Offenders catch a break on tickets
Starting Friday, the Ferry County District Court has a special offer for people – many of them from Spokane – who have been referred to collection agencies for failure to pay fines and court fees.
Throughout April, Court Administrator Tracy Palmier said, collection fees that add $100 to $300 to an unpaid court debt will be waived in many cases.
It is common, Palmier said, for a $47 traffic ticket to mushroom to $300 or $400 if left unpaid. And state law prohibits courts from writing off charges of $10 or more.
Palmier estimated that Spokane County residents account for 25 percent to 30 percent of the infractions handled by her court. She said she hopes the collection fee amnesty will entice people who may have a little cash in their pockets from tax refunds.
To take advantage of the offer, people must pay off their court-ordered debts in full during April. Only cash, certified checks or money orders will be accepted.
Cases in which collection agencies have already moved to garnish wages aren’t eligible.
Neither are those in which arrest warrants have been issued. Because of that, criminal cases will be handled on a case-by-case basis, Palmier said.
For more information, call Ferry County District Court at (509) 775-5244.
Boy suspended after pocketknife found
A 16-year-old boy was suspended from West Valley High School on Tuesday after a school security officer found a small knife in his pocket.
“He never threatened anyone,” said school district spokeswoman Sue Shields. “The knife was in his pocket.”
The security officer found a backpack propping open a door that is usually locked. He took it into his office and the student came to claim it. The boy had his hands in his pockets and the officer asked him to take his hands out and empty his pockets, said Sgt. Wes Eylar, of the Spokane Valley Police Department.
The teenager produced a folding pocketknife with a 2.5-inch blade. The school wasn’t locked down, said Sheilds, because the boy had never displayed the knife and there was no danger to others.
The boy has been suspended from school indefinitely, but can appeal the district’s decision. He was not charged with a crime.
“By law he can carry it in the school, but not by school policy,” Eylar said. “There really is no criminal charge.”
Police Officer Chan Erdman spoke to the teenager, who said he’d been bringing the knife to school every day for the past year. “Apparently he’s a good kid, gets good grades, just made some bad decisions,” Erdman said.
Man charged in 1988 slaying of teenager
Seattle A man who cut his throat last year after “cold case” murder detectives visited him in prison to obtain a DNA sample has been charged with killing a young prostitute in the city in 1988.
The first-degree murder charge in the death of Ophelia McKnight was filed Monday against Joseph Glen Tice, 47, serving time at the state prison complex in Monroe. Arraignment is set for April 11.
Tice reportedly told other inmates after the detectives’ visit that he had an old case pending and “DNA got him,” Detective Gregg Mixsell wrote in documents filed with the charge in King County Superior Court.
Tice’s DNA matched samples from the partially decomposed body of McKnight, 17, found in Montlake Park on Feb. 6, 1988. She had been shot four times in the head and neck.
McKnight, described by detectives as a prostitute who frequented Yesler Street, was last seen when she visited the downtown YMCA on Jan. 5, 1988, to pick up a gift provided to those involved in a youth employment program, according to court papers.
It took six months to identify her through genetic fingerprinting. The killing went unsolved until last year, when a scientist at the State Patrol crime laboratory matched a DNA profile developed in 2003 from the McKnight evidence sample to Tice, who was in the state database.