In brief: Perry District landlord charged for arson at home

Police arrested a landlord suspected of setting fire to his Perry District home Tuesday afternoon after a dispute with a roommate – a convicted child rapist who spent 18 years in prison.

Dee Farmin, 44, is accused of pouring gasoline on the floor of the home on the 1700 block of East 12th Avenue and setting it on fire after becoming enraged with his roommate tenants, including Harold David Werstein, who he suspected of placing cameras about the house to film him naked. No one was hurt, including a woman who was in the basement of the home during the brief fire. Farmin has been charged with arson.

Werstein raped a 13-year-old stranger in Lewis County in 1990. He is a level 3 sex offender, the classification considered most likely to reoffend, and moved to Spokane five years ago.

Farmin claimed to police that Werstein “had been torturing him for the past three weeks.” He said he became frustrated, “freaked out” and tried to set his house on fire.

John Stucke

Sex offender suspected of child molestation

A registered sex offender who offered to babysit a neighbor’s children is in jail after police say he kissed and inappropriately touched an 8-year-old girl.

The girl told a social worker that William M. Julian, 45, whom she called “Billy,” molested her though she told him to stop “thousands of times,” according to court documents. The girl’s mother called police when she noticed that her daughter had a hickey on her neck.

Julian was convicted of first-degree child molestation in 1998. When detectives showed up at his apartment at 1708 W. Gardner Ave. on Oct. 29, he told them, “I knew this was coming, I’ve been charged with this once before,” court documents say.

He’s been charged with three counts of first-degree child molestation and is in Spokane County Jail on $250,000 bond.

Addy Hatch

Fire Department medics’ bikes stolen from trailer

Nine mountain bikes used by Spokane Fire Department medics at large events have been stolen from the trailer they’re stored in, the department said.

Thieves broke into the trailer at Station 15 on East Wellesley Avenue overnight Wednesday, took the bikes and some medical equipment, the department wrote on its Facebook page.

The “Ped-Med” bikes are used at Bloomsday, Hoopfest and other crowded events. They’re black and have specialized rear racks to hold medical gear. Police ask anyone with information about the bikes to call Crime Check at (509) 459-2233.

Staff report