Defendant skips arraignment for felony theft; $10K arrest warrant issued

Published 11:33 am Wednesday, February 4, 2015

A $10,000 bench warrant was issued for the arrest of a Burlington woman who lives part-time on Orcas Island, and who is accused of using a credit card belonging to an elderly woman to purchase $500 in ferry tickets.

On Jan. 16, Sheri Denielle Deraimo, 25, failed to appear at an arraignment hearing in San Juan County Superior Court. She faces nine counts of identity theft, a Class C felony, and was released on $10,000 bail following a December 31 preliminary hearing and pending arraignment on the charges.

If arrested and convicted, Deraimo would face maximum penalties of five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.

According to prosecutors, Deraimo used the numbers of a credit card belonging to a 95-year-old Orcas Island woman to purchase $507 worth of ferry tickets online over a two-week period beginning in mid-August.

The woman reportedly left the credit card at Island Market after buying groceries at the Eastsound store in early summer. The card was retrieved by her daughter-in-law in late July.

With cooperation of the state ferry system and its surveillance cameras, and later with a search warrant served on Google, detectives targeted Deraimo as the primary suspect in the alleged theft after tracing license plates, ferry ticket purchases online and the email account through which the purchases were made.

— Scott Rasmussen