A 35-year-old Washington state woman allegedly told police she identifies as a 15-year-old boy after she was arrested for sexting and providing alcohol and drugs to a crew of runaway teens that she planned to leave town with.
Amanda Dorrough, who went by the name "Taz" among the teens, was charged with ‘unlawful harboring of minors' after police uncovered a plan for her to flee to Seattle, according to a police report provided by the Port Angeles Police Department.
The Port Angeles High School vice principal contacted police on May 4 after two students reportedly came to the office and admitted to the planned runaway, according to the case report.
The vice principal reportedly informed the reporting officer that the eight students would hang out with Dorrough in a "gully near a church."
Police had previously received 10 different reports regarding Dorrough's involvement with minors, according to the incident report. The first reported call was made on April 11, 2023, and since then 11 calls in total were made, including the final and most recent call that led to her arrest.
On May 2, two days before the arrest, several officers searched the location of the suspect's apartment to find the minors.
They spotted three teenagers "running through the parking lot away from Dorrough's apartment." An officer heard movement from the suspect's apartment but was unable to get in touch with someone inside after multiple failed attempts. He then decided to visit the gully where the students reportedly hung out with Dorrough, the report said.
Dorrough was spotted sitting next to one of the students who was identified as a runaway, the case report said.
The following day, May 3, according to the report, police contacted Dorrough and notified her that the child was a runaway.
Police also saw four minors "cuddling with each other on the ground." One was on the runaway list and had a juvenile warrant, the report said.
The reporting officer believed that there was probable cause to arrest Dorrough for "Unlawful Harboring of a Minor" after having received confirmation that she reportedly knew that one of the students was listed as a runaway.
Dorrough later told Clallam County Jail staff that she identifies as a 15-year-old and had previously said she identifies as a teenage boy, police said. Before Dorrough was arrested, she allegedly told an officer that "she feels like teenagers ‘understand’ her better" and that "she ‘identifies’ better with teenage kids," according to the report.
While searching around the location where the minors were found, police found "two empty condom packets, one unopened condom, a bra, and an empty cigarette packet with a lighter," the report said.
Dorrough's neighbors had called police in the past to report that minors were "constantly" entering and leaving the suspect's apartment, with one saying Dorrough was spotted shirtless and braless in the hall with a boy appearing to be 13 years old, according to the report.
A therapy clinic client reported receiving a tip that Dorrough had a "‘sexting’ relationship with a 12-year-old" and "trespassed from the Boys & Girls Club, by the staff, due to perceived ‘predatory’ behavior," police said.
One parent of a runaway reported that she found her daughter at Dorrough's home, and the daughter told an officer that she had been smoking "shiny" marijuana at the suspect's apartment, which she thought was spice, and consumed vodka. The daughter also said she used meth, according to police.
Another report by a parent told police that she tracked her son's phone, which revealed his location was near Dorrough's apartment, however, police were unable to locate her son once they arrived to the home.
Seattle Radio host Jason Rantz, who originally reported on the case, stated in an article that an underage alleged victim said the suspect told him that she liked him, and when he didn't reciprocate the feeling, she got upset and "almost killed herself."
Dorrough was charged with one count of distributing a controlled substance (marijuana/cannabis) to a minor and posted bail on May 14, the article stated.
