In brief: Handcuffed driver flees from officers

The handcuffed driver of a stolen car escaped from custody late Thursday when officers left him unattended as they chased his fleeing passenger, according to the Spokane Valley Police Department.

Police are asking for help identifying the man who was driving a purple Mercury Tracer that had been reported stolen when Officers Mark Benner and Jason Karnitz spotted him near Pines Road and Cherry Lane about 11:15 p.m., police spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said in a news release.

The car stopped in the dead-end area of a parking lot and the passenger fled on foot. Benner chased after him, and Karntiz handcuffed the driver and told him to stay in the car as he joined the chase, but the officers returned to find the suspect gone. Neither officer knew his name.

The passenger, Tevan Thomas Williams, 21, was arrested; police found the car owner’s identification cards on him and a loaded handgun in his backpack, as well as other stolen items.

The driver is described as white and in his late teens or early 20s. He was wearing a red shirt, light-blue shorts and white running shoes, has brown hair and is about 6 feet tall, police said.

Anyone with information on his identity is asked to call Crime Check at (509) 456-2233.

Man accused of molesting 10-year-old

A Spokane man is accused of molesting a 10-year-old girl his girlfriend was baby-sitting.

Dewitt Allen “D” Harrelson, 46, is in jail on $10,000 bond after appearing in Spokane County Superior Court on Friday on a first-degree child molestation charge.

The girl told a Stevens Elementary School counselor about the alleged contact, which she said occurred in late 2009 and early 2010 at her baby sitter’s home when the baby sitter wasn’t present.

Court documents say the girl’s father “expressed rage and anger” toward Harrelson and “expressed resentment that child molesters were frequently treated too leniently by the criminal justice system.”

Harrelson later told officers that the girl’s father had hit him in the head with an ax handle but he didn’t call police, documents say.

Charges were filed April 1; Harrelson was arrested on Thursday.

Rock Creek mine faces new hurdle

HELENA – A Helena judge has ruled that a mining company must go through a more rigorous permitting process before it can build a copper and silver mine in the northwestern Montana wilderness.

Judge Kathy Seeley said her decision Thursday centered on the potential degradation of threatened bull trout habitat by the sediment generated by the Rock Creek mine’s construction.

Seeley voided Revett Minerals Inc.’s general permits approved by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Instead, Revett must apply for individual permits that require a public comment process.

The Spokane Valley-based company had argued that environmental concerns were addressed through the general permitting process.

Work on the mine had already been blocked last year by a federal judge who ordered the U.S. Forest Service to reconsider its approval of the company’s proposal.

Fund set up for funeral expenses

An account has been created to raise money for the family and funeral expenses of a 67-year-old woman killed in a fire at her northeast Spokane home last week.

The fire at 4128 E. Princeton Ave. destroyed the home where Inez L. Williams lived.

Family members are hoping to raise funds to pay for Williams’ memorial service and burial and for the cleanup of the charred remains of her home.

“Everything’s for Grandma,” said Melissa Hebert, 19.

Williams was an animal lover who knew tragedy well – her son, Terry Palm, was killed in 2002 in a murder case that remains unsolved.

Fire officials say Williams died of smoke inhalation July 15 after her cigarette ignited her oxygen supply. Several pets, including at least two dogs, died in the fire.

Donations can be made at any Numerica Credit Union to the “Memorial Account for Inez Williams.”

Doctor to evaluate prison conditions

BOISE – A federal judge has appointed a special master to see if the state is complying with court orders in a decades-old lawsuit over conditions at the Idaho State Correctional Institution.

The U.S. District Court hired Marc Stern, a doctor and correctional health care consultant from Tumwater, Wash., to determine whether the state is complying with a ruling designed to improve medical and mental health care for inmates at the prison south of Boise. His report is due to the court in six months.

“I’m honored to have been appointed and I look forward to learning about it and meeting and working with the parties to help them resolve the issue,” Stern said Friday.