Zone 4

Capitol Hill’s “Stay Out of Drug Area” is no longer the only SODA zone in Seattle with an active exclusion order.

Seattle Municipal Court filings show an order was issued for Seattle SODA Zone 2 in February against a 40-year-old busted for smoking meth in front an International District market in late December.

The February order covers the zone stretching across the CID and Pioneer Square. The judge in the case granted some leeway in the exclusion, allowing the defendant to “ride public transit through the zone.”

The order doubles the number of people subject to Seattle’s newly created excluded zones.

CHS reported here last month on what had been the only previous order issued. In that case, a judge and prosecutors agreed with police to bar a 27-year-old defendant facing charges of use of a controlled substance in a public place and false reporting from Capitol Hill’s Zone 4.

CHS reported here on the Seattle City Council approval of the SODA and Stay Out of Area Prostitution zones in September.

The new zones are on Capitol Hill, and in the International District, Belltown, the University District, and Pioneer Square with the new SOAP zone covering Aurora. More could be added.

Under the legislation, a designation allows a judge to bar drug or prostitution law offenders busted in a zone from reentering the area for up to two years. A SODA or SOAP order can also be imposed as a condition of release from jail. Violating an order will become a new gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

The Seattle City Attorney’s Office said the process begins police, with a spokesperons telling CHS its office receives referrals from SPD and reviews the referrals “to determine if there are sufficient legal grounds to move the case forward.”

“This includes whether or not the alleged conduct violates a specific law and if the evidence supports the elements of the alleged offense,” the spokesperson said. “A referral is declined when those elements are not there.”

According to court records, defendant barred from Zone 4 is a resident of Tukwila.

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