him on his way or view the prosecutor’s decision as a clearing of Hein’s name?
Further, how does the school district plans to incorporate the findings of the LSPD’s exhaustive investigation — Detective Parnell conducted taped interviews of over 50 teachers and students — findings that clearly demonstrate Hein’s culpability in violating multiple district policies including but not limited to lying to a police officer during an official proceeding, changing a student’s grade without proper justification, disregarding direct written instruction to refrain from contacting involved students, multiple additional boundary violations including the assertion that he could order members of the basketball team to form relationships with female students, confirmation that he tracked a victim across campus and interrupted her new math class after he’d been ordered to cease all contact with her.
The investigative report also demonstrates that building-level administrators were counseling Hein to stop contacting the victim months after he was ordered not to.
As this contact continued in clear contravention of the written direction provided to Hein by district adminstrators, the victim’s health detiororated, leading to “over 30” documented seizures, inculding one that occurred during a taped forensic interview.
Putting aside the considerable matter of duty of care to a victim who was promised that contact would cease, the decision facing the district will be to either incorporate Detective Parnell’s findings into their own understanding of Hein’s behavior, and mete out the appropriate response — or, explain why they haven’t incorporated findings laid out as fact in a investigative report conducted under the authority of a trained detective with subpeona power.
This is a developing story. Stay locked to J425 for updates.
Previously:
Hein: “You Look Like My Wife. She’s Infertile…What Are Your Plans After HS?”
“You Look Like My Wife. She’s Infertile…What Are Your Plans After HS?” - 55-year-old math teacher, to a 15-year-old female student. LAKE STEVENS — This jarring bit of dialogue is pulled from exclusively obtained investigative files that detail the ongoing criminal and administrative investigations into Lake Stevens High School teacher Mark Hein’s miscon…
I hope that justice will be served. 6,600 or 9,999 or even more is not an excuse, they should do their job and given that the result of LSPD’s investigation points to wrong-doing, I cannot understand why nothing’s happening.
Sad to see that tax payer’s dollars going to a criminal and the victim continues to suffer seeing that nothing’s happening. Wish there is something we as a community can do.
LSSD doesn't need to wait for prosecutors or LSPD, the District has it's own policies and it is clear he broke many of them. No personnel investigation should take this long w/in an organization.