Boy Scout counselor convicted of abuse

Jurors in Moscow, Idaho, have convicted Timothy Kellis on 12 felony counts involving four Boy Scouts molested at Camp Grizzly in North Idaho.

Kellis is a former high school band director from Tumwater, Wash. He was a counselor at the scout camp in the summer of 2007.

The 2nd District Court jurors reached their verdict Friday afternoon. Kellis will be sentenced Nov. 12. He could face life in prison and more than $250,000 in fines.

He has been convicted of nine counts of lewd conduct with a minor and one count of attempted lewd conduct with a minor. He was also convicted on two counts of sexual abuse of a child.

Two of the teens told jurors earlier this week how they were molested at the camp. The 16-year-olds said the 38-year-old Kellis would enter the tent the Scouts shared at night.

At the time, Kellis was the director of shooting sports at the camp in Harvard, Idaho.

WASHINGTON

Craig creates fund for legal costs

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has formed a legal expense fund to help pay for costs associated with his effort to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport men’s room sex sting.

Craig’s legal expense fund, called Fund for Justice, is disclosed in papers filed with the Senate’s Office of Public Records.

The three-term Republican senator told Congressional Quarterly on Thursday that he has begun searching for donations for the fund.

Craig said the Senate Ethics Committee has approved the new legal fund. In February, the committee chided Craig for spending $213,000 in campaign funds to pay legal and public-relations fees without approval from either the ethics panel or the Federal Election Commission.

Craig’s lawyers argued before an appeals court panel in Minnesota last week that he should be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea.

SEATTLE

Death penalty decision on hold

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg has agreed to delay his death penalty decision in the Carnation slayings case.

The deadline was extended to Oct. 20 to give the new lawyers for Michele Anderson time to review documents.

Anderson has said she wants to be executed to take responsibility for her actions. Her previous lawyers were removed last month at her request.

Anderson and her boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe, are accused of killing her parents, her brother and his wife, and the brother’s two young children on Christmas Eve at Carnation.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports the death penalty decision will be the first for Satterberg.

REDDING, Calif.

Dead firefighter’s family files suit

The family of a contract firefighter killed in a helicopter crash in Northern California last month has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the aircraft’s owner and manufacturers.

Scott Charlson, 25, of Phoenix, Ore., was among nine people killed when a Sikorsky S-61N helicopter crashed in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest on Aug. 5.

A San Diego firm on Friday filed the lawsuit against Carson Helicopters, Sikorsky Helicopters and General Electric on behalf of Charlson’s family in Shasta County Superior Court.

Grants Pass-based Carson operated the helicopter, which was originally built by Sikorsky with engines made by General Electric.

Officials at Carson and Sikorsky declined to comment. GE did not immediately return calls for comment.

From wire reports