By Katie Metzger

kmetzger@mi-reporter.com

A Mercer Island resident has been found trespassing at local schools several times in recent months.

The suspect, a 56-year-old white male, was arrested on suspicion of trespassing at West Mercer Elementary on Sept. 11 at 4:53 p.m. He later booked into Issaquah City Jail.

“The principal stated that there was a man sitting shirtless at an outdoor table on the school’s blacktop between the main building and the portables,” according to the police report filed by detective Mike Seifert.

The same man had been charged with trespassing at Country Village Day School on Aug. 11.

The suspect claimed he didn’t know that he had been banned from all Mercer Island School District properties, said police detective Pete Erickson.

“He thought he was only restricted from being on the North Mercer campus,” according to the police report.

The suspect was observed trespassing three separate times, on Aug. 6, 7 and 11, at Country Village. He was served with written notice of trespass on Aug. 13, which stated that he was not permitted to be on any school district property until Aug. 12, 2015.

School staff said that the suspect loitered around the parking lot and walkway by the Country Village Day Care, and that he ran off when confronted.

According to a report filed by Erickson on Aug. 13, the suspect acknowledged that his behavior was suspicious and said that he had gone to the old North Mercer Junior High School, which has been the location until recently of Youth Theatre Northwest, to look at it. He said he would not go there again, and signed the written notice.

Erickson also wrote that he conducted a criminal history investigation regarding the suspect. It returned with an arrest for DUI and domestic violence out of Alabama.