Region in brief: Lottery winners plan to share bonanzas

Two lottery tickets paid off for winners who hit jackpots in Idaho and Washington worth more than $800,000 combined.

Retired Spokane couple Terry and Mary Anderson won in the Hit 5 scratch ticket game, purchased from the Liberty Lake Albertsons store. The couple plan to share the $610,000 in winnings with their seven children, landscape their yard and build a walk-in shower.

Frankie Masterson, of St. Maries, claimed $200,000 on Powerball. Masterson recently learned that her grandson was wounded while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan. She will use her winnings to fly her family to an East Coast medical facility to visit him for the holidays. Masterson bought her tickets from the Harvest Foods store in St. Maries.

Sara Leaming

Man shot by police charged with assault

A man shot by Spokane Valley police after answering his door armed with a revolver has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault.

Donald J. Lafavor, 65, appeared in Superior Court on Thursday after being released from a hospital, where he’d been since the Nov. 28 shooting at his apartment, 8910 E. Broadway Ave.

Officers Ryan Walter and Rustin Olson fired at least eight shots at Lafavor after he pointed a .38-caliber revolver at them when they responded to a domestic violence call, police said.

Lafavor is charged because he allegedly pointed the gun at the officers. A woman identified as Kerey M. Edison, 37, was in the bathroom at the time of the shooting. Edison told police that Lafavor had been “agitated and angry” and told her he would point the gun “at whoever was at the door,” according to court documents.

Meghann M. Cuniff

Reinstated detective sues city, fellow cops

A Spokane police detective acquitted of harassment last year has filed suit against the city, two fellow officers and Chief Anne Kirkpatrick over the investigation that led to his arrest and temporary suspension from duty.

Detective Jay Mehring claims in a civil suit filed Tuesday in Spokane County Superior Court that the city conspired to deprive him of his civil rights, falsely arrested and imprisoned him and invaded his privacy, among other things. Mehring unsuccessfully sought $3.5 million in a claim for damages filed with the city earlier this year.

In March 2007, Mehring was placed on unpaid leave after a felony harassment charge was filed against him in connection with threats made against his estranged wife, who later told investigators she never thought he would harm her or their children. A jury acquitted him in 2008, and Mehring was reinstated to his $79,365-a-year job and given $134,000 in back pay and benefits.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress.

Staff reports