Creep who tried to kidnap bikini-clad barista via drive-thru window is cut loose, to dismay of victims’ advocates

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

Published Aug. 30, 2023

Updated Aug. 30, 2023, 3:36 p.m. ET

original post at: https://nypost.com/2023/08/30/creep-who-tried-to-kidnap-bikini-clad-barista-back-on-streets/

A Washington state man who tried to zip-tie and kidnap a bikini-clad barista at a drive-up window in a shocking caught-on-video attack is now back behind the wheel — to the dismay of victims’ rights advocates.

Matthew Darnell, 39, was busted after trying to yank the victim through the window at Beankini Espresso in Auburn on Jan. 16, but was freed Saturday after prosecutors cut a plea deal that called for a mere 50-day sentence, according to a report by KIRO-TV News.

Darnell lives just two blocks from the coffee shop.

“It raises the question of why should people bother to report [assaults],” Mary Ellen Stone, CEO of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, told the outlet.

Darnell was caught on surveillance video pulling up to the drive-up window at the coffee shop around 5 a.m. He asked the bikini-wearing victim for change for $5, then grabbed her arm and tried to yank her into his pickup truck — and was seen trying to clamp her wrist with a plastic zip tie.

He sped off when the victim pulled away and slammed the window shut.

Darnell was arrested the following day — thanks in large part to a distinctive tattoo on his arm that reads “Chevrolet” and was visible on the footage — and charged with assault and attempted kidnapping.

The owner of Beankini Esspresso in Auburn, Washington, said her baristas are prepared for any eventuality like the attempted kidnapping on Jan. 16 The staff has Mace, Tasers and a panic button in case of trouble.

The owner of the drive-thru coffee hut later told Business Insider that she prepares her workers for any eventuality — including creepy abduction attempts.

“We have Mace, Tasers, silent panic buttons, we have metal doors — extra precautions for if someone were to try to kick a door in,” she said. “We have audio, video.”

Darnell had already been behind bars for 220 days, so he was released after cutting a deal for the 50-day sentence following his guilty plea to an attempted kidnapping charge, according to KIRO.

“Prosecutors statewide are limited by sentencing guidelines and offender score,” a spokesperson for the King County Prosecutor’s Office told the station. “There are times, all the time, where people look and say, ‘Boy, that feels like it should be a longer sentence.’

“But we are required to follow the state guidelines that are set by state lawmakers,” the office said. “Either way, whether it’s attempted kidnapping or felony harassment, state law outlines that as a Class C felony, so, whichever way there is a conviction, it’s the same class.”