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Storro not likely to go to court until face heals

Deputy prosecutor wants county to avoid paying for treatment

By Bob Albrecht, Laura McVicker
Published: September 23, 2010, 12:00am

Prosecutors are biding their time before bringing Bethany Storro to court to avoid incurring medical costs associated with her self-inflicted injuries.

Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Tony Golik said Wednesday he doesn’t expect the Vancouver woman to make a first appearance until next week because she is still receiving treatment at an unspecified hospital for her facial burns.

“I don’t want the county to have to pay for treatment of those injuries,” he said. “I’d like to see the injuries healed before jail.”

Golik noted there also isn’t a rush to bring her to court because the 28-year-old isn’t considered a flight risk or a danger to the community. A deli clerk, she lives with her parents in their west Vancouver home.

He anticipates a lawyer for Storro will contact him to arrange a time for her surrender. So far, Storro hasn’t hired an attorney, Golik said.

On Monday, the major crimes deputy prosecutor filed three counts of second-degree theft by deception against Storro. The charges came four days after Vancouver police revealed that Storro — who fabricated a story about a black woman throwing acid in her face — reportedly confessed that her injuries were self-inflicted.

She said she applied caustic drain cleaner to her face hours before the 911 call because she either wanted to die or have a new face, according to court documents.

The theft charges allege that Storro, by deception, “did obtain control over” money from three charitable donors: Anytime Fitness, Safeway and Michael Kite of California. The three alleged victims donated more than $750 to cover Storro’s medical bills; in total, nearly $28,000 was raised.

That’s not all the money that went to her cause, however. There were many smaller donors.

On another front, an internal analysis found that the Storro investigation has cost the Vancouver Police Department at least $12,000 in employee hours, phone bills and other expenses.

“That would not include expenses that haven’t come in,” said Kim Kapp, a police spokeswoman, who added investigators are likely to spend the next few weeks trying to track down Storro’s individual contributors.

“Cash donations and those types of other situations, where a store may have done a bulk deposit, are complex to deal with,” Kapp said. “They came from all over.”

The department’s detectives are salaried employees, Kapp said, explaining the estimate reflects the higher-than-usual number of hours devoted to the case.

She said some overtime was accrued.

For the most part, though, “We’ve all had to look at prioritizing our schedules to devote time to all our tasks,” Kapp said.

Restitution of the police expenses, Kapp said, would be decided during the course of litigating Storro’s alleged crimes.

“It’s pretty typical on a major investigation for us to track costs,” she added.

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