In brief: Kids found safe near Denver

Two young Washington state children sought in an Amber Alert were found safe just outside of Denver on Thursday, the FBI said.

Their father, John Baugher, was arrested shortly after noon Thursday in Idaho Springs, Colo., while the three were traveling on a Greyhound bus.

Law enforcement officers boarded the bus about 35 miles outside of Denver after it developed mechanical problems and stopped on the side of the highway, Laura Laughlin, Seattle FBI special agent in charge, said in a news release.

The bus was bound from Salt Lake City to Hartford, Conn., via Denver, Laughlin said.

The FBI reunited the children – 4-year-old Remi Baugher, and her 2-year-old brother, Lars – with their mother, said Agent Larry Carr.

John Baugher, 34, was charged Monday in Walla Walla County Superior Court with custodial interference for failing to return the children to their mother after a visit. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

He was being held at the Clear Creek County Jail pending his return to Washington.

Pullman

WSU police chief investigated

Investigators at Washington State University are looking into allegations that campus Police Chief Steve Hansen may have used work computers to look at sexually explicit photographs, a school spokesman said Thursday.

“The investigation is nearly completed,” said WSU spokesman Rob Strenge. “We could have a report as early as next week.”

Hansen remains on the job, though he is reportedly in California this week, Strenge said. A voice mail message left at his office on Thursday was not immediately returned.

Few details about the investigation by WSU’s Internal Auditing Office have emerged.

Strenge said looking at sexually explicit pictures of women on a WSU computer would be a violation of the school’s code of ethics. Penalties could range from a reprimand to firing, depending on circumstances, he said.

He could not say how the matter first came to the attention of school administrators.

However, WSU’s campus newspaper, The Daily Evergreen, reported Wednesday that Hansen and another officer admitted in legal depositions to using their office computers to view pornographic images.

The depositions were taken in preparation for an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by former campus police Officer Bryan Jacobson.

From staff and wire reports