Suspect Tied To Earlier Assault -- Teen Says Baranyi Beat, Threatened Her

BELLEVUE - A teenage girl called police 10 months ago to report a 17-year-old boy for what she said was a vicious attack.

She said he hit her in the head so hard she got a concussion, then kicked her in the abdomen when she fell to the ground, and threatened to get a gun and kill her.

Dawn Kindschi swore out a complaint. Another person said she, too, heard the death threats, and medics found "minor injuries."

No action was ever taken against the 17-year-old boy.

Today that boy, Alex Baranyi, stands accused of the worst crime in Bellevue's history, the Jan. 4 slaying of a 20-year-old woman, her 17-year-old sister and their parents.

Baranyi has been charged with four counts of aggravated first-degree murder. His best friend, also 17, is to be charged in the killings as well.

Dawn Kindschi and the others who talked to police about Baranyi's alleged assault last April all say he should have been punished, or received help, long ago.

"Had they done something then, perhaps those people would still be alive," said Dawn's mother, Casey Kindschi.

The case has been previously unknown because it was dropped by the criminal-justice system.

A case review by The Seattle Times shows the police officer labeled the attack as "mutual combat" between Kindschi and Baranyi and failed to report back to Kindschi or forward medical records to the prosecutor. Then, juvenile-court officers couldn't find Baranyi.

Finally, the case was dismissed without action - just two months ago.

The Bellevue Police report on the April 2, 1996, incident portrays it as teenage horseplay that escalated into a fight.

"There are no witnesses to this incident, and it appears the assault was mutual," Police Officer Lon Bauer wrote.

He said Baranyi told him the girl inflicted as much pain as he did, and neither of them required medical treatment.

The officer did not mention that Kindschi, 16, had been examined by medics from the Bellevue Fire Department. The medics found "minor injuries from an assault," according to their report, obtained yesterday after the Kindschis signed a waiver.

"The police weren't really paying attention to me," Kindschi said. "They told the medics, `Oh, her boyfriend got a little rough with her.' I told them he wasn't my boyfriend, and he got more than a little rough. He assaulted me."

Kindschi said she'd known Baranyi only a week, having met him at a bowling alley, and that he was upset because her best friend, Annaliisa Stone, had rebuffed him.

Kindschi and Stone said Baranyi followed them to Stone's house one day, uninvited. Kindschi is a junior at Sammamish High School, and Stone is a junior at the alternative high school which Baranyi also attended.

A little horseplay between Baranyi and Kindschi got ugly when Baranyi sicced the Stone family's dog on her when Stone was out of the room, according to Kindschi. The dog, a German shepherd-collie mix, only obeys a male's commands, the girls said.

The medic report shows Kindschi suffered a dog bite to the ankle. Her mother said it later swelled up to the size of a softball. But Baranyi had told the police the opposite: that Kindschi had sicced the dog on him.

Both agreed Kindschi was hit in the head and fell. Baranyi wrote that he hit her once "with my inner arm" as he tried to get past her in a doorway.

Kindschi said she was slugged repeatedly in the back of the head and on the face and briefly was unconscious.

The medics' report shows that the girl reported she had head pain and may have blacked out for a few seconds. But, it says, `No obvious injuries and deformities noted.' "

Kindschi and her mother said bruises showed up on her neck a few days later. The girl said her abdomen was sore from being kicked.

The police report didn't mention the death threat, although Kindschi wrote about it in her witness statement and Stone said she told police she heard the threat twice.

The Kindschis and Stone were astonished to learn this week that the officer had concluded there was a mutual fight. They said they would have pressed harder for charges if they'd known.

"I gave them my name and phone number, but they never called back," Kindschi said. "I told the officer I wanted to press charges. He said I would be pressing charges by signing the statement."

"They gaffed it," Casey Kindschi said. "I didn't know about this mutual combat story. I can't believe it. He wasn't hurt. She was."

Bellevue Police Lt. Bill Ferguson said the April 1996 report looked like "a nothing case." Bauer did not respond to repeated requests for an interview yesterday.

The police report was routinely forwarded to juvenile prosecutors for review as a misdemeanor assault. From there it was sent to a diversion program for minor first or second offenders. And then it was shuffled around and dropped.

Susan Waild, manager of the diversion program for King County Superior Court, said Baranyi couldn't be located - apparently he'd left home. So Waild said the diversion case was "rejected" and sent back to the prosecutor.

Many offenders prefer the diversion program to juvenile court because it doesn't show up on their permanent record and usually costs less.

Under the diversion program, juveniles can qualify for community service instead of more formal punishment depending on their offense, overall record and background.

The diversion program also boasts an 85 percent success rate.

But in this case, Baranyi's disappearance worked in his favor.

Susan Noonan, supervising attorney in the prosecutor's juvenile unit, said her office took the file back but eventually decided not to prosecute. The case was closed Nov. 12.

Citing confidentiality in juvenile records, Noonan said she couldn't talk about details.

But she said anytime police find two teenagers in mutual combat, especially when the suspect claims self-defense, prosecutors don't want to file charges.

In many cases, prosecutors ask for more information, but not in this one. In most cases, prosecutors also consider it "extremely important" to know about the medics' report, too, Noonan said, but in this case the medics' report wasn't mentioned by the police.

"We deal with what we're given in the police reports," Noonan said. "We rely upon that initial report, especially at the misdemeanor level where we're dealing with so many other serious cases."

Sometime later, Baranyi complained to Kindschi that he had to perform 200 hours of community service because of the incident, so the girls assumed he had pleaded guilty.

"He was still mad about it," Stone said.

Court records show no such community service. "That just does not comport with anything I know to be true," Noonan said.