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Why do dangerous offenders from across Washington—and even Oregon—keep finding their way to Clallam County? With its struggling economy and already strained services, our community is increasingly being used as a dumping ground for outsiders with long criminal histories. These aren’t “our neighbors” or “the kids we went to school with.” They’re transient repeat offenders whose actions cost local taxpayers millions and erode the sense of safety that once defined our small towns.
When Joshua Quinn Keele, age 50, was booked into the Clallam County Jail this week for forgery, criminal impersonation, and identity theft, few locals realized this wasn’t his first time making headlines—or even his first appearance in a county jail nearby.
Keele’s record spans decades and multiple counties. In 2014, he was arrested in Port Hadlock after being featured on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for child pornography involving a relative.
Court documents at the time described Keele as a registered sex offender with a prior molestation conviction, a methamphetamine addiction, and a long record of assault and drug-related crimes.
That arrest alone should have been enough to keep him behind bars for good—but somehow, he resurfaced again and again. In July 2021, he was arrested in Port Townsend for allegedly strangling a woman during a domestic assault.
A year later, while awaiting trial, Keele was charged with unlawful imprisonment after allegedly threatening two housecleaners with a stun gun, refusing to let them leave his home, and stealing their belongings.
During his 2022 trial, prosecutors warned of Keele’s disturbing behavioral pattern: drug use, paranoia, violence, and a history of flight risk backed by fourteen warrants. Even so, he was allowed continued communication privileges in jail, which he used to orchestrate witness tampering through coded messages with a Puyallup woman named Jessica Lynn Lawson. Their goal? To keep the victims from appearing in court.
A day before his arrest in Clallam County, Keele was released from Kitsap County Jail.
Now, after bouncing between Kitsap, Jefferson, and Lewis Counties, Keele has somehow landed in Clallam County Jail—booked again, this time on financial crimes. It raises an uncomfortable question:
How did a man with such a violent and well-documented past move freely from one county to another, only to end up here?
Keele isn’t the only one.
Just this week, Roderick Steven Lonsinger, age 33, was booked into Clallam County Jail for Assault in the Fourth Degree (Domestic Violence).
Lonsinger’s record stretches across Oregon—Portland, Polk County, and Roseburg—where he’s faced charges ranging from menacing to attempted robbery.
He even had a court date in neighboring Jefferson County days before his Clallam arrest, suggesting yet another cross-county pattern of crime.
And then there’s Guy Jay Ralph Jr., a convicted sex offender from Oregon who has repeatedly been arrested in Port Angeles for DUI-drugs and failure to register.
Ralph’s criminal record includes violent robbery and witness tampering, yet he continues to be released shortly after each new arrest.
On October 12, he was again booked into Clallam County Jail—for DUI-drugs—and released the next day.
Each of these men has one thing in common: they aren’t from here. Yet they repeatedly end up in our jails, our courts, and our headlines, burdening the taxpayers of an already struggling county.
Clallam County’s justice system was designed to serve its community—not to absorb the cost and chaos of transients and career criminals drifting in from across the state. But as other jurisdictions tighten enforcement and urban centers push offenders outward, small rural counties like ours are quietly paying the price.
Meanwhile, our leaders celebrate “harm reduction” policies that prioritize the distribution of drug paraphernalia over accountability and rehabilitation. The result? Addicts and offenders view Clallam County not as a place of consequence, but as a place of convenience.
Until local officials start asking why these repeat offenders keep finding refuge here—and until the county demands cooperation from state and federal agencies to prevent it—Clallam County will remain a magnet for those seeking leniency rather than justice.
And once again, it’s the law-abiding residents of Clallam County left to clean up the mess.
Final Budget Town Hall Tonight
Join the conversation tonight, Wednesday, October 29, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. in the Forks City Hall Council Chamber (500 E. Division Street, Forks).
This is your chance to speak up about how county funds are being spent, ask questions, and make your voice heard on priorities that affect Forks and the entire West End. Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of the discussion shaping Clallam County’s future. Click here for details.
