In brief: Councilman charged with assaulting woman

An Oroville, Wash., city councilman was charged Thursday with sexually assaulting a woman while working as a federal Customs and Border Protection officer. Jason Allen Blotsky, 37, was charged in Okanogan County District Court with two counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.

According to court documents, the alleged victim filed a formal complaint when Blotsky approached her from behind on Dec. 1 and slid his hands up under her breasts while she was making a phone call to her mother.

Several other Customs and Border Protection officers witnessed the incident and made written reports to their supervisor, an Okanogan County sheriff’s deputy told court officials.

Deputy Chris Farley said the woman told him she ordered Blotsky to take his hands off her and that her mother was threatening to seek a protection order against him. The woman said Blotsky told her he didn’t have to quit touching her, and that a protection order would be “just another piece of paper to add to his collection,” Farley reported.

Farley said the woman told him Blotsky also had come to her home and had tried to get her phone number from several acquaintances. He said she began staying elsewhere for fear Blotsky would harm her or her child in retaliation for her complaint.

Spokane

Man convicted of kidnapping neighbor

A jury convicted a Spokane man Thursday of kidnapping and three counts of second-degree robbery following a two-day trial.

Donald T. Phillips, 33, who has at least two prior robbery convictions in Tennessee, will be sentenced Jan. 23, Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza said.

Phillips had been living with a woman in a duplex at 1811 E. Nebraska Ave. when he knocked on the neighbor’s door in the early hours of April 2.

Neighbor Marc E. Postlewait answered Phillip’s knock and later told police that Phillips demanded both money and a ride downtown.

Postlewait told Spokane police Detective Don Giese that Phillips threatened to kill him, hurt his family and claimed he had connections to the mafia, according to court records.

BOISE

Infection may be cause of mallards’ deaths

Officials still don’t know why as many as 2,500 mallards have died in a bizarre cluster along a southeastern Idaho creek bed, but preliminary test results indicate a bacterial or fungal infection could be to blame, a state game official said late Thursday.

More tests are now planned on water and grain, said David Parrish, supervisor for the Magic Valley region of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

“We have some preliminary results,” he said in a telephone interview. “It could be some type of bacterial infection or a fungal-related infection. But we haven’t confirmed that for sure.”

The ducks mysteriously began dying last week around Land Springs Creek, near the remote town of Oakley, about 180 miles southeast of Boise. On Thursday, state workers cleared the last remaining duck carcasses from the area in pickup trucks. They brought the bodies to a nearby incineration site.

COOPER SPUR, Ore.

Weather slows Mount Hood search

Rescue workers searching for three lost climbers on Mount Hood, Oregon’s highest peak, braved a fierce storm that packed yet more snow and 80 mph winds on Thursday. And they were once again foiled in their efforts to find the men.

An attempt to use small, unmanned planes carrying devices that can detect body heat was stymied when lenses fogged up.

The flights reached about 6,500 feet, 500 feet above a staging area set up by rescuers, said John Blitch, leader of the Colorado nonprofit group Aracar that provided the planes. The planes will be kept outside to acclimate them for a later attempt, he said.

Blizzard conditions smacked against the mountain on Thursday. The National Weather Service said winds at the 9,000-foot level reached 60 to 80 mph.

Also Thursday, authorities said a cell phone belonging to the climber believed to be in the snow cave was on briefly as recently as Tuesday. But for more than two days the phone has not responded to engineers’ signals, sent every five minutes.

Compiled from staff

and wire reports