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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Car hits trooper on I-90 exit ramp

The Spokesman-Review

A vehicle struck a Washington State Patrol trooper just off Interstate 90 at Ritzville on Monday morning as the trooper was investigating a pursuit that had occurred last weekend.

The WSP won’t name the trooper until her husband has been notified, Trooper Mark Baker said. She was taken to a hospital, but her injuries did not appear life-threatening.

The trooper was standing outside her vehicle at 10:10 a.m. with several other WSP investigators, measuring the site where a westbound car had taken the I-90 exit ramp to go south on U.S. Highway 395, Baker said.

The trooper was on the roadside and facing away from traffic. The car’s side mirror hit her, Baker said.

The driver pulled over, and the incident remains under investigation.

The trooper suffered what appeared to be a bruised back. “The trooper is going to be hurting for quite a while,” Baker said.

Information about the driver was not released Monday.

– Thomas Clouse

spokane

Lawyer disbarred after forgery plea

The Washington Supreme Court has disbarred Spokane attorney Virginia Sue Lauver, effective today, because of her guilty plea last August to a forgery charge.

Lauver, 34, was sentenced to two months of home confinement in a plea bargain that folded four felony forgery counts into one and dismissed a bigamy charge.

Court documents said Lauver had forged her former law partner’s signature on a notary stamp and on three checks totaling $43,800. The forged notary stamp was on a bogus quit-claim deed giving Lauver ownership of 160 acres in Ada County, Idaho, that belonged to her ex-husband.

– John Craig

tacoma

WWII crash site remains identified

A Tacoma man has been identified as one of four World War II airmen killed in a 1944 plane crash in Tibet, the Defense Department said Monday.

Pfc. Gerald L. Rugers Jr. was a radio operator aboard a C-46 that left a base in China as part of Allied resupply missions.

En route to India, a crewman called out for a bearing, suggesting the aircraft was lost, according to a Defense Department news release. There was no further communication.

In 2001, China said wreckage of an American WWII aircraft had been found on Meiduobai Mountain in a remote area of Tibet. The site was excavated the following year, and human remains, aircraft debris and personal items of the 1944 crew were uncovered. The remains were identified using DNA testing and dental analysis.

– Associated Press