EDITOR’S NOTE: The subject of this story is a former B-Town Blog advertiser. This reporter has also met him through Burien business and networking events and has been a customer at his restaurant. This story is based on police reports, charging documents, information provided by victims and a response from his attorney.
The attorney for a downtown Burien restaurant owner charged in three alleged tire slashing incidents says one case has been dismissed and another is expected to be dismissed Nov. 10.
Michele Godina, identified in police reports as the owner of Piacere Trattoria Italiana, was charged with third-degree malicious mischief in three complaints dated April 16, 2026. The complaints concern separate incidents on or about Dec. 15, 2025, March 11 and April 11, 2026, according to charging documents provided to The B-Town Blog.
“One of the cases was dismissed and one of the others will be dismissed on 11/10,” Godina’s attorney, W. Tracy Codd, told The B-Town Blog.
“The other case of the three will be addressed as soon as practicably possible,” Codd added.
Codd did not identify which case had been dismissed. He referenced Washington’s “compromise of misdemeanors” law, Chapter 10.22 RCW, in explaining how the cases are being resolved.
For eligible offenses, that law allows a judge to dismiss criminal proceedings before final judgment if the injured party acknowledges in writing that they have received satisfaction for the injury and court costs are paid. The decision rests with the judge, and dismissal bars another prosecution for the same offense.
According to the Burien police report, Godina admitted during an April 15 interview at the restaurant that he had slashed tires in two instances. After being advised of his rights, he described his actions as a mistake, attributed them partly to stress, apologized and offered to pay for the damage, the report says.
“Because I lose business. I lose business all the time,” Godina told the investigating officer when asked why he was doing it, according to the report.
Godina also said vehicles parked outside the restaurant sometimes cost him $300 in business per night and that police had not acted on his previous parking complaints, the officer wrote.
Godina told the officer he used a small decorative knife kept in the restaurant’s kitchen. He was arrested and booked into SCORE jail on April 15, according to the report.
Public Parking Space at Center of Investigation
The investigation focused on a parking stall outside the restaurant in the 600 block of SW 152nd Street. The investigating officer described the stalls as public and open to anyone and said the curbside pickup priority placard did not create an enforceable parking restriction.
In the April incident, a driver told police she parked outside the restaurant while attending Burien’s Wine Walk. After leaving that night, she noticed a low tire pressure warning.
She obtained surveillance footage from a business across the street and provided it to investigators, according to the report.
The officer who reviewed the recording reported seeing Godina leave the restaurant at 9:51 p.m., approach the vehicle and make a stabbing motion that punctured its rear passenger tire. The driver returned seven minutes later, and the officer reported seeing no one else approach the vehicle during that interval.
Police examined the damaged tire and described its cut as similar to damage found on another vehicle’s tire in the investigation.
In the March incident, a driver told police the restaurant owner came outside and wagged his finger at her when she returned to her vehicle. She noticed declining tire pressure while driving home. Her husband later experienced a flat tire while driving, according to accounts included in the records. Driving on a flat tire can make a car harder to control and endangers passengers by increasing the risk of a crash.
The owner of the vehicle damaged in March later reported being unable to use it for 18 days while awaiting replacement tires. She submitted an estimated $614.66 in additional transportation expenses, according to a supplemental police report.
Another vehicle owner reported finding his right rear tire slashed after parking in the same space in December 2025.
Police records list tire replacement expenses of $1,040.94 for the December incident, $1,386.53 for March and $1,105.49 for April, totaling $3,532.96. Those amounts included replacing multiple tires after damage to one.
Investigators also reviewed a driver’s report of two tire punctures after a parking confrontation with Godina in June 2025. Police recommended four counts of malicious mischief. The charging documents provided to The B-Town Blog list three complaints involving the December, March and April incidents.
What Washington Law Allows
Third-degree malicious mischief is a gross misdemeanor under RCW 9A.48.090. A conviction can carry a maximum penalty of 364 days in jail, a $5,000 fine or both under RCW 9A.20.021.
A King County District Court record provided to The B-Town Blog shows Godina pleaded not guilty April 16 in one of the cases.
The charges are allegations and do not establish guilt.
Given admission of guilt for the tire slashing, I don’t expect to return to this restaurant under current ownership. Tire slashing “a mistake” …
If he thought that people parking in those spots cost him $300, wait until he sees what his own actions cost him! I feel sorry for this small business owner, that is a very thin margin life but letting the stress boil over like this is clearly inappropriate.
Let’s think up the ways he could have driven for change: maybe as a (former) advertiser on this here blog, he could have guest-written a piece about how long-term parking in those spaces cost him financially. It may not have changed all of the behavior, but it would have had a better chance than targeted tire deflation.
Well that Business is done 👍
I do not condone violence. I sincerely hope this will be a wakeup call for our city leaders as Burien small business owners are under immense pressure. How many empty storefronts does our city council want?
What can city leaders do about residents parking in the spaces that they are legally allowed to?
If a small business owner vandalizes resident’s property when he is stressed, then he shouldn’t be a small business owner. I would bet that he has a history of this type of behavior in his personal life.
In this case “stressed” is a cop out for feeling entitled and throwing a tantrum.
well one more seems appropriate.
Luckily it didnt happen, but what if the low tire pressure caused a crash, would the owner be on the hook for that too? this is like 13 year old behavior.
Full disclosure: my wife and I are the March victims in this story. I’m the one who drove her car the next morning, Friday, March 13, when the tire went flat. That was the snowiest March 13 on record at Sea-Tac. We had no idea our tire was slashed. All I knew was that the car was suddenly hard to control on slushy roads in a snowstorm.
Some people are calling this stress or a bad moment. It wasn’t. According to the police report, he admitted slashing tires twice, and police connected him to at least three incidents over about four months, plus another complaint before that. That’s a pattern. He decided that a public parking spot belonged to him, and he punished whoever parked there with a kitchen knife.
That’s vigilantism, plain and simple. Plenty of downtown business owners deal with parking problems. They don’t sneak out at night and slash strangers’ tires.
And he had no idea who would be driving that car next, how fast, or in what weather. It happened to be me, in the snow. It could’ve ended a lot worse than four new tires and many days without a car.
Our case is still open. We didn’t take a payout to make it go away.
If you ever parked in front of this restaurant and later found a flat tire you couldn’t explain, it might not have been bad luck. Please consider reporting it to Burien Police.
152nd has a wonderful collection of small businesses, with dedicated owners and employees who help make our community safer and more enjoyable. We’ll keep supporting them.
The restaurant is called:
Piacere Trattoria Italiana
653 SW 152nd St, Burien, WA 98166
Totally arrogant and disrespectful of delivery drivers, as well.
Mr. Godina has no ownership or right to a public space and the injury or damage that could have been inflicted as a result of his actions are unimaginable.
I typically have a lot of respect for small business owners, and there are a good number of them in this area. While I’d never wish bad business on someone, perhaps it’s time for Mr. Godina to transition the restaurant to someone who contributes positively to the neighborhood.
There are so many levels of shock. First, why am I as a taxpayer subsidizing a parking space for tech companies like door dash and Uber Eats? That space for curbside pickup was established during COVID. We are past COVID. There are no bike lanes through downtown corridor. There is very little bike parking downtown. Fact of the matter is, parking is not the barrier to success downtown. That is not residents’ burden to bare. Put out good food and service – the businesses that do so have lines out the door. Feed us well and we will come. That’s why I love Burien.
They deserve it. Stop parking in places you shouldn’t. Good on the owner. Not a mistake, the mistake is paying back to greedy and selfish morons who have no sense of where they belong and should park. Get out of the spot and park farther away. Stop being lazy and actually use your legs. Front street parking is for brief stops of 5-10 minutes, not an hour.
Good on him. You people deserve your tires slashed. Cry harder monkeys
The city of Burien needs to have those two signs removed ! He put those up without any information as to what business they even belong to or a permit. I park there all the time to go to BECU because they are illegal signs. He’s very lucky he didn’t slash tires on my vehicles !