Eastside WeHo Resident Offers a Chilling Tale of a Man Attempting an Apartment Break-In

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Kathy Bray at Starbucks, with alleged stalker Jackie Harrington (red shirt) behind her.

A woman living on the 7900 block of Norton Avenue on West Hollywood’s Eastside has come forward with a chilling story of a man who apparently has been rambling through the neighborhood for a long time and on Labor Day attempted to break into her apartment and suggested he would assault her sexually.

Kathy Bray spoke out about the incident at Monday’s Public Safety Commission meeting, offering details that reflect allegations others have made about the man on NextDoor.com, the neighborhood website. Bray’s explicit description of the incident at the public meeting got praise from several of those attending the meeting, who have expressed concern about public safety on the Eastside. The Sheriff’s Station has considering opening a substation in that area and has stepped up patrols, with one person who attended the meeting saying she has seen fewer people engaged in criminal behavior in the park. A report issued Monday by the station showed an overall decline in serious crime on the Eastside in August of this year compared to August 2018.

Bray said she had been at home by herself while her husband was out doing laundry. She got out of the shower and walked into her bedroom and, unclothed and looking through an open bedroom window, saw a man approach the window from the back of the house. “With my hands, I tried to cover myself and screamed at him to go away,” she said in an interview. She said the man yelled ordered her to come out and have sex with him. “Then he was threatening me: ‘I know where you live, I’m going to get you’.”

Bray said the man then came to the front of her building and pressed himself against the screen door. “He was pressing his whole face in my screen and his hands, saying ‘I see you and I’m going to get you’,” she said. She said she ran to the door to make sure that it was locked as he started jingling the handle and pressing against the door.

Bray called 911, “and then I heard the sirens, and he heard the sirens, and he’s hobbling away with a beer can in each hand.”

Bray praised the response of the Sheriff’s deputies. “They found him on Fairfax and picked him up. They drove me over to identify him,” she said, noting that doing that accurately was important to her. “The last thing I will ever do is wrongfully identify a black man in America.  I saw exactly what he was wearing.”

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The man, identified as Jackie Harrington, 52, was arrested by West Hollywood Sheriff’s deputies and charged with “peeping inside an inhabited dwelling,” trespassing and possession of drug paraphernalia. While a judge issued a “stay away” order demanding that Harrington not approach Bray’s apartment building, he declined to issue an “order of protection” or restraining order, which would bar the man from approaching her.

Bray said that Deputy Parra, who was assigned the case, told her that  Harrington had pled “no contest” to charges of peeping into her building and to possession of two crack pipes. The district attorney assigned to the case did not pursue a charge of attempted breaking and entering. As of publication, WEHOville has been unable to determine under what conditions Harrington was released from jail and what next steps might be taken on the trespassing charge.

Soon after the arrest, Bray said, “I found out this guy is back on the street because I went to my Starbucks and he was standing on the street and he was staring at me.”

Lt. William Moulder, who was attending the Public Safety Commission meeting, has urged Bray to again seek a restraining order.

Harrington’s presence in the neighborhood has been a subject of numerous posts on the NextDoor.com site. Stephanie Harker, another Eastside resident, has said that he was caught on video entering a carport and has been accused of shouting profanities at an employee of the local 7-Eleven convenience store and yelling at a bus driver.  Kimberly Copeland, an Eastside resident who sits on the city’s Business License Commission, has said the man has been reported  “following women into carports and to their apartment buildings for the last few months- peeping in their windows, attempting to get into some apartments, masturbating outside of women’s windows, etc. Numerous videos  and photos have been sent to WeHo Sheriff’s Dept.”

Lt. Moulder urged those who see situations like the one that Bray described to report them to the Sheriff’s Department. “When you see something, say something,” he said.

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Franklin
Franklin
5 years ago

As we see again and again and again, the whole prop 47, prop 57 and AB 109 “let’s get soft on crime” approach has worked out precisely as well as all of the law enforcement agencies and District Attorneys in the state said it would. Maybe one day we’ll learn.

Oh no
Oh no
5 years ago

When you see something say something is if no use if nothing is done. She did say & do something and still he lingers…

HollywoodMaga
HollywoodMaga
5 years ago

Maybe we need to bring back some good ol’ fashioned frontier justice.

hifi5000
hifi5000
5 years ago

From looking at the photo of this stalker and reading about his real dangerous actions against women,this guy is a accident waiting to happen.He seems to be skirting the law enough that he is confident he won’t be charged or held in jail for very long. I think the local deputies don’t think of him to be a real threat or is that he just bonkers and will eventually be caught harming another individual.He is pretty brazen as he knows many people will not confront him on his stretchy actions.Unfortunately, I think he will end up hurting someone if he… Read more »

John Fitz
John Fitz
5 years ago

Get him off of the street. Lock him up.

Ken Howard
Ken Howard
5 years ago

OK, I”m a radical, Democratic Socialist, gay, HIV-positive, “legalize all drugs and decriminalize sex work”, social worker, activist, liberal. And even I now sympathize a bit with those deplorables who decry “liberal California” as being too soft on crime. I’m also a Feminist and personal rights advocate, and let’s be clear: Bray’s rights are being violated here, and so are those of other West Hollywood citizens in general, and women in particular, who are the victims of (straight) male sexual aggression. Harrington wasn’t tried for “attempted breaking and entering” when he TRIED THE DOORKNOB? Bray wasn’t granted a Restraining Order… Read more »

We The People
We The People
5 years ago
Reply to  Ken Howard

A “5150” psychiatric hold is for only 72 hours. After three days he’s back on the street trying more doorknobs. For a“Democratic socialist, legalize all drugs and decriminalize sex work, social worker, activist, liberal” you’re sounding more like a law and order centrist……Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

We The People
We The People
5 years ago

The majority of voters in California approved Proposition 47 in 2014. The initiative reduced the classification of most “nonserious and nonviolent property and drug crimes” from a felony to a misdemeanor. This is why these individuals are back on the street the day after being arrested.

How did you vote?

A. M.
A. M.
5 years ago

https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=121992285&comment=285190618&ct=cq0jCAnq3J_YmDeaPYSTfMZUl8xbeKGoU-ZHHeZaB09zJaZQZQl5aSGi-FU4lMij&ec=jUsXRsKkOPMVxJBs1Cj9scCEDVfj1pLaDEEEO8rW-uw%3D&lc=1754

https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=122406562&comment=290016318

People have been discussing this creep on NextDoor and calling the authorities and nothing significant is being done. He is now out, once again, harassing every woman in West Hollywood and who knows where else.