Retired Kitsap County deputy charged with hit-run, perjury

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) — A Kitsap County sheriff's deputy who retired last month amid an investigation in an off-duty car crash in Silverdale has been charged with second-degree perjury.

The Kitsap Sun reports that 62-year-old Kenneth Mahler was also charged Thursday with hit and run of an unattended vehicle.

The perjury charge comes after surveillance vehicle shows him in the parking lot of the car crash, after he signed a statement claiming he was not there. No one was injured in the crash.

The Washington State Patrol began investigating Mahler after a person called 911 to report that their vehicle had been hit by another vehicle in a parking lot Aug. 4. The caller provided a license plate number and description of the vehicle, and a search determined it was registered to Mahler.

A union representative attempted Friday to contact Mahler at the newspaper's request but Mahler did not immediately respond.

He is to be arraigned Oct. 6 in Kitsap Superior Court.