In brief: Teen charged with molesting girl

Bond has been set at $250,000 for a Kingston, Idaho, man charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior with a 5-year-old girl.

Reid Louis Yergler, 19, is being held at the Shoshone County jail. The felony carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, said Shoshone County Prosecutor Val Siegel.

Siegel said he will seek a special prosecutor for the case due to his professional relationship with Yergler’s father, Gary Yergler, a Kellogg police officer.

Gary Yergler ran for Shoshone County sheriff in 2008 but was defeated by Sheriff Mitch Alexander. Reid Yergler also is the nephew of Shoshone County Commissioner Larry Yergler.

Clues to woman’s history sought

Detectives are asking anyone who had contact with Deer Park homicide victim Chanin Starbuck in the last 30 days to contact them.

Starbuck, 42, was found dead in her home at 509 N. Reiper St. Saturday at about 8:30 a.m. after family members who hadn’t heard from her in several days requested that deputies check on her. An autopsy concluded she died of strangulation.

Detectives on Wednesday seized Starbuck’s cellphone and computers, as well as Internet routing data, trying to re-create her last days.

No arrests have been made, and no suspects have been identified.

Anyone who’s had contact with Starbuck in the last month or has information on the homicide is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Work accident incapacitates man

A Spokane man was left hospitalized in a vegetative state after an on-the-job accident last week.

Ryan Curtis, 37, was working for a local tree company when the accident occurred last Wednesday. He and a co-worker were trying to remove a tree with a truck when a rope that was holding a branch snapped. The branch whipped back, slicing Curtis’ jugular and breaking several bones in his face and neck.

Doctors gave Curtis, who has worked for the company for about a decade, a 10 percent chance of recovery, according to his wife, Sunshine Curtis, 32.

“It’s been really hard,” she said. “Really, really hard.”

His wife said she doesn’t feel anyone is to blame for the incident.

“It was a freak accident,” she said.

The Curtis family, which includes five children ages 1 to 14 years old, is accepting donations at the Amicus Federal Credit Union at 6103 N. Astor St.