Arrest ends blind woman's stalking ordeal

It's like the classic suspense film, "Wait Until Dark" - a woman stalked by a man she couldn't see to identify.

For more than a year, a blind North Seattle woman was victimized by someone who watched and followed her. Often he approached her on the street, sometimes speaking to her, sometimes grabbing her arm. He threw things at her, stood in her path, once placed a bird bath against her front door.

Then in July, the stalker turned more aggressive, sexually assaulting the woman as she walked home.

The 51-year-old woman, a musician, became so fearful of the man she had come to recognize only by voice that it was difficult for her to leave the apartment.

Late last month, after combined work by patrol officers, a detective and undercover officers, Seattle police arrested Zhiyzang Chen, whom King County prosecutors have charged with indecent liberties and stalking.

If found guilty, Chen, a 20-year-old community-college student, faces up to 20 months in prison, although a judge could increase the sentence up to 10 years. Chen, who has pleaded not guilty, is being held in the King County Jail.

The trouble began in July 1999 when the woman, who walks with a cane and travels by bus to her job downtown, sensed someone close behind her as she walked home. Later, a man came up and asked if he could help her cross the street. She politely declined but he persisted, following her and continuing to talk to her. She detected an Asian accent.

Days later, the woman noticed she was being followed again, and this time someone was throwing stones at her. When she got home, she found a stone in her purse.

In the next several weeks, other things happened: The man with the accent she recognized knocked on her door, saying he was soliciting funds for a community college. When she tried to close the door, he resisted.

On a number of mornings when the woman walked out the front door, she found the pots on the porch had been rearranged.

She finally called police. An officer documented the complaints, but there was little to go on: The only thing she could report was an accent.

Although the woman continued to sense she was being watched and other problems occurred, she didn't call police again until last March.

By then, she believed the man had followed her several times from her job, riding the bus home with her, then walking behind her to her apartment. Another time, the man bumped into her on the sidewalk, then demanded she apologize. Once, he grabbed her cane. Each time he spoke to her, his tone became more aggressive, the woman said.

From July 1999 to the past July, police came to her apartment four times, on each occasion documenting the problems. But there was little to go on.

Then on July 28, the woman told police the man had followed her and, just before she got to her apartment, had grabbed her breast. She managed to push him away and call police.

At this point, the case was forwarded to the Police Department's Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit, and Detective Donna Trigsted was assigned the case.

Trigsted pulled all the previous reports the woman had filed. It was the first time a detective had the opportunity to review every single incident. Trigsted met with the woman, followed her on the bus and shadowed her to her apartment. She contacted a man who had witnessed the sexual assault and arranged for a sketch.

She consulted with Officer Dain Jones, who had taken two reports from the woman and was keeping an eye out for her assailant as he patroled the neighborhood. Trigsted doesn't live far, and as often as the woman could, Trigsted rode the same bus home, keeping an eye out for the stalker. On her days off and in the evenings, Trigsted drove around the neighborhood, looking for the man.

"I was just imagining what kind of terror she was going through," the detective said. "I was determined to find this guy and put a stop to it. . . . It makes you mad. You don't pick on children, the elderly or the disabled."

The woman, who has always prided herself on being independent despite her blindness, was becoming increasingly scared.

"She was going to work a lot less," Trigsted said. "Her voice was kind of quivery. There was no happiness in her voice."

But the man never appeared when Trigsted or Jones were watching, and the woman continued to live in fear.

On Sept. 18, the woman once again sensed the man was with her on the bus as she rode home. When she got off, he followed her and, once again, grabbed her breast, police said. The area was crowded, and the woman managed to escape home but was terrified.

Trigsted told the woman to call her the next time she went to work.

On Sept. 21, when the woman told the detective she was heading downtown, Trigsted called the North Precinct and arranged to have three undercover officers waiting by the bus stop when the woman returned to her neighborhood at the end of the day. And she promised the woman that help would be waiting.

Later that day, not long before she prepared to board the bus, the woman sensed the man was near and thought he had touched her.

"She asked what time it was so she could hear his voice," said Trigsted. "I thought that was very brave of her. She was scared but she felt this is the only way that he was going to get caught."

The woman boarded the bus, certain the man got on behind her.

Meanwhile, in North Seattle, plainclothes Officers Dave Clement, Dale Williams and Zsolt Dornay waited, Clement and Williams in separate cars and Dornay dressed as a bum across from the bus stop.

The three waited an hour or so, watching as bus after bus pulled up.

Finally, close to 5 p.m., a woman with a cane got off along with a small crowd, including a young man who walked ahead.

Dornay alerted the two other officers with a radio he had in a paper bag. He followed the pair on foot a block behind, and the other officers followed from a distance of two blocks.

After the woman was safely inside her apartment, the three officers arrested the man as he waited around.

Trigsted, Jones, Clement, Williams and Dornay have all been recommended for commendations by police Lt. Neil Low.

Anne Koch's phone message number is 206-464-3303. Her e-mail address is akoch@seattletimes.com.