EVERETT—Percy Levy, 54, who was granted executive clemency by Governor Jay Inslee in 2019 and dedicated the last 6 years to criminal justice reform, was arrested on 11 felony charges on Thursday, March 13, after a traffic stop in the 700 block of 75th Street Southeast in Everett.
His arrest comes after a 16-month long investigation by the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force (SRDTF).
Detectives working with that unit obtained a warrant for his residence, on the 600 block of 93rd Street Southeast in Everett, where they found 2,818 grams of powder cocaine, 14.7 grams of rock cocaine (or crack), and 556 grams of fentanyl, as well as a handgun, packaging material, and a digital scale signifying intent to distribute.
According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose for most people – depending on body size and tolerance – meaning the 556 grams Levy possess would be enough to kill 278,000 people, or roughly one third the population of Snohomish County according to the most recent Census data.
Levy is being charged with 11 Class B Felony charges, each with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and up to $20,000 in fines. These charges include: two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of stolen firearm, and eight separate counts of possession of controlled substances with attempt to sell.
Levy works as a Community Outreach Specialist for the Washington Defender Association (WDA) and is the founder of an automobile vendor in Everett called Redemption Auto.
Levy is considered a “symbol of personal redemption” on Redemption Auto’s website with the mission to “transform lives.”
“Percy’s personal journey of redemption is mirrored in the ethos of Redemption Auto. Each car represents resilience, second chances, and the transformative power of embarking on a new path,” Levy’s bio on Redemption Auto states.
Levy also sits on the Board of the Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County chapter as Treasurer.
Since the age of 13 Levy has been in and out of jails and prisons. He was arrested in 2002 for a drug house robbery and spent 17 years in prison before being granted executive clemency from former Washington State Governor Jay Inslee in 2019. Inslee’s decision came in the wake of the 2021 State v. Blake ruling, upending tens of thousands of drug felony cases when possession of controlled substances were reclassified as a misdemeanor.
While incarcerated Levy said he dedicated his service to the law library assisting inmates with post-trial litigation efforts. After his clemency he dedicated his life to reform the criminal legal system and became a staunch advocate against the “war on crime,” authoring several articles and a few urban books.
This remains an active investigation by the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office, and a developing story. Please check back as more information becomes available.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
19 Responses
Change isn’t always black and white. Sometimes there are steps forward and steps back. The more that people try to push the world into far opposites – black and white – the more easy it is to throw people away or write them off. The truth is there is a lot of grey. No one is perfect. And all the good that people do, all the times they were doing the right thing, should not be thrown away because they made a mistake or slipped backward into the grey.
2,818 grams of powdered cocaine, 14.7 grams of rock cocaine (or crack), and 556 grams of fentanyl is not “slipping backward into grey”. It is trafficking in drugs. Take off your rose colored glasses and grow up. He is a drug dealer, not a person to be admired.
Perfectly stated! Nailed it! Present day higher education is in ruins and essentially worthless. I had 8 years of college / higher ed 25 years ago. If I was 18 and had to make a choice today it would likely be vocation training.
I would beg to differ because I know all the good that he is done for a lot of people, and for our city, and he pushes for good to be done I would consider to be a slip, and who’s to say that he’s even guilty of it because that’s not nothing until you’re proven guilty and I’m pretty sure he’s not guilty, so why don’t we all just shut her mouth until the time comes and then she got something nice to say
Wow. The idea that people have this type of outlook is terrifying.
There’s 8B + humans on the planet and you want to pretend this pile of trash just needs good vibes.
Obviously you don’t know the meaning of Redemption. He was granted a second chance of life to get out of prison after 17 years. He was not using the drugs he was selling the drugs and is a safety risk to the community. Bet you wouldn’t be defending him if one of your children or loved ones died at the hands of fentenal he possessed. He is a drug dealer who should have never of been released.
Your wrong You’re not guilty until you’re proven guilty
Oh he will be proven guilty!
Keep voting into office the bleeding heart liberals that the citizens of Washington are dumm enough to keep voting in, and this sort of thing will continue to happen. This is on you citizens of Washington, you put Insley and his ilk into office.
I call him Dimslee!
He used his supposed new attitude of “being an upstanding citizen”, to hide the fact that he’s still a p.o.s.
He’s a pos and deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail.
He isn’t doing anything the government isn’t already doing.. It needs people like him to make their pockets richer, their world safer, and the poverty of Guns drugs and Wars up.. ThIs Is not something that was developed over night, this reality is real, and the real deal here is No drug no guns no wars, would put politics and the system at a disappointing disray. as much good he is doing in the community, his corruption is just as equal to the good he is doing for the system…..
NO DRUGS. NO GUNS NO WARS THERE WOULD BE A LOT LOST IN THE LEGAL SYSTEM ABD PUBLIC SAFETY JOBS… IT’S PART OF THEIR CYCLE A HUGE PART THAT NEEDS TO KEEP CYCLING TO KEEP UP THE GOVERNMENT AUTOMATED WEALTH, AND BENEFITS FROM IT…
Who writes this trash anymore?
Inslee pardoned in 2019, in the wake of a court decision that happened in 2021?
News companies are a joke.
go figure,,,,lefty politicians enabling lefty criminals. many of us have heard the same story time after time. and guess what?,,,nothing ever changes for the good.
Send him to CECOT prison in El Salvador. Anyone selling or possessing large amounts of fentanyl needs to spend the rest of their life in CECOT. Does not matter what their nationality is.
Bingo
Since when does any drug dealer get a “Get out of jail free card” did you see how many thousands of our young people he could have killed with all that fentanyl. Let’s take a survey of the jail how many of them just slipped one time and are now in jail for God knows how long. Should we pardon them all and let them go?