The Denny's Crowd -- Between Boredom And Inertia, Some Bellevue Teens Are Nightly Nomads

BELLEVUE - It's 2 a.m. and too early to head home for one group of Eastside teenagers who'd rather be out on the streets.

They've got a full tank of gas, and they're ready to drift from Denny's to dance clubs to all-night coffee shops, picking up friends and momentum. They're going somewhere but nowhere in particular.

They call themselves the "Denny's crowd," - about 25 close-knit kids who congregate at late-night diners or bowling alleys. Too young for bar-hopping and too bored to stay home, they venture out each night, spending idle hours chain-smoking, drinking coffee or just driving around.

Late-night carousing is nothing new for teenagers. But two 17-year-olds from the night crowd now await trial in the Jan. 4 slaying of William and Rose Wilson and their two daughters in Bellevue's Woodridge neighborhood.

Alex Baranyi, one of the accused, told police he wanted to kill someone because he was "in a rut," and King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said the killings were committed "for the sheer experience of killing."

That the Wilson slayings may be linked to something as common as teen boredom has turned the spotlight on the late-night scene.

Police Officer Bryce Corey, who last year patrolled the halls of Sammamish High School and now works the swing shift in the Eastgate area, says kids have always stayed out late, but these days some stay out so much later.

Corey sees as many as 40 high-schoolers on weekday nights in the Eastgate and Factoria areas, and double that on weekends. Most go home after a midnight movie or when the local bowling alley closes at 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

Dawn breaks before the Denny's group heads home, however. The crowd is an eclectic mix of self-described punks, Goths or preppies, terms used generally to describe how they dress.

Some go to school, others work. Some do both. Many have been kicked out of their homes or have run away. They sleep wherever they can and eat when they can bum a few bucks from friends.

The comfort of darkness, and each other, draws them together night after night.

"I think they look at their friends more as their family structure," says Police Officer Debbie Ingram.

Says Amber Ballard, 18: "Some of us need to get away from our family; some have no home. We can't sleep, and we want to see our friends."

Zach DeJongh, 21, of Bellevue says he sleeps during the day and goes out at night because that's when he's most creative and most alive. What's more, he adds, there are fewer judgmental people around then.

"The yuppies aren't out," DeJongh said. "You don't have to deal with their attitudes."

On a typical night, the group rounds up a few friends and head for popular hangouts: various Denny's restaurants, the Sun Villa Bowling Lanes or the Redmond Firehouse, a favorite concert spot.

One recent Friday, the bowling alley swelled with music and laughter during "Rock'n Bowl," late-night bowling that regularly attracts about 150 teens.

For the most part, they don't cause problems.

Ingram notes that most crimes committed by young people in Factoria and Eastgate - not necessarily by the late-night crowd - involve "malicious mischief," petty crimes she attributes to boredom. The most common complaints are about vandalism and underage drinking.

Sun Villa security guards try to stop minors from sneaking in alcohol or drinking in the parking lot, says Curtis Walker, swing-shift manager.

To curb an outbreak of fighting several months ago, the security guards and police stepped up patrols. `It's been fairly tame recently," Walker said.

Officer Corey says he's more concerned about kids becoming victims of crime than kids committing crimes.

Nighttime alcohol and drug consumption often lead to problems, Corey believes. "If you're there, and somebody with reduced inhibitions needs to do something, you're the victim whether it's assault, robbery, whatever," he said.

What teens say they want are places that stay open past midnight on weekdays or weekends. Many say they just want a hangout, like the all-night Hurricane restaurant in downtown Seattle, where they can sit and talk with people their age.

But teenagers shouldn't be out later than midnight, says Ken Wong, supervisor of the Bellevue-based Youth Eastside Services, a nonprofit social- service agency. Wong works with about 300 troubled teens a year.

If places like Ground Zero, the Boys & Girls Club, and Crossroads Community Center offered longer business hours, Wong fears, teens would get the wrong message.

"If you open it later, they're going to stay later," he says. "What are we telling them, that it's OK to stay out late?"

Wong thinks there's collective denial among Eastsiders about troubles involving young people, including violence, drug abuse, gang membership and dropping out of school.

"The Eastside's belief is that we don't have problems," Wong said. "It's the `not in our house' kind of mentality."

Increasingly, however, Eastsiders are being forced to deal with issues such as where to put treatment homes for troubled teens, how to curb high-school dropout rates, whether to impose curfews or penalize parents whose children commit crimes.

"The kids just think it's OK living on the streets," said Gail Burns, whose 18-year-old son is part of the Denny's crowd. "Sometimes, there's nothing you can do."

Her son is bigger than she is, so it's difficult to control him, Burns says. While she thinks parents must take responsibility for their children, she believes schools, law enforcement, even city officials have a stake in that, too.

Curfews or absentee rules at school might help to keep young people off the streets, she says. "Parents who didn't discipline their kids, they run wild," Burns said. "The cops don't do anything about it."

But law-enforcement agencies are limited in what they can do.

"It's tough when you have to contact a parent and they just don't care," Bellevue Officer Steve Hoover said. "We can't force them to go home."

For the kids, the freewheeling life has its ups and downs.

"It's fun sometimes," said Ian McDougall, who left home and now lives with a friend. "You don't have anyone telling you what to do."

But independence comes at a price. Some of the late-night crowd have gone hungry, stolen food or slept on the streets.

"I'm sick of living on the skids," said Korby Gerth, 16, whose family is in California. She says she's been on her own for the past few years.

Friends usually give her a place to crash for the night, and sometimes a meal or a chance to clean up. She takes "Chevron showers" - using a gas-station bathroom to wash with wet paper towels.

"I have accommodations," Gerth said. "They're just not mine."

But the low-maintenance life gets old fast, she says.

"You feel guilty because you have to crash at all your friends' houses," she said. "People look down on you sometimes."

Many of the teens say they've been given a bad rap, especially after the arrest of their friends, Baranyi and Dave Anderson, who are accused of killing the Wilson family.

"When they see this group of kids, they think we're total deviants and we're bad kids," said Misty Baskett, 18.

"We're good kids," Gerth said. "We look strange. But we're good kids."