Old Church Site Home For Police Training Center

NORTH HILL - Justice is coming to a former church boarded up four years ago after settlement of a sexual-misconduct lawsuit against the pastor and the church.

The state's Criminal Justice Training Center moved in over the weekend, and classes got under way this morning on the 36-acre campus nestled in a grove of madrona trees along First Avenue South.

Sgt. Marsha Camp of the Seattle Police Department's advanced-training unit said the new facility is "10 times better" than the old training center in the former Glacier High School in Burien.

The Legislature authorized $16 million in 1990 to purchase the church property and convert it into a training center for new police officers.

Two dormitory buildings - one new, one remodeled - have been provided for 115 trainees, who come from city, county and state jails and police departments throughout Washington. Previously, out-of-town students had been housed in motels.

Jim Scott, director of the state Criminal Justice Training Commission, said another dormitory is needed, along with space where crimes such as robberies and burglaries can be simulated for training.

Those facilities, along with a new police academy building, are planned for second-phase construction.

Crews also are creating a 1 1/2-mile-long jogging trail in the woods behind the academy.

Scott said as many as 400 students can be on the campus at one time.

In addition to dormitories, two other buildings on the campus house the Law Enforcement Academy, where city and county police officers train for 11 weeks, and the Correction Officers Academy, which offers four weeks of instruction. The buildings also contain a gym, cafeteria, lockers and showers, and an auditorium.

The plush red carpet in the 2,500-seat auditorium is a legacy from the former Community Chapel and Bible Training Center. The church put the property up for sale after it and Pastor Donald Barnett were sued by three women who claimed Barnett assaulted them as a form of spiritual counseling.

The suit was settled out of court in 1989.