Transient man charged in District Court in trespassing case

A transient man who potentially faced felony charges for allegedly following a student into Columbia River High School has been exonerated in Clark County Superior Court, court records show.

Pini Nou, 34, instead was charged in county District Court with two counts of second-degree criminal trespass and obstructing a law enforcement officer, according to a complaint filed March 7. Nou had made a first appearance earlier this month in Superior Court on allegations of second-degree burglary, second-degree criminal trespass, resisting arrest and disturbing school activities.

“The evidence after a thorough investigation didn’t support filing felony charges,” Deputy Prosecutor Aaron Bartlett said Thursday.

Nou entered not-guilty pleas in District Court last week.

He is accused of following an 18-year-old female student from a public bus stop into the Hazel Dell school at about 12:30 p.m. March 2. The student said she saw Nou smoking a cigarette across from the school on Northwest 99th Street. She didn’t think he would follow her, she said, so she continued to class, according to a probable cause affidavit.

A few minutes later, Nou entered the same classroom, while smoking a cigarette, the affidavit said.

He did not check in at the front office and had entered the school through a door that opened from a classroom to the outside, according to Vancouver Public Schools spokeswoman Pat Nuzzo.

Nou circled around the student’s desk and “chuckled at her,” court records said.

The teacher in the classroom, Jois Brownstein, called security.

Nou ran from the classroom, pulled a ski mask over his face and became confrontational with security staff, according to the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. He then fled to a neighborhood southeast of the school.

Deputies found him in the backyard of a house in the 400 block of Northwest 98th Street. Nou reportedly was combative, and a deputy used a stun gun on him during the struggle.