A confidential informant led Spokane County Sheriff’s Office detectives to a married couple dealing meth out of a Spokane apartment, according to criminal complaint filed in United States District Court Tuesday.

Spokane County Sheriff’s detectives arrested Mark W. Bush (pictured left) and Crystal K. Peterson on the morning of April 4 after serving a search warrant to their apartment at 1717 E. Mallon Avenue.

Court documents describe the informant as a felon with several convictions including theft, burglary, and lying to authorities. The informant was compensated financially for the information leading to the arrest of Bush and Peterson, documents show.

The informant bought meth from Bush three times during the investigation, they told detectives, but Peterson was only present during a deal on one occasion.

Investigators seized 11 ounces of meth from the home during the search including four small bags inside a box of Nilla Wafers. Additional bags of meth were found in the bedroom in a black bag, a dresser drawer and in the kitchen freezer.

Investigators also found a purse under a mattress in the master bedroom with a cell phone and a spiral notebook with a variety of names and phone numbers.

Although the Drug Enforcement Administration was not present at the time of the search warrant last week, a special agent is filing the complaint against Bush and Peterson after Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich pushed for federal charges to give him a longer prison sentence if convicted.

Knezovich compared Bush’s criminal record to convict Eddie Ray Hall who was sentenced to a 16 years in a federal prison last year. Bush is in custody at Spokane County Jail for his 39th arrest in Washington state.

Pursuing federal charges against a repeat offender is a common tactic, Knezovich said, because it can give them a longer prison sentence and keep them off the streets.

Knezovich described this drug ring as localized and the meth was most likely not produced in Spokane.

Related content: Sheriff exasperated with repeat offender

A man wanted by authorities was discovered hiding out at a South Hill apartment complex on Monday night.

Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies were looking for Raymond S. Wheatley, 44, a felony warrant for violating his court order, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. A deputy learned he was hiding at 2800 E. 27th Avenue and filed an arrest warrant to get him, the news release said.

Authorities also called in the SWAT Team to help serve the arrest warrant around 10 p.m. because of Wheatley’s 22 years of violent history against law enforcement. Deputies arrested Wheatley in 2007 after he grabbed a Spokane Valley police officer’s Taser and tried to use it against him, prior reports said.

The SWAT Team made their presence known and Wheatley reportedly came out on his own. Deputies took him into custody without incident, the release added.

Wheatley was booked into Spokane County Jail for his felony charges of violating a court order.

A Newport man being booked into Pend Oreille County Jail on Thursday was caught smuggling a stash of drugs into his shorts.

The inmate, identified as 25-year-old Clinton E. Trickel, cut holes into his waisteband to hide hydrocodone, oxycodone, marijuana and a pipe, but jail staff found it, according to a Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Trickel had several outstanding warrants on bail jumping and lying to authorities from last month, Pend Oreille County dispatch confirmed. He failed to appear to his court dates and was arrested on those warrants.

He now faces an additional felony charge of possessing drugs.

A garbage can in Browne’s Addition was the target of about four fires starting on Saturday morning.

Ray Ekins lives nearby and was walking his dog Duchess around 7 a.m. when he saw the first set of flames inside the barrel at Second Avenue and Chestnut Street. The same garbage can was on fire again about an hour later, he said.

“Poor garbage can,” Ekins said. He ended up calling 911 to report three of the fires.

Fire crews from Station 4 kept responding to the reported garbage fires and a Spokane Police officer parked nearby to keep an eye on the can, Spokane Police Sgt. Dan Ervin said.

The officer saw a man, later identified as Philip B. Lewis, 47, walk up to the can and allegedly light it on fire around 4 p.m, Ervin added.

Officers took Lewis into custody for two counts of second-degree arson and the fire was extinguished.

File this under the FYI category.

The fatal shooting of a fleeing SUV thief March 25 by a gun-toting Spokane homeowner apparently has done little, if anything, to curb auto theft across the city.

In fact, the number of cars and trucks stolen across the city in the days following the the shooting climbed 15 percent over the previous week, according to crime stats compiled by the Spokane Police Department. There were 45 autos reported stolen during the week ending March 30, compared to 39 during the previous week.

Community debate over homeowner Gail Gerlach's decision to open fire on the fleeing thief, 25-year-old Brendon T. Kaluza-Graham, has continued to rage. Gerlach told police he thought the thief was armed and raising a weapon at him while driving away in the stolen SUV.

For the week of March 22 through March 29, here’s snippets of scanner chatter between law enforcement, dispatch and first responders.

3-23-13 @ 5:30 p.m. - A couple of kids were seen lighting pieces of paper on fire and then playing basketball at Longfellow Elementary. One of them was wearing a cookie monster hat.

3-23-13 @ 9:55 p.m. - It’s not even 10 p.m., but officers contacted a passed out male at Irv’s Bar and recognize the man as “their good friend.” They ask dispatch if he’s welcome at detox, but apparently no - he’s banned for a year.

3-26-13 @ 2:32 p.m. - A caller tells dispatch they saw a person riding mattress attached to the top of a moving vehicle.

3-28-13 @ 1:21 p.m. - Dispatch says a male hit his mother in the head and adds, “They’re both adults.”

3-28-13 @ 7:54 p.m. - An officer is trying to identity a woman by the tattoo on her chest, but he tells dispatch he doesn’t know what the tattoo is without looking further.

3-28-13 @ 8:42 p.m. - A dispatcher corrects herself after pronouncing the Ferry County town as Cure-loo instead of Curlew.

A Spokane Valley young couple with a license to wed are instead in Spokane County Jail on charges of residential burglary and trafficking of stolen property.

Vyacheslav Znovets, 21, and his girlfriend Marina Florianovich, 25, were arrested by Spokane Valley detectives after they allegedly sold a stolen wedding ring to a north Spokane jewelry store, according to court documents.

The couple has been responsible for several burglaries, detectives said, and they typically use Florianovich’s black BMW to travel during the day and steal jewelry from Spokane Valley homes. They knock to see if anyone is home and then break in through the rear window or door, documents said.

They were named in a series of Spokane Valley burglaries last year, reports said. 

Detectives believe the wedding ring was stolen from a home in the 4100 block of south Terra Verde Drive on the 26th. The homeowner left for the afternoon and returned to find his front door kicked in.

Earlier that day two witnesses said they saw a man acting suspiciously near a BMW with the same license plate as Florianovich’s near 21st Avenue and Timberlane Street. A home was burglarized along the 2100 block of S. Timberlane was also targeted, detectives believed.

When Znovets was arrested he showed detectives which homes he broke into and showed them the house along Terra Verde Drive and along Timberlane. Another home was also pointed out in the same neighborhood by Znovets, detectives said.

The couple was booked into Spokane County Jail on Wednesday and appeared in Spokane County Superior Court on Thursday.

Despite the suspect’s relationship, Judge James Triplet ordered they have no contact with each other.

Florianovich’s charge was reduced to trafficking because court documents do not show probable cause of her being at the scene of the burglaries, Triplet said.

Znovets continues to have the residential burglary charge.

A marriage license with Spokane County only lasts for 63 days and they have about two weeks remaining on their license, according to court records.

Facebook: Spokane Valley Police detectives have posted pictures of recovered jewelry from the couple. If something is yours, go claim it. 

A Coeur d’Alene man who attempted to strangle his girlfriend last year has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for attempted murder and multiple felony convictions.

An ex-girlfriend told authorities she feared for her life when Kenneth E. Schleining, 38, choked her until she was unconscious at a Post Falls gas station in September, according to a Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office news release.

When she woke up, he told her to go back to sleep because she would be dead soon, reports said. She fought Schleining and escaped.

Althought Kootenai County District Judge Fred Gibler sentenced Schleining to 15 years in prison for attempted murder, he earned another 10 years because of his extensive criminal history, the news release showed.

Schleining was convicted of felony aggravated battery in 2005 when he slit the throat of a girlfriend who was trying to break up with him. He later had sexual relations with a minor while on parole from prison.

A felon arrested on outstanding warrants threatened a Spokane County Sheriff’s deputy during his ride to jail and told him “the knife’s coming out” next time, according to court documents.

Deputy Nathan Bohanek found William L. Moore loading items onto a trailer behind a business after a caller told 911 they saw suspicious activity near the 1500 block of South Pines Road.

The caller said they saw sparks and hear grinding noises and thought someone was stealing something, documents said.

Bohanek arrested him for two outstanding misdemeanor warrants for third-degree driving with a suspended license and second-degree criminal trespassing.

Moore began screaming at Bohanek and calling him names during the drive to Spokane County Jail, documents said.

He told Bohanek, “You want to ruin my life? You’re going to have to kill me next time,” documents said.

Moore also said, “Next time we meet, mother f-, the knife’s coming out!”

The deputy interpreted Moore’s words to be a threat against his safety, documents said.

Moore was booked into Spokane County jail and appeared in Spokane County Superior Court Tuesday afternoon. Judge James Triplet placed a $10,000 bond on his charges of intimidating a public servant.

Moore was described by investigators as “confrontational” after he was arrested by deputies in 2010 during a traffic stop after they found more than 70 feet of aluminum and copper wire in his car, reports said. They also found gloves, flashlights, saws and tools in his vehicle.

He told police to “shoot him”, according to 2010 search warrant on his car.

Deputies arrested him during another incident in 2001, reports said, after he hid his alleged meth stash in a gas station bathroom.

A man with a history of lewd behavior has been arrested by Spokane Police for allegedly masturbating in River Park Square.

A security guard caught Dean H. Meginniss, 55, masturbating in front of a female employee on the third floor on March 14, according to court documents.

Meginniss was removed from the building, but came back on March 24 and continued to expose and touch himself on a bench in the mall’s lobby area, documents show.

He was trying to leave the mall when police detained him, documents said. Officers watched surveillance video which showed Meginniss exposing and touching himself while customers walked by.

Police arrested him for second-degree burglary for coming back to the mall after guards trespassed him, in addition to lewdness. He appeared in Spokane County Superior Court this afternoon and was given a $2,500 bond by Judge James Triplet.

River Park Square is owned by the Cowles Co., which also owns The Spokesman-Review.

Spokane County deputies arrested Meginniss in 2011 for fishing in the nude in broad daylight near Medical Lake, reports said.

Resort staff told authorities they had been hearing complaints about a naked fisherman for weeks.

A Colville Police officer is on paid-administrative leave because of allegations of sexual misconduct, according to Stevens County Sheriff’s Office, who is investigating the matter.

Investigators began looking into the allegations against Officer Rex Newport earlier this month, but no criminal charges have been filed, Sheriff Kendle Allen said.

Newport has been with the Colville department for about 15 years.

In 1999, Newport was involved with an accident in his Colville patrol vehicle while responding to a burglary alarm at a police evidence-storage building, reports said. The alarm turned out to be false.

He destroyed a porch, fences, trees and a gas meter while avoiding a traffic collision, reports added. The damage was estimated to be about $4,000, according to Washington State Patrol’s investigation.

For the week of March 15 through March 22, here’s snippets of scanner chatter between law enforcement, dispatch and first responders.

3-15-13 @ 8:46 p.m. - Dispatch tells officers there’s a “very intoxicated” 11-year-old at Post and Riverside. Medics responded to the young boy.

3-16-13 @ 3:26 p.m. - A Spokane Valley boy earned a new nickname of “bunny ears” as an officer picked him up along with a friend while they tried to hitch hike near the IHOP and later, near the railroad tracks. Why? Because he was wearing bunny ears, according to dispatch.

3-16-13 @ 5:27 p.m. - At first it looked like suspicious people were trying to break into a home at an unknown location, but an officer learned the homeowners were instead trying to remove arrows from their roof, according to dispatch.

3-21-13 @ 11:10 a.m. - “Parents not being entirely cooperative,” according to dispatchers as parents navigated the “zoo” that was Sullivan Road. Parents were unsure how to pick up their rain-soaked children after a massive evacuation from Central Valley High School.

3-21-13 @ 5:07 P.M. - Dispatch dubs a suspicious man as “Mr. Machete” because he was reportedly slinging one as he was running toward Freya on Longfellow, according to a caller.

It’s almost like the time scanner traffic said there was a pot belly pig running around the streets of Spokane on Thanksgiving, but that was never confirmed.

But this is:

BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) — It’s not the usual thing in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, but police say there was indeed a pig running along city streets.

(Photo courtesy: Beaverton Police Department)

Officer Mike Rowe says a caller described the animal as “a regular farm pig.”

By the time officers responded Thursday, a resident had corralled the animal in a yard.

The Oregonian reports that one officer was a former member of Future Farmers of America so he helped get the pig loaded into a department van and transported to a nearby animal shelter.

Now the search is on for the pig’s owner.

A bold cat made his presence known to a Spokane Police officer’s patrol car this evening after a SWAT standoff came to an end.

He sniffed around the scene near Princeton Avenue and Monroe Street looking for news and ducked under the patrol car for a few moments.

And then the cat jumped on the car's hood - probably expecting a ride-along - and sniffed the roof's antenna before running off.

Several Spokane Police officers and Sheriff’s deputies have been awarded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for protecting the community from a bomb planted by Kevin W. Harpham during the MLK Unity March in 2011.

(Pictured from left to right in front row: Lt. Matt Lyons, Cpl. Mark Fox and Sgt. Jason Hartman. Lt. Eric Olsen was absent from the award ceremony due to training, according to police spokeswoman Monique Cotton. Photo courtesy: SPD)

The bomb did not detonate because Harpham’s remote triggering device could not get close enough to the device. The bomb was laced with rat poison and placed on the northeast corner of Main Avenue and Washington Street, reports said.

Spokane Police Sgt. Jason Hartman and Lt. Eric Olsen were awarded Thursday afternoon for moving the march route, an act that’s believed to have saved several lives. 

Court documents show three contract workers discovered the bomb as Harpham walked in the march. Police changed the route before he could walk in range of the device - losing his opportunity to detonate the bomb.

Cpl. Mark Fox and Lt. Matt Lyons with the Spokane County Sheriff’s were also awarded by the FBI for their work with the bomb squad disarming Harpham’s device.

Harpham was arrested in March near his rural home near Addy. He was sentenced to 32 years in prison in Dec. 2011. 

Related documents: MLK bomb maker gets 32 years in prison | Parade change averted blast

Not only did a burglar steal away with a Newport homeowner’s truck early Thursday morning, he cooked a meal in the victim’s kitchen.

The homeowner woke up around 2:30 a.m. to investigate a noise downstairs when he saw the truck driving away with the burglar at the helm.

He realized the burglar broke in through the dog door, he told dispatchers.

Deputies found the stolen vehicle about 14 miles north of Newport on State Route 20 after noticing the driving operating the truck in an erratic manner, the news release said.

They pulled the driver over and identified him as James M. Ericksen, 30.

Deputies arrested Ericksen for vehicle theft, a DUI, driving with a suspended license and a failure to appear for an incident in another county.

Police seized four machetes from an out-of-business Hillyard skateboard shop after the arrest of 39-year-old Glen M. Fisher during a seven-hour standoff with authorities Wednesday (SR photo pictured left).

One of the machetes appeared to have drops of blood on the blade, court documents show.

Authorities believed Fisher to be extremely dangerous and possibly unstable, according to court documents. Fisher also called responding officers “demons,.” police said.

The burglary victim, identified as Wayne Howry, has known Fisher for about eight years, he told officers.

Howry was sleeping when he heard someone breaking through his front door, he told authorities. He armed himself with a baseball bat and found Fisher in his apartment, swinging at him with a machete, cutting him on his hands and wrist, documents said.

When a members of the SWAT team entered the shop to which Fisher fled, they found him lying on the floor, face down, documents said, with a shooting bow “around his neck.”

Fisher is did not appear in court Thursday, nor Friday following a stay at a local hospital before he was booked into Spokane County Jail. He’s expected to appear in court Monday, court officials said.

Related coverage: Alleged machete attack leads to standoff, man's arrest

Perks of prison? How about guitar lessons and Civil War history.

Those activities are keeping former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich busy while his attorneys work on an appeal, AP reports said (AP photo left).

Blagojevich is teaching the history course, writes his wife, Patti Blagojevich, on a Facebook post, according to reports. She laments that her husband missing birthdays, holidays and music recitals as well.

He’s staying at a Colorado federal prison in Englewood which actually made a list by Forbes in 2006 for the best prisons to go to.

The Englewood prison offers a recreation yard, gymnasium, weight room, hobby shop, music room and wellness center, according to the Bureau of Prison’s website.

Blagojevich is expected to serve time until 2024, according to the Bureau of Prison’s website, for corruption charges including his attempt to sell or trade President Barack Obama’s old U.S. Senate seat, reports said.

Meanwhile at Seattle’s Sea Tac federal facility, they offer chess club, a workout class for abs and a screenwriting class.

A man connected to thefts in the Lincoln Heights area has been arrested by Spokane Police officers for driving a stolen vehicle, according to a news release.

Police found Thomas M. Clement, 39, on Wednesday near Ralph and Riverside, driving a vehicle reportedly connected to two car theft cases on the Spokane Community College Campus earlier this month and a burglary, detectives said.

Clement allegedly entered campus locker rooms and used bolt cutters to steal car keys from lockers, the news release said.

Investigators also believe Clement is connected to a series of commercial burglaries on the South Hill area that targeted Radio Shack, Hastings, GameStop, Ace Hardware and more, in addition to two suspects arrested in February for similar crimes.

Curtis D. McKelvey, 29, and Chelsea A. Linerud, 24, were arrested when officers found a man smashing a Radio Shack window with a crowbar, earlier reports said.

Clement is charged with two counts of burglary, theft of a motor vehicle and first-degree trafficking of stolen property.

For the week of March 8 through March 15, here’s snippets of scanner chatter between law enforcement, dispatch and first responders.

03-08-13 @ 12:50 p.m. - A man tells 911 he’s being chased by someone in “an invisible suit” near Freya.

03-12-13 @ 8:05 p.m. - An officer checking inside a building at an unknown location informs dispatch that there’s a 25-pound cat waddling around inside.

03-13-13 @ 3:26 p.m. - A dispatcher relays to officers a description of a woman’s sweatshirt: “It has a dinosaur on it that says, ‘I’m rexy and I know it.’”

03-15-13 @ 4:40 p.m. - Watch out! Dispatch tells officers a 10-year-old is driving a green Chevy Blazer.