By Tim Clifford

Having a unique name has its perks and downfalls. For instance, while covering the story of Burien resident Imphamous Kinney, who was arrested and charged with multiple offenses after attempting to run from police during the Paradiso music festival at the Gorge, the temptation to incorporate his name into the headline was great. But all inclinations to do so or to include some form of the phrases “…go down in infamy” or “Impham-y” will, for now, be put aside.

On June 27, the last day of the two day Paradiso music fest at the Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington, Grant County Sheriff’s deputies and concert security received reports of a Hummer parked dangerously close to a ledge in the north parking area. The vehicle was reportedly “teetering over an edge” in the campground. Officers on four seater ATVs headed to the location to check what was going on.

Allegedly, once Kinney saw the deputies and security guards approaching he jumped into the Hummer, threw it in gear, and reversed over the front end of one of the Sheriff’s “side-by-side” ATVs. Switching gears Kinney then drove the Hummer down an incline and into an irrigation canal with officers following close behind on ATVs. Moments later the Hummer flipped over while maneuvering the narrow “v” shaped canal and came to a dead stop.

Kinney was unharmed and taken into custody at the Grant County Jail. The Grant County Prosecutor’s Office has charged Kinney with a felony count of Attempting to Elude Police and one misdemeanor count of Hit-and-Run. A hearing date is set in Grant County for Aug. 24 with a trial date to follow sometime in September.

Initially deputies at the scene had recommended a charge of Reckless Endangerment as well but that charge was eventually dropped. While the deputies and prosecutors that were contacted for this story instantly remembered the case off of Kinney’s first name alone no information was available concerning the condition or current whereabouts of his vehicle. While it was most certainly impounded it is unknown if it has been released yet.

When asked why Kinney attempted to run the media contact for the Grant County Sheriff’s Office, Kyle Foreman, was at a loss for words. According to Foreman no drugs or alcohol (though Kinney is 22-years-old) were found in his car or on his person. The motive behind why he decided to run remains a mystery.

This year the music festival saw ten arrests and two deaths from overheating and drug use during the proceedings. These stats are down by more than half from last year’s festival.

“This year we saw less arrests at Paradiso but unfortunately we had two attendees die…when you’re dealing with a crowd of 25,000 people at each of these events the majority of the people there are well behaved and appreciative of having law enforcement and don’t cause a problem. There’s a small percentage who do and we will do our best to try and protect those people as well,” said Foreman.

The Highline Times attempted to reach out to Kinney over social media. As one could imagine there aren’t very many people on Facebook (let alone listed as living in Burien) with such a singular name. In fact in Burien and on all of Facebook there is only one “Imphamous Kinney” to be found and pestered by a journalist, another of the pitfalls of such a nom de infame.

He did not respond to our inquiries.