A Spokane police officer fired for lying to a co-worker to obtain the address of a woman he met at a bar told investigators he was going through personal problems and was concerned for the woman’s safety because he’d seen her interacting with a known felon.

  Alan Edwards, who was fired in March, said he thought the woman showed interest in him as he left the Sullivan Scoreboard on Dec. 15 to give a friend a ride home. He returned to the bar about midnight and saw the woman talking to another man, whom he described “as a felon kind of bad guy.”

The release of the internal investigation into Edwards (right) comes at the same time officials say Edwards still is under a criminal investigation for his use of unlicensed bounty hunter Dennis Kariores (left) to illegally enter homes.

Read the rest of my story here.

Past coverage:

April 2: Bounty hunter in Edwards case jailed

March 13: Listen to the call that led to Edwards' firing

Feb. 29: Spokane police officer fired after woman's complaint

Feb. 9: Fugitive bounty hunter arrested in Florida

Jan. 29: Officer's 'ruse' w/ felon led to suspension

Aug. 31: Detectives probe cop's ties to bounty hunter

An unlicensed bounty hunter facing criminal charges for his work with Spokane-area law enforcement is to remain jailed on $250,000 bond, a judge ruled today.

Dennis J. Kariores, 42, returned to Spokane this weekend after he was arrested Feb. 9 in Pensacola, Fla., on a $150,000 warrant for first-degree burglary, unlawful imprisonment and second-degree kidnapping for allegedly using illegal apprehension techniques.

Superior Court Judge Maryann Moreno increased Kariores' bond today after Deputy Prosecutor Dale Nagy said he was a flight risk with connections to the bail bond industry. Nagy called for $500,000 bond; Kariores' lawyer, Mark Hodgson, objected, saying Kariores is presumed innocent and had been planning to turn himself in.

 “Mr. Kariores was actually at the airport coming back to Spokane to deal with these charges,” Hodgson said. “He got picked up before he could get on the plane.”

Karories is to be arraigned April 10 at 9 a.m. If he does post the $250,000 bond, he's prohibited from contacting Angels or All City bail bond companies, whose employees are involved in Kariores' criminal case.

Kariores left Spokane last year after learning of the investigation, according to court testimony.

Former Spokane police Officer Alan Edwards, who was fired last month, was suspended for two weeks for arranging a ruse with Kariores that involved using a fugitive to help them gain access to a home they were otherwise not legally authorized to enter.

Kariores' criminal charges stem from allegedly unlawful contacts with citizens in February 2010 and August 2010. Other law enforcement officers have admitted to working closely with Kariores. Read much more here.

Kariores has told The Spokesman-Review he was only doing as the police told him.

Woman’s call about Officer Edwards

A woman who said a Spokane police officer she'd met at a bar showed up uninvited at her home told a dispatcher she didn't know how he got her address “and it's kind of creeping me out because he now knows where I live.”

The incident led to Officer Alan Edwards being fired from the Spokane Police Department after officials determined he'd lied to another officer to get the woman's address.

Edwards, who was off duty and drinking at the Sullivan Scoreboard in Spokane Valley when he met the woman, told the officer he was investigating the woman for stealing his friend's debit card.

Spokane County's 911 center released a recording of the woman's phone call Monday after a request by The Spokesman-Review under the state public records act. The call is cut short to protect the woman's identifying information and home address, officials said.

Officials initially described the call as a 911 call, but the recording shows the woman called Crime Check and said she'd met a man the night before at a bar “and he was saying he was a cop.”

“What ended up happening is I came home and probably about 45 minutes later somebody was banging on my door, and this was like at 3:30 in the morning, and it was him,” the woman said “….I'm quite certain he didn't follow me because it was sometime after I got home. It was at least 45 minutes after I got home.”

“He was banging on my door to the point where he woke up my neighbors,” the woman continued. “I have no idea how he found my house, and it's kind of creeping me out because he now knows where I live.”

The incident occurred early Dec. 16. Edwards was fired March 1.

Edwards returned to work last fall after 10 months of paid administrative leave amidst allegations of criminal conduct involving an unlicensed bounty hunter.  He was suspended without pay for two weeks for arranging a ruse with a felon that allowed him to access a home without a search warrant.

Bail bondsmen and the unlicensed bounty hunter are are facing criminal charges related to the probe.

Past coverage:

Feb. 9: Fugitive bounty hunter arrested in Florida

Jan. 29: Officer's 'ruse' w/ felon led to suspension

Aug. 31: Detectives probe cop's ties to bounty hunter

A senior Spokane police officer has been fired for misusing city equipment to obtain the home address of a woman he met at a bar.

 Alan D. Edwards, 47, had recently returned to the police force from an unrelated suspension when the new complaint was lodged, this time after a woman called 911 in the pre-dawn hours of Dec. 16 reporting someone at her door.

It turned out to be Edwards, whom she’d met several hours earlier while at the Sullivan Scoreboard tavern in Spokane Valley.

Edwards, who was off duty, contacted an on-duty officer and said he was investigating a theft and needed the woman’s address. He told the officer, whose name has not been released, he was at a bar when the woman stole his friend’s credit card. But police say Edwards was not investigating a crime - he simply wanted information about the woman for personal purposes.

Read the rest of my story here.

Past coverage:

Feb. 24: Woman's 911 call prompts investigation of officer

Feb. 9: Fugitive bounty hunter arrested in Florida

Jan. 29: Officer's 'ruse' w/ felon led to suspension

Aug. 31: Detectives probe cop's ties to bounty hunter

Federal agents have arrested an unlicensed bounty hunter whose alleged apprehension techniques led to felony charges and a criminal investigation against a Spokane police officer.

Dennis Kariores, 42, was taken into custody today in Pensacola, Fla., on a $150,000 warrant for first-degree burglary, unlawful imprisonment and second-degree kidnapping, according to the U.S. Marshals.

The federal Gulf Coast Regional Task Force arrested Kariores after agents here learned he'd fled to Navarre, a small city just outside Pensacola.

Kariores called The Spokesman-Review Wednesday and said he planned to turn himself in.

Spokane police Officer Alan Edwards was suspended for two weeks for arranging a ruse with Kariores that involved using a fugitive to help them gain access to a home they were otherwise not legally authorized to enter. (Other law enforcement officers have admitted to working closely with Kariores. Read much more here.)

Kariores has been a fugitive since Aug. 30, when he was charged for allegedly unlawfully detaining suspects while acting as an unlicensed bounty hunter.

According to court documents, Kariores and licensed bond agents John P. McCormick, 43, and Eric W. Houchin, 40, unlawfully stayed inside a home in the 1100 block of North Nelson Street in February 2010 and grabbed a woman while trying to contact her husband for failing to uphold his bond agreement with All City Bail Bonds. The woman was not wanted by police, which meant the bondsmen had no authority to detain her.

The men are charged with first-degree burglary and unlawful imprisonment for the incident.

Charles E. Dasenbrock, 26, is charged with second-degree kidnapping, along with Kariores, for an Aug. 26, 2010, incident in which the men detained a fugitive at a home in Spokane Valley and transported him to Spokane, where Edwards arrested him. Prosecutors say neither had the authority to apprehend and transport the man against his will. McCormick, Houchin and Dasenbrock have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

Kariores said he was only doing as the police told him.

Kariores, a convicted felon, applied for a recovery agent license with the state of Washington in March 2009 but was rejected.

In his application, he said he’s worked with police in Spokane County and North Idaho and has arrested more than 500 people in six years. “I am known as the guy to go to when they can’t find people, whether it be in Washington or out,” Kariores wrote.
  

A Spokane police officer who spent 10 months on paid leave while investigators probed the extent of his working relationship with an unlicensed bounty hunter is back on patrol.

 Senior Officer Alan D. Edwards, 47, was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing but was found to have violated departmental policy by engineering an improper “ruse” to gain otherwise illegal entry to a Spokane home in 2009 while searching for stolen property. The city ordered him suspended without pay for two weeks and to undergo additional training in criminal procedure and report writing. He also was removed from the SWAT team until the training is completed.

Read the rest of my story here.

Past coverage:

Aug. 31: Detectives probe cop's ties to bounty hunter

A senior Spokane police officer has been on paid leave for seven months as detectives probe his ties to a self-styled bounty hunter and convicted felon who’s facing kidnapping and burglary charges related to his apprehension techniques.

 Senior Officer Alan D. Edwards is not facing criminal charges, his attorney says, and police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said the case should be resolved shortly, while declining to discuss details.

Kirkpatrick suspended Edwards from the police force on Jan. 23 amid what she said were possible criminal charges and an internal investigation, which Officer Jennifer DeRuwe said is ongoing. The 21-year police employee continues to receive his $76,886 annual pay as the criminal probe continues.

Read the rest of my story here.