Judge grants father custody of teen
A Spokane County Superior Court commissioner on Monday ordered a 13-year-old girl returned to the custody of her father, who lives in Falls Church, Va.
The teenager and her mother, both living under assumed identities in Spokane for more than a year, were taken into police custody Friday near Sacred Heart Medical Center after a security guard recognized them from a missing persons flier.
The girl’s father, Tom Mulczynski, obtained legal custody of his daughter in the German court system in July 2006, shortly before his ex-wife, Gail Mulczynski, fled Germany with the girl and ended up in Spokane.
Commissioner Pro-Tem Rachelle Anderson said Gail Mulczynski’s attorney, Gary Gainer, had not challenged the legal authority of the German court system awarding sole custody to Tom Mulczynski. That ruling was based in part on the mother’s history of mental illness.
Courts in the United States recognize court rulings from Germany and other foreign countries under reciprocal terms of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act.
Gail Mulczynski was booked into jail on a charge of custodial interference, but it wasn’t clear Monday whether formal charges will be pursued.
– Bill Morlin
Man in jail after release from hospital
A man shot by a sheriff’s deputy earlier this month was booked into Spokane County Jail on assault and arson charges Monday.
The charges stem from a Nov. 8 incident in which 38-year-old Michael P. Marley was allegedly driving recklessly with a flaming piece of cloth hanging out of his gas tank.
Spokane County sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Beeman was the first to respond to the call in the area of Day-Mount Spokane Road. Marley then allegedly ran out of a wooded area with a knife. Beeman fired three shots.
Marley was hospitalized. Upon his release Monday, he was arrested on first-degree assault and second-degree arson charges, said Officer Jennifer DeRuwe, a department spokeswoman.
– Jody Lawrence-Turner
Evening snow makes for slick conditions
The snow hit after rush hour Monday evening, so most of the traffic had passed by the time the roadways got too bad.
The Washington State Patrol reported 14 crashes on the region’s highways and freeways during the evening hours.
In Spokane and Spokane County, there were about a dozen crashes or vehicles sliding off the road, authorities said. A few cars were reported as being sideways in the road.
“It actually hasn’t been that bad,” said Sgt. Joe Walker, a spokesman for the Spokane Police Department.
But in a few spots, such as the curves at Browne Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard, officers were requesting chemicals or sand to put down on the road because of slick conditions. Some of the downtown freeway on- and off-ramps were also reportedly slick.
– Staff reports