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.

A bizarre stabbing at a north Spokane apartment late Saturday led to the arrest of a 20-year-old man.

Spokane police say the woman Kurt J. Clausen is accused of stabbing has no idea why he attacked her. She said Clausen said nothing during the incident, which occurred as she exited her bathroom at 49 E. Pine Ridge Ct., according to court documents.

The woman said Clausen was waiting for her with a knife and stabbed her in the upper chest, then dropped the weapon and ran from the apartment about 11:30 p.m., police say.

A Washington State Patrol trooper contacted Clausen just after midnight near West Main Avenue and North Lincoln Street in downtown Spokane. Police responded and arrested him on a first-degree assault charge.

Officers say Clausen admitted to stabbing the woman and said he told her there was something in a room in the apartment, then attacked her as she exited that room, according to court documents.

Clausen remains jailed on$250,000 bond after appearing before Superior Court Judge Annette Plese on Monday.
  

A 20-minute police chase through northeast Spokane led to arrest of a 40-year-old Spokane woman Monday.

Henrietta Allice Wynne is accused of fleeing a traffic stop by a Washington State Patrol trooper who spotted her driving erratically about 5:13 a.m. as she left the Royal Scot Motel parking lot at 6507 N. Division St.

Trooper Jeff Thoet pursued Wynne's red Ford Taurus from Division to a residential area, where she ran stop signs and reached a speed of 70 mph, according to police.

A sheriff's deputy deployed stop sticks at Lacey and Regal streets that deflated the Taurus' right front tire, but Wynne continued to drive on he tire rim and was able to avoid several attempts by Thoet to perform a pursuit immobilization technique, police say.

Two other tires deflated before Thoet successfully stopped the vehicle.

Police found a drug pipe in the car and arrested Wynne on charges of eluding police, driving while license suspended and misdemeanor warrants.

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 traffic stop on Interstate 90 near Ritzville yielded nearly 2 1/2 pounds of packaged cocaine and led to the arrest of two men recently.

Marshall Jay Devore, 31, and Rudolph Salvador Pyne, 32, are facing federal drugs charges in U.S. District Court in Spokane after a state trooper stopped a 2003 Jeep Cherokee for driving 84 pm in the 70 mph zone near milepost 221 about 11 p.m. Feb. 11, according to documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

Devore, the driver, had a misdemeanor warrant for driving while suspended. Pyne, his passenger, also had a suspended license, so troopers impounded the Jeep, which was registered to a woman in the 2400 block of East Rowan Avenue in Spokane. 

While doing an “inventory” on the Jeep, troopers found a duffel bag open with what appeared to be a brick of packaged drugs visible. Detectives say Devore said he'd picked up Rudolph with the bag in Seattle. He  gave them permission to search the Jeep, detectives say, and they located packages of cocaine that weighed 1,079 grams, according to court documents.

Pyne has a previous federal felony conviction for bank robbery in California. He said nothing in the Jeep belonged to him. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration filed papers Friday seeking to charge the men with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Devore, who has previous felony convictions for manufacturing a controlled substance in Spokane County in 2008, is in the Adams County Jail. Pyne does not yet appear to be in custody.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring law enforcement obtain search warrants before attaching GPS devices to vehicles will have little effect in Washington state.

State and local agencies in Washington have for several years been required to get a judge's approval before using GPS devices in investigations.

“The decision doesn't affect us on our state cases,” said Washington State Patrol Lt. Mark Brogan. The requirement stems from case law.

Members of local agencies assigned to federal task forces may have used GPS devices without obtaining warrants because they were operating under federal law.

But that must change after the nation's high court ruled 9-0 Monday that it was unconstitutional for the police to attach a small GPS device to a drug-dealing suspect's bumper and track his car for a month

Frank Harrill, agent in in charge of the Spokane office of the FBI, said the agency is “immediately adapting.”

“But in terms of particular steps, I'm not able to make a detailed comment,” he said.

A Portland police captain accused of brandishing a gun during a road rage incident on Interstate 90 in Post Falls acted arrogantly to state troopers as if he thought “I'm a cop and it's no big deal,” according to a police report recently unsealed in Kootenai County.

Todd Loren Wyatt, 43, pleaded not guilty Friday through his attorney in Kootenai County District Court to exhibition of a deadly weapon, a misdemeanor, for the alleged incident on Aug. 13. Trial is scheduled for Feb. 6.

A 20-year police veteran, Wyatt was off duty when he was stopped on I-90 at the Freya Street exit in Spokane by Washington State Patrol troopers after his alleged victim called from the Post Falls area stayed on the phone with dispatchers describing Wyatt's blue Ford F-150.

WSP Trooper Greg Birkeland said Wyatt asked to speak to him away from his wife and children, and Birkeland asked “what difference it would make talking in front of them compared to his prior actions in front of them,” according to the report.

“Mr. Wyatt's response to him was, 'All right, I hear your attitude,'” according to the report. “Trooper Birkeland said he thought Mr. Wyatt showed lack of common sense and good judgment. He was arrogant and cocky and played the situation down, not realizing the severity of what he had done.”

Another trooper told investigators he thought Watt's attitude was that of “I'm a cop and it's no big deal,” according to the report.

Wyatt's lawyer, Gary Amendola, said Wyatt disputes the charge..

“I'll tell you right now, Capt. Wyatt did not point his gun at anyone,” Amendola said. Amendola said Wyatt was “concerned for the safety of his family” because the alleged victim appeared to be trying to cause a crash.

Wyatt, who was with his wife, 16-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, when he was stopped in August told troopers there was a road rage incident “and he did in fact display his weapon in a holster along with his service badge,” according to an Idaho State Police report. “It was reported the gun was never pointed at the reporting party.”

Wyatt's wife told troopers she thought “those people were going to kill us.”

Wyatt was not arrested. He was removed from his position as head of the Portland Police Bureau traffic division when the investigation opened and was placed on paid administrative leave after he was formally charged last month, The Oregonian reports.

The alleged victim, Nicholas James Cox, 28, told police he was driving westbound on Interstate 90 behind Wyatt's Oregon-plated pickup when he passed the pickup because it was driving slowly.

Cox said the pickup started tailgating and trying to pull up beside him before the driver pointed a gun at Cox and his wife.

“Mr. Cox said he did not wish to pursue charges but wanted the driver to be aware of the seriousness of the offense,” according to the report. But Cox later changed his mind. He told police he'd spoken with his father-in-law, who is retired from the Seattle Police Department, and realized the severity of the incident.

“Mr. Cox told me he could not drive past where the incident happened without getting a sick feeling in his stomach,” according to the report, prepared by Idaho State Police Trooper Kevin White. “He also said when he sees a pickup that looks like the one the suspect was driving, he gets nervous until he sees the state of the plate.”

“Mr. Cox said when he first saw the pickup tailgating, he thought it was just some crazy guy,”  the report continues. “When he saw the pistol, he knew it was more than some crazy guy.”

Wyatt was on vacation from the Portland Police Bureau when the incident occurred.

Wyatt told police Cox was driving his Honda dangerously and appeared to be trying to cause a crash after passing him.

Wyatt said the driver and passenger “were young and possibly gang members” and he showed them his police badge in hopes they would leave him alone. When they didn't, he held up his holstered gun behind his badge, according to a report.

“He indicated once the problem was solved and the Honda quit trying to cause a crash, he put his badge and gun away,” according to the report.

A wrong-way driver accused of injuring two people in a freeway crash early Sunday passed a state trooper just before the 3:34 a.m. crash

Eric Edward McElmurry, 28, was allowed to leave jail on his own recognizance Monday after appearing before Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Price on vehicular assault charges.

Trooper Falkner was westbound on Interstate 90 east of Liberty Lake when McElmurry passed him going eastbound in the neighboring westbound lane, according to a probable cause affidavit. Falkner tried to stop him, but McElmurry's 1999 Mercury Mystic crashed head-on into a 2006 Mercury Mariner driven by Tabatha B. Dudley, 22, of Spokane Valley, police said.

Dudley was injured, along with passengers Danielle L. Cowan, 23, of Coeur d'Alene, and Zachary O'Reilly, 25, of Spokane, who both suffered broken bones; McElmurry was treated at a hospital before being booked into jail.

Troopers say McElmurry smelled of alcohol and began to vomit when he woke up in the emergency room. McElmurry said he'd drank alcohol at a party near Altamont and at a home in Cheney. He said he drank six or seven beers beginning around 9:30 p.m. and “admitted that his ability to drive was affected by his alcohol usage.”

McElmurry told troopers he believed he got onto the freeway at Freya Street and said he had no idea he was driving the wrong way.

“The defendant was upset that other people had been injured and started crying,” accoridng to the affidavit

A sex offender suspected of killing a 48-year-old Spokane woman pleaded not guilty to a separate rape case today in Spokane County Superior Court.

Derrick Ross Vargas, 24, remains in Spokane County Jail on $250,000 bond after his arraignment before Judge Sam Cozza.

Family members attended but declined to speak with media.

Vargas (pictured with his lawyer, Kari Reardon) is charged with first-degree rape for allegedly attacking a prostitute in his apartment after picking her up on East Sprague Avenue, near where Evon M. Moore's body was discovered on Aug. 13.

Vargas was released from federal prison on Aug. 2 after serving about four years for having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl when he was 19.

Vargas was arrested Sept. 23 after a Washington State Patrol trooper stopped him for driving with a broken taillight and a woman jumped out of the truck and yelled, “He raped me!”, according to police.

Vargas was driving a red early ‘90s Chevrolet pickup, which matches the description of a vehicle caught on surveillance camera early Aug. 13 in the area where Moore’s body was found.

Vargas has not yet been charged in Moore's death.

Read the rest of my story here.

Past coverage:

Sept. 29: Sex offender suspected in Evon Moore homicide

Sept. 23: Recently released sex offender arrested for rape

Aug. 15: Slain woman was dedicated student, family says

CUSICK, Wash. (AP) — A police officer from Rathdrum, Idaho, was killed in a motorcycle crash near Cusick on Highway 20.

The Washington State Patrol says 27-year-old Jonathan Franco was riding his motorcycle Saturday when it rear-ended a car that has slowed for an injured deer in the roadway.

Franco has been a Rathdrum officer for nearly five years. He is survived by his parents and two sisters.

A sex offender released from federal prison last month is accused of raping a Spokane prostitute in an attack that was discovered by an observant state trooper patrolling traffic.

Derrick Ross Vargas, 24, was arrested early Friday after a Washington State Patrol trooper said he stopped him for driving with a broken taillight and a woman jumped out of the truck and yelled “He raped me!”

Read the rest of my story here.

A suspended Spokane firefighter’s wrongful arrest lawsuit against the Washington State Patrol over a botched child pornography investigation is headed to trial after an appellate court ruling Wednesday.

A three-person panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says false statements made by WSP investigators amounted to intentional and reckless conduct that infringed on Spokane fire Lt. Todd Chism’s civil rights. The two WSP employees named in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, Detective Rachel Gardner and Sgt. John Sager, shouldn’t be granted immunity because of their actions, the court ruled.

The ruling was issued the same day $10 million claim was filed against against the state of Washington alleging WSP Troopers Greg Birkeland and Greg Riddell used excessive force when they arrested Chism in a separate incident in April 2010.

Read the rest of my story here.

A man who fled a police chase in the Four Lakes area was arrested after being shocked several times with a Taser late Sunday.

Jesse Ray Waldvogel, 25, ran from his car at milepost 267 on Interstate 90 about 5 p.m. as state troopers pursued him in a domestic violence investigation, according to the Washington State Patrol. He was believed to be armed, and law enforcement, including a helicopter and sheriff's K-9, scoured the heavily vegetated area but came up empty.

Waldvogel was arrested about 9:50 p.m. near Medical Lake-Four Lakes Road and Granite Lake Road but freed his right hand from cuffs and struggled with officers while saying “something to the effects of 'you're gonna have to kill me!'.” according to court documents. He continued to resist after one Taser shock, according to the WSP, so two to three more were applied.

“After the Taser cycled through Waldvogel stated that he was done resisting and asked something to the effects of 'why couldn't you guys just shoot me?,” according to court documents.

Troopers left the Taser probes in Waldvogel as he was examined by medics and told him he'd be shocked again if he resisted. Waldovgel had cuts on his forehead, hands and feet but declined hospital treatment, troopers say.

Waldvogel described the pursuit to police and said he'd been bit by a snapping turtle while hiding in the water, according to court documents.

He was booked into jail on charges of attempting to elude police and resisting arrest.

COLVILLE – Embattled Spokane firefighter Todd Chism won his latest legal battle with the Washington State Patrol on Thursday when a jury cleared him of all charges stemming from a violent 2010 confrontation that injured him and two Washington State Patrol troopers.

 A Stevens County jury exonerated the suspended Chism of four felony counts and a misdemeanor resisting arrest, stemming from an early-morning melee outside his Nine Mile Falls home on April 6, 2010.

But the jury not only found him not guilty, they ordered the state to pay for his attorneys’ fees.

Read the rest of Tom Clouse's story here.

Past coverage:

May 19, 2010: New prosectuor named in Chism case

April 23, 2010: Chism threatened to kill troopers, WSP said

April 9, 2010: Firefighter Tasered in DUI arrest

(AP) OLYMPIA — As of Friday, Washington motorists arrested for DUI will also have their vehicle impounded.

The new state law requires a 12-hour hold be placed on cars driven by suspected drunk drivers.

One of the major reasons behind the law is that many jails don't have the room to hold DUI suspects overnight, and are often forced to release them while they are still intoxicated.

“This is about making sure that impaired drivers don't return to their cars and drive again before they've sobered up,” said State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste. “This isn't about trying to punish someone for driving drunk. If they're found guilty that will become the court's job.”

The three exceptions to the DUI impound law are:

* If the vehicle is owned by someone other than the arrested person, such as a business owner, the owner may reclaim the car at the tow lot.

* A registered co-owner may go to the tow company and redeem the vehicle.

* Commercial or farm transport vehicles reclaimed by a legal owner who is not the arrested subject. Commercial and farm transport vehicles are the only types that can be released at the site of the arrest.

Drivers who don't meet these exceptions will be allowed to retrieve their vehicle from impound 12 hours after their arrest.

A Spokane man who injured a state trooper in a crash on Interstate 90 three years ago is wanted on a felony drunken driving charge.

William David Zink, 32, was charged last month, nearly one year after a sheriff's deputy pulled him over for speeding on East Broadway Avenue and observed slurred speech, poor balance and the smell of alcohol.

Zink failed sobriety tests and provided breath samples that showed blood-alcohol levels of .202 and .189, according to court documents. The legal limit for driving is .08.

Zink was sentenced to 15 months in prison for causing a car crash in August 2008 that injured state Trooper Allen Larned and a driver who had been stopped by Larned. Having a felony conviction for vehicular homicide or vehicular assault while intoxicated means any future drunken driving arrests are felony cases.

Crime Stoppers offered a reward Monday for tips that lead to the arrest of Zink, whose criminal hsitory includes convictions for reckless driving, driving while license suspended, vehicular assault, violation of a court order, failure to cooperate, first-degree possession of stolen property, first-degree theft, third-degree theft, domestic violence assault and DUI.

Zink, 5-foot-11 and 145 pounds, last gave a home address in the 7600 block of East Broadway in Spokane Valley.

Anyone with information on his current location is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or submit tips online.

Negligent driving caused a three-car crash Friday afternoon on Interstate 90 in Spokane, according to the Washington State Patrol.

Neida Rios, 58, of Fair Oaks, Calif., was in a Nissan Altima westbound on I-90 when she crossed the median and hit an eastbound Chevrolet Tahoe driven by Patricia Sodorff, 55, of Sandpoint, according to a WSP news release.

Rios also hit Joel Fertakis, 49, of Spokane, (pictured) who was eastbound in a Chevrolet pickup towing a 27-foot trailer. The crash caused the trailer to roll into the median and one of the lanes.

 Sodorff and Rios were injured but not taken to a hospital, the news release said.

Fertakis, a sergeant with the Spokane Police Department, was not injured.

Investigators have released the names of the law enforcement officials involved in the pursuit that ended with a diabetic man dying in a head-on crash with a semi truck.

Deputies Jennifer Wrotenbery and Mike Northway were in separate patrol cars when they saw Daniel J. Marinovich, 50, (pictured) driving southbound on Highway 395 at Half Moon Road after receiving reports of an erratic driver in a red Ford Taurus.  

A suspected chop shop under investigation in Bonner County caught the attention of Spokane County authorities last winter when they heard a car thief used the property to dispose of a vehicle.

Washington State Patrol investigators were helping U.S. Marshals look for a felon at Mr. D's Auto Repair and Salvage Yard on Highway 41 near Oldtown Jan. 5 when they were told that Tracey Oblenness, 45, brought her car to the wrecking yard to have it destroyed because she had switched the car's indication to a stolen car of the same make and model, according to court documents. 

Detectives were told that vehicles were often crushed or burned on the property as a means of disposal.

A resident of the chop shop is identified in a search warrant field in January as Daryl Hollingsworth - a key defense witness in Edgar Steele's murder-for-hire trial . Hollingsworth (left) told investigators he once observed a vehicle being crushed and once saw a nice Acura set on fire.

Wayne Clinton told a Spokane County sheriff's deputy that he towed Oblenness's Acura to the property so it could be destroyed and Oblenness could use its identification for a stolen Acura, according to court documents.

Oblenness has not been charged in relation to a stolen vehicle but pleaded guilty last month to a gross misdemeanor drug charge in Spokane County Superior Court and was given two years probation.

The suspected car theft operation remained in tact until last week, when Bonner County detectives saw a stolen vehicle while looking for fugitives. They executed a search warrant and found several stolen vehicles.

Property owner Dennis Hiebert, 51, was arrested for possession of stolen property. The investigation is ongoing.

Car theft investigations in the Spokane area will drop beginning next month as the Washington State Patrol eliminates its auto theft unit.

The July 1 closure comes just after a national study was released showing the Spokane area was fourth in the nation for the rate of car theft in 2010.

“In the current budget climate, all state agencies are cutting muscle and bone,” said Bob Calkins, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol. “The fat was gone long ago.”

Read the rest of my story here.