A man described by sheriff's deputies as “extremely intoxicated” crashed his Jeep Cherokee into trees near Handy and Hatch roads in Colbert early Saturday.

Warren Anderson, 22, said he couldn't remember how much he had to drink but “it was a lot,” the Spokane County Sheriff's Office said today. Anderson had a pill in a piece of burned foil that he said he was a “Roxi” but also said “that he did not really know what he was smoking,” the sheriff's office said.

Deputy Chad Ruff determined the pill was the narcotic Roxicodone. He and Deputy Scott Kenoyer contacted Anderson after responding to the one-car crash about 4:30 a.m.

A witness told dispatcher he'd seen the Jeep at the intersection of Handy and Hatch about a half an hour earlier, and the driver was sitting in the driver's seat not moving. He saw the Jeep crashed when he drove back through the intersection.

Deputies said they smelled a strong odor of intoxicants as they approached the Jeep. They said Anderson refused to exit the vehicle but “was placed under arrest” for drunken driving and began to cooperate, according to the sheriff's office.

Anderson was booked into jail on charges of driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance.

A juvenile was arrested for felony eluding police after a chase in Spokane Valley this morning.

The boy, whose age was not released, was speeding through a parking lot in the area of East Sprague Avenue and North Pines Road about 2 a.m. when sheriff's deputy Jason Karnitz followed him and observed several other traffic violations, according to the Spokane County Sheriff's Office.

Karnitz tried to stop the car near Pines and Valleyway Road, but the driver fled on Valleyway. Karntiz terminated the pursuit near Valleyway and Adams Road, but the boy continued speeding and crashed into a fence at the intersection.

The boy ran east, but a sheriff's K-9, Gordy, found him hiding under brush nearby. He told Karntiz he was “walking home from work, heard all the sirens and decided to hide because he was scared, the sheriff's office said.
  

A man scheduled to be sentenced to federal prison today for child pornography died in a one-car crash in Pend Oreille County this morning.

Bruce R. Thompson was killed when his 2003 GMC pickup went off state Route 211 about 10 miles west of Newport and struck a boulder, according to Washington State Patrol.

Thompson, 61, was pronounced dead at the scene. Drugs and alcohol are not believed to be a factor.

The crash was reported about 8:30 a.m. Thompson was due in U.S. District Court in Spokane at 9 a.m. to be sentenced for receipt of child pornography. He'd been out of jail awaiting sentencing since a grand jury indicted him in April 2011. Federal agents searched his apartment in the 500 block of West 7th Avenue in April 2010.

Thompson pleaded guilty in February to downloading child pornography on the Internet from February 2006 to December 2009.

A plea agreement called for him to serve five years in federal prison.

Fingerprints on a knife left at the scene of a hit-and-run crash last September recently led police to identify a suspect.

 Michael L. Bridges, who was released from prison last year for another hit-and-run crash, is accused of crashing a Chevrolet Malibu into a vehicle at the intersection of Wellesley Avenue and Belt Street Sept. 8. The other driver injured her arms, back and neck.

Witnesses say the at-fault driver run from the crash into a yard in the 4800 block of North Cannon Street. One witness said Bridges, 26, dropped a knife when he heard he witness mention it to a 911 dispatcher.

Bridges' girlfriend at the time, who owns the Malibu, told police he asked her to report the car as stolen so he wouldn't get in trouble.

Police submitted a charging request to prosecutors March 27 after the forensic unit informed them of the fingerprint match on the knife.

Bridges has a previous conviction for hit-and-run related to a crash in 2008 during a police chase. He was sentenced in January 2010 to 30 months in prison. He was sent to work release on Jan. 6, 2011, and was released on probation on July 6, according to the Washington Department of Corrections.

Bridges' freedom didn't last long. He's been in the Spokane County Jail since February on unrelated charges of eluding police and kidnapping.
  

A man suspected of slamming a pickup truck into another car in downtown Spokane this morning fled the scene and drove down a narrow sidewalk before abandoning the vehicle and walking away, security camera footage shows.

The fleeing driver was caught on cameras operated by Cowles Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review. The man drove down a sidewalk along Sprague Avenue within inches of the Chronicle Building, which is owned by Cowles.

Police are investigating the incident, which happened around 10:30 a.m., and have towed the truck, said Spokane Police Officer Teresa Fuller. Police also contacted the registered owner of the vehicle, Fuller said. She was not aware of any arrests yet.

A woman in the car that was hit at the intersection of Sprague Avenue and Lincoln Street was injured, said Fuller, who did not have further details.

A cab driver is accused of hitting a pedestrian and driving away in downtown Spokane late Tuesday.

Lucas M. Blum, 31, alias McElroy, was driving a white minivan when he struck a  woman who was trying to cross Stevens Street while westbound on Sprague Avenue about 10:15 p.m.

The woman said she tried to obtain the driver's information, but he refused, then drove away. She noted his license plate number and identified him after speaking with a representative of Spokane Cab, police say.

Blum was booked into the Spokane County Jail on a felony charge of hit-and-run.

He obtained a business license for a taxi service on March 6, according to City of Spokane records.
  

The City of Spokane may sever its contract with its risk management firm following allegations that the firm pressured police and a city employee to hide potentially incriminating details surrounding a 2010 collision that paralyzed a pedestrian.

According to documents obtained by lawyers representing the paralyzed woman, the city’s contracted insurance adjusters were able to influence the removal of certain details from the official press release about the crash, and reportedly sought to influence the police investigation.

The adjusters, in fact, were able to interview crash witnesses before the investigating officer, who was later advised that “if you guys want a raise” he should work with the risk managers to save the city some money, the documents show.

Read the rest of Tom Clouse's story here.

A woman suspected of drunkenly crashing her car into a house will remain jailed on $7,500 bond, despite her lawyer's claim that she is not a danger to the community.

“Crashing into someone's house doesn't count as a danger to the community?” Judge Annette Plese asked public defender Steve Heintz.

Plese told suspect Angelique P. Sam, 39, that she disagreed with Heintz - someone driving drunk, suicidal and ramming a house is indeed a danger to the community, Plese said.

Heintz had asked for Sam to be released on her own recognizance, saying there was no indication she would put the public at risk.

Sam was arrested Sunday after police responded to a crash near East Foothills and North Standard Street about 4:20 a.m. An officer contacted Sam as she tried to run and noted she had slurred speech and appeared drunk

Police say Sam “had urinated herself, completely covering her groin and leg area,” according to court documents. She admitted to driving drunk, police said.

“I drank a lot and tried to hit the house,” Sam said, according to court documents. “I usually don't drink but I couldn't help myself.”

Sam's passenger, who was injured, told police Sam intentionally crashed into the home.

Sam was involved in a murder trial in 2007 involving her husband, Avery E. Sam, who's now serving 24 1/2 years in prison for murdering the couple's great nephew, who was placed in their home under an agreement between state welfare workers and the Yakama Nation Tribal Court.
  

A Spokane woman sentenced to prison on drug charges who went directly to probation was arrested early Saturday for a one-vehicle crash in the Otish Orchards area that injured her passenger.

Deputies believe Jenelle L. Cuculich, 26, was drunk and speeding when she crashed in the area of 24000 East River Road about 12:50 a.m. She and her passenger were taken to a local hospital with serious injuries, according to the Spokane County Sheriff's Office. Cuculich faces a felony charge of vehicular assault.

Cuculich was sentenced to prison last August after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, but she went immediately to probation, according to the DOC. She also was charged in a leading organized crime case last year and arrested with meth in February 2011. She also won $3,000 in the lottery in 2007, according to news archives.

The crash was the second investigated over the weekend. A motorcyclist and a bicyclist died in a crash near the intersection of East Buckeye Avenue and North Dick Road Saturday. Read more here.
  

A Cheney man was arrested for drunken driving and eluding police early today in Stevens County.

Todd Earl Toreson, 38, lost control of his 2004 Ford F150 about 12:46 a.m. near on state Route 231 about 12 miles south of Springdale, according to Washington State Patrol.

His passenger, Beau Earl Lyons, 33, of Sedro Woolley, was injured and transported to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Toreson was not injured.

Wellpinit Tribal police were pursuing Toreson when he crashed the truck and rolled into a ditch, WSP said.

A driver involved in a one-car crash that engulfed his vehicle in flames allegedly bragged to a nurse about the incident, police say.

William C. Calamanco, 25, “was in a boisterous state and explained to the nurse that he was 'driving really, really, really fast,'” Officer Aaron Kirby said in court documents filed Wednesday. Kirby said he overheard Calamanco talking to the nurse after a blood draw at Deaconess Medical Center.

Kirby already suspected Calamanco of vehicular assault. He'd contacted him in the 2800 block of West Summit Boulevard in West Central about 10:05 p.m. Sunday after a car crashed into a tree and burst into flames. Calamanco and his brother and passenger, Eric Calamanco, suffered minor injuries.

Calamanco denied driving but then said he'd hit his head on the steering wheel, according to court documents. Police said he smelled of alcohol. Kirby found burnt beer cans in the car after the fire was extinguished.

Calamanco remains in jail on felony charges of vehicular assault and making a false statement.

A father was arrested on suspicion of vehicular assault Monday after a one-car crash that injured his 5-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter in south Spokane County.

A 21-year-old woman accused of leaving the scene of fatal drunken crash has been charged with two felonies.

Hannah K. Hahn, 21, remains in jail on $50,000 bond after appearing in Superior Court today on charges of vehicular homicide and failure to remain at the scene of an accident for the crash early Saturday that killed pedestrian Dennis Burgess, 47.

Hahn posted bond over the weekend on a vehicular assault charge but was to be rearrested on the vehicular homicide charge Monday after officers learned Burgess had died.

She didn't show up for court Monday afternoon, and her public defender said she tried to turn herself into he jail later that day but was turned away, according to KHQ. She was arrested on Tuesday.

Hahn, who is pictured courtesy KHQ, has two misdemeanor convictions for minor in possession of alcohol and possession of another person's ID.

Police say Hahn smelled of alcohol and had “some small bottles of alcohol” on her when they stopped 1999 Dodge Durango as it sped north on Market near Hawthorne Road about 2:17 a.m. Saturday.

Officers seized three cans of Mike's Harder Blueberry Lemonade, a bag of suspected marijuana from the car, according to a search warrant filed Tuesday.

 Burgess was struck on Market near East Providence Avenue. His family said he was father of three and worked as a carpenter and landscaper.

Past coverage

Jan. 30: Patrols follow pedestrian-auto crashes

A 21-year-old vehicular homicide suspect who missed her court appearance on Monday is back in jail after turning herself in.

Hannah Kay Hahn was arrested Tuesday at her lawyer’s office, KHQ-TV reports.

She was booked into jail about 5:15 p.m. on charges of vehicular homicide and hit-and-run for a crash early Saturday that killed pedestrian Dennis Burgess, 47, at North Market Street and East Providence Avenue. Her bond is set at $50,000. She'll appear before a judge today.

Police say Hahn smelled of alcohol and had “some small bottles of alcohol” on her when they stopped her SUV as it sped north on Market near Hawthorne Road about 2:17 a.m. Saturday.

The SUV’s windshield was broken and its front end and hood were damaged.

Hahn was arrested Saturday but posted bond on a vehicular assault charge. Police planned to arrest her on the upgraded vehicular homicide charge Monday but she didn't show up for court.

Burgess was a father of three and worked as a carpenter and landscaper, his family said.

Past coverage

Jan. 30: Patrols follow pedestrian-auto crashes

Crashes that hurt one man and killed another in Spokane last weekend occurred as local authorities are working to emphasize pedestrian safety to motorists.

Emphasis patrols Tuesday and next month in Cheney are part of an ongoing effort in Spokane County to reduce the number of pedestrians injured or killed by motorists each year.

But police say two motorists arrested on felony charges this weekend did more than just fail to yield the right of way.

Read the rest of my story here.

BURLEY, Idaho (AP) — Officials in south-central Idaho say a Texas woman may have spent up to a week in a rental car stuck in a dairy wastewater pond after taking a wrong turn as she searched for a hotel in Burley.

Cassia County officials say 61-year-old Lynn S. Keesler of Houston was evaluated by emergency medical technicians, but refused to go to the hospital.

The sheriff's report says Keesler thought she had been stranded for three to five days, but a deputy gave her directions to the hotels in Burley on Jan. 15. She walked to a nearby house for help on Jan. 22.

The Times-News reports the woman told officers she lived on M&Ms and water and stayed in the car because she'd been told not to leave her vehicle if she became stranded.

A chef and restaurant owner turned himself in to jail for a hit-and-run crash that led to a manhunt involving a sheriff’s helicopter early Sunday.

Ryan Michael Morales, owner of Herbal Essence Cafe, was jailed on felony charges of hit-and-run and three counts of vehicular assault.

His bond was set at $5,000 during his first appearance Monday in Spokane County Superior Court.

Read the rest of my story here

This crash in north Spokane began when a sheriff's deputy tried to pull over the Honda. (KHQ-TV photo)

A man in a stolen car swerved into a police cruiser during a chase in north Spokane this afternoon.

The suspect, Aaron D. Lyons, 33, was arrested after he crashed the 1992 Honda Civic into shrubbery while trying to turn into the Rite Aid parking lot on North Division Street. Deputy Jeff Thurman blocked the Civic with his patrol vehicle and arrested Lyons, according to the Spokane County Sheriff's Office.

The chase began about 12:39 p.m. when Thurman tried to stop the Civic in the 8500 block of North Country Homes Road for failing to display license plates.

Before Lyons crashed near Rite Aid, Thurman tried to stop car with a “pursuit intervention technique” that involves nudging the back bumper of a fleeing vehicle, which forces it into a spin and brings it to a stop, but Lyons swerved into Thurman's car to avoid the move, the sheriff's office said.

The Civic was reported stolen on Sunday. Lyons also had a stolen credit card with him, according to the sheriff's office.

Lyons was booked into jail on felony charges of second-degree assault, attempting to elude police, possession of a stolen motor vehicle, second-degree malicious mischief and possession of stolen property, and misdeamenor charges of driving under the influence and driving while license suspended.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Police in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez ticketed a 6-year-old boy for reckless driving, driving without a license and not having his toy motorcycle registered after he crashed it into an SUV.