A convicted cocaine-runner and unapologetic advocate of zoophilia — sex between humans and animals — has been sent back to federal prison for again refusing to obey court orders that he stay away from animals and off the Internet.
Douglas Spink, 43, whose behavior has frustrated federal probation officers and prosecutors, was returned to prison on May 9 for nine months for violating his supervised release. It was the longest sentence U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Martinez could impose.
Spink — who has
repeatedly skirted court orders since he was first charged with smuggling more than 370 pounds of cocaine in 2005 — will be done with the federal judicial system when he gets out.
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That will not be the end of his legal problems, however.
He still faces misdemeanor animal-cruelty charges in Whatcom County after the Sheriff’s Office raided his property in 2010 and turned up what officials described as a bestiality farm. Spink, who was on federal probation for the drug charge at the time, was sent back to federal prison for nearly three years after that.
He was released in 2013 and almost immediately ran afoul of the court by circumventing the judge’s orders that he stay away from the Internet, where Spink operates several bestiality websites and blogs.
In February, Spink became a suspect in the disappearance of a dog from a property adjacent to a farm where Spink had been staying near Port Townsend. Spink, in denying any involvement in the dog’s disappearance to Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies, said he already had a dog — a violation of his supervised release, according to court documents.
Spink had been staying at a trailer on the farm, even though his federal probation officer had repeatedly told him he was not supposed to move from his residence in Sequim. Moreover, Jefferson County officials found Internet-capable computers and discovered that Spink had been boarding horses at a nearby property under an assumed name, the documents allege.
One of the horses, federal documents note, had been at the Whatcom County farm and had previously been taken away from Spink.
Federal prosecutors urged Martinez to send Spink back to prison for as long as possible under the original plea agreement in 2005 and then be done with him.
“Mr. Spink’s performance while on supervised release has been remarkably poor,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Masada. “It is clear that Mr. Spink has not taken his supervision seriously, other than a game to be played.”
When Spink is released from federal prison, he faces a criminal trial in Whatcom County for misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty on property in Sumas. During the 2010 raid, authorities arrested Stephen Clarke, a British citizen who said he traveled from England to Spink’s property to have sex with animals.
Clarke was convicted of animal cruelty and sent back to England.
Whatcom County officials learned of the farm after Spink drew attention to himself by aggressively supporting another zoophile, James Tait, who at the time was jailed in Tennessee facing bestiality charges.
Tait was owner of the property in Enumclaw where a small group of zoophiles sometimes gathered to have sex with farm animals. In 2005, he escorted another man onto an adjacent property to videotape him having sex with a stallion. The man later died from internal injuries.
Tait was convicted of trespassing, and the incident led to new animal-cruelty laws in Washington.
Spink was convicted on drug-smuggling charges in 2005 after he was arrested near Monroe with 371 pounds of cocaine in his vehicle. Facing a mandatory 10-year prison sentence, Spink admitted he was a drug smuggler and agreed to cooperate against others involved in a massive drug-smuggling conspiracy operated by Robert Kesling. Spink received a three-year sentence.
Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com.
Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.