In brief: Original Jack Dempsey turned 150 yesterday
PORTLAND – Even the most avid Oregon boxing fans might be unaware that one of the greatest middleweights is buried at Mount Cavalry Cemetery in Portland.
And Saturday marked the 150th anniversary of his birth.
Hall of Famer Jack “Nonpareil” Dempsey was born in Ireland and moved to New York as a child.
He claimed the middleweight championship in 1884 and held it until fellow Hall of Famer Bob Fitzsimmons knocked him out in 1891.
Dempsey moved to Portland after falling in love with an Oregon woman. He lost his final fight in 1895 while weakened with tuberculosis. He died from it later that year.
Years after, a young heavyweight named William Dempsey paid tribute by fighting under the name Jack Dempsey. That Jack Dempsey eventually overshadowed the 19th century star.
Man refuses to testify about May Day protests
SEATTLE – A fourth person has been found in contempt of court for refusing to discuss what he knows about those who participated in Seattle’s May Day protests.
U.S. District Judge Richard Jones of Seattle allowed 23-year-old Matthew Pfeiffer, of Olympia, to remain free on Friday, but he must surrender to federal authorities on Dec. 26 unless he changes his mind about talking, the Seattle Times reported.
He’ll be held until he agrees to testify or until a Seattle federal grand jury expires. That could take as long as 18 months.
The grand jury is hearing evidence about a group of so-called anarchists that law enforcement blames for much of the violence and vandalism during the protests.
The other three people went to jail rather than testify under immunity. Leah Lynn Plante, of Portland has since been released. Katherine Olejnik and Matthew Duran remain in custody.
Swedish man gets prison in anti-virus scam
SEATTLE – The Department of Justice says a 37-year-old Swedish man has been sentenced to four years in prison for facilitating payments in a scheme that tricked tens of thousands of people into buying useless anti-virus programs.
The department says Mikael Patrick Sallnert was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Marsha J. Pechman in Seattle. He was arrested in Denmark in January 2012.
Authorities say Sallnert took part in a “cybercrime ring” that reached about 960,000 people. They say Sallnert’s payment system allowed the cybercrime rings to collect millions of dollars from people duped into believing their computers were infected with a virus.
Sallnert and his cohorts used a variety of ruses to trick consumers into unknowingly infecting their computers with the malicious products known as scareware – including web pages featuring fake computer scans.
Man sentenced to year in prison for tree thefts
TACOMA – The U.S. attorney’s office says a 41-year-old Brinnon, Wash., man has been sentenced to a year in prison for stealing more than $70,000 worth of timber from the Olympic National Forest, including one tree estimated to be more than 300 years old.
Reid Johnston was sentenced Friday in federal court in Tacoma. Government prosecutors estimate Johnston stole or damaged about 100 trees, many of them old growth timber in a protected habitat area.
He earlier pleaded guilty to thefts of fir, cedar and maple trees between May 2009 and January 2010.
One large Douglas fir log had a trunk that was about 7 feet in diameter. The tree was estimated to be more than 300 years old. The maple was cut into blocks and sold for the production of musical instruments such as cellos and guitars.
A restitution hearing is planned in January.
Hole-in-one scammer extradited to Seattle
SEATTLE – A Connecticut businessman accused of refusing to pay golfers who won prizes for making holes in one has been extradited to Washington state.
Kevin Kolenda, 55, of Norwalk, Conn., has been booked into the King County Jail. He was flown to Seattle from Connecticut under guard Thursday, according to a release issued Friday by the Washington state insurance commissioner.
Kolenda specializes in insuring golf tournament hole-in-one prizes, and similar allegations have been made against Kolenda or his business in numerous other states, including Montana, Ohio, Georgia, California, New York, Hawaii, Alabama, Massachusetts, Florida, Connecticut and North Carolina.
Police charging documents from Washington accuse Kolenda of failing to pay prize money when several Seattle-area golfers connected on elusive aces.
Kolenda is expected to be arraigned Monday at King County Superior Court in Seattle.
C-17 pilot found not guilty in court-martial
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – A C-17 pilot who was charged with dereliction of duty and reckless endangerment in a paratrooper’s death has been found not guilty at his Air Force court-martial.
Capt. Jared Foley, a 17-year veteran, could have faced more than two years in prison if convicted for approving an airdrop without command approval on July 10, 2011, at Fort Harrison’s Marshall Field in Montana.
Sgt. Francis Campion of Holidaysburg, Pa., was blown off course and landed on a building outside the drop zone and died. Campion was training with the West Virginia National Guard.
Foley serves with the 62nd Airlift Wing at Lewis-McChord, which operates 51 of the C-17 transport jets.