Stabbing suspect’s mother enters ‘not guilty’ pleading

Posted 4/14/23

The mother of a Port Townsend man accused of trying to murder his wife pleaded not guilty in Jefferson County Superior Court to a felony charge of harassment.

Lynette Edith Allen, 70, was arrested …

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Stabbing suspect’s mother enters ‘not guilty’ pleading

Posted

The mother of a Port Townsend man accused of trying to murder his wife pleaded not guilty in Jefferson County Superior Court to a felony charge of harassment.

Lynette Edith Allen, 70, was arrested in March after prosecutors claimed she had threatened to have her daughter-in-law shot.

Allen entered her plea Friday during a short arraignment hearing.

Her trial was set for June 26 through June 29.

Allen is the mother of John Lewis Allen, 50, who was arrested Feb. 19 for allegedly stabbing his wife, 42, in an early morning assault in an RV parked in the driveway of a home on Pelican Place on the south end of Port Townsend. Authorities said earlier that John Allen may have stabbed his wife as many as 28 times. He is facing a felony charge of first-degree assault, as well as unlawful imprisonment and two counts of violating a no-contact order.

Allen’s family has been at odds with the stabbing victim, according to court documents, over the possessions she has tried to retrieve since she was released from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

John Allen’s 17-year-old son was arrested last month for felony harassment/threats to kill after he allegedly left three voicemails with his stepmother, including messages about “breaking/bashing her skull in, and setting her house on fire, as well as killing her ‘whole redneck family,’” according to court documents.

Allen’s mother was arrested after she had allegedly taken the victim’s things out of the RV where the attack occurred and wouldn’t let the woman retrieve her possessions.

Authorities also claim that Lynette Allen called
911 dispatchers to say that her nephew was moving into her home and would be “defending it with guns from trespassers.” 

Allen allegedly told an officer that her daughter-in-law “was a trespasser” and repeatedly asked that she be charged for trespassing, and would have to “go through her” to get her possessions.

In addition to allegedly threatening to injure her daughter-in-law, Allen is also facing charges of third-degree theft and taking a motor vehicle without permission.

Allen was released from jail on her personal recognizance in March.

Her son remains in Jefferson County Jail on $500,000 bail.