In brief: Man faces charge in stepfather’s death

BREMERTON – Kitsap County prosecutors are charging a 29-year-old Bremerton man with bludgeoning his stepfather to death.

Jason Anthony Salas was charged with first-degree murder Thursday and is being held on a $2 million bail in the killing of Gillbert Sayama Sablan, the Kitsap Sun reported.

Salas killed Sablan with a crowbar in front of five children inside their home, charging papers said. Sablan then took the children to a relative’s home and said he’d done “something.” Those family members called police.

Detectives say Sablan didn’t explain his motive other than saying Wednesday was a “good day” to kill his stepfather, who he never got along with.

Farm Bureau drops out of Montana bison lawsuit

BOZEMAN – The Montana Farm Bureau has dropped out of a lawsuit that seeks to block bison from roaming outside Yellowstone National Park.

At the group’s request, the Montana Supreme Court dismissed the bureau from the case Wednesday.

The move leaves Park County as the only plaintiff in the 2011 lawsuit, which seeks to keep bison out of the 70,000-acre Gardiner Basin. The plaintiffs argue that bison outside the park pose a public safety threat and could spread disease to livestock.

Farm Bureau vice president Jake Cummins said the group dropped out of the appeal after state officials assured it that livestock industry interests would be protected in the Yellowstone area.

He said attempts to reach a settlement in the case fell short.

Historic trail stretch part of Columbia Gorge trek

PORTLAND – The Oregon Department of Transportation has opened a stretch of the state trail in the Columbia Gorge that will allow bicyclists and hikers to make the 34 miles from Troutdale to Cascade Locks without braving traffic on Interstate 84.

The 1.6-mile segment is part of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail, an effort to reuse roadway completed in 1922 as America’s first scenic highway but largely abandoned or demolished when the interstate highway system was built.

Death penalty notice reinstated for Monfort

OLYMPIA – The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that King County prosecutors can seek the death penalty against a man accused of killing a Seattle police officer.

In a unanimous decision, the high court overturned a February King County Superior Court ruling that had found that Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s decision to seek the death penalty against Christopher Monfort was invalid because he relied on a mitigation investigation by his office, rather than waiting for evidence from the defense. The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty notice, and sent the case back to the trial court to proceed.

Monfort is accused of killing Officer Tim Brenton and wounding another officer as they sat in a patrol car Oct. 31, 2009, as well as setting fires to police cars earlier that month. Monfort was wounded by police during his arrest about a week later in Tukwila. He is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair.

Seattle to pay $75,000 in civil rights lawsuit

SEATTLE – The city of Seattle has agree to pay $75,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit from a man a police officer kicked in the head as he was handcuffed on the ground.

In the deal Wednesday, the Seattle Times reported the city admitted no wrongdoing on its part or by Officer Garth Haynes for the incident in December 2010 that followed a fight outside a nightclub in the Ballard neighborhood.

A Bellingham man, 23-year-old Jake Baijot-Clary, and two friends had come to the aid of a woman that Haynes accused of taking his jacket inside the nightclub. Haynes was dressed in civilian clothes.

After other officers arrived and put the three face-down on the sidewalk, patrol car video showed Haynes pushing his foot on one man’s head.