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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Spokane Falls at high levels

From Staff And Wire Reports

Spokane Falls was roaring at 25,500 cubic feet of water per second on Wednesday afternoon and is expected to crest at just under 27,000 cfs today and Friday.

Floodwaters from the St. Joe and Coeur d’Alene rivers have now filled Lake Coeur d’Alene with enough water to create a thunderous show at the falls in downtown Spokane as well as at Post Falls in North Idaho.

The high water will continue for at least a week with the flow subsiding slowly after next Wednesday, according to river flow projections.

Jury rejects claim in dog death

A Spokane jury last week rejected civil claims against a Grant County sheriff’s deputy who shot and killed a dog that attacked his own police dog at a Moses Lake park in January 2010.

The owner, Nicholas Criscuolo, sued the county and Deputy Beau Lamens, claiming that in killing his 7-year-old Rottweiler and pit bull mix, Slyder, Lamens had deprived him of his constitutional property rights. Criscuolo also accused Lamens of assault and maliciously injuring Slyder.

A jury in U.S. District Court in Spokane last week ruled against Criscuolo, though they did award a judgment of a little more than $3,800 to cover the costs of a burial and the “intrinsic value” of the dog, according to court documents.

Criscuolo said he brought Slyder and another dog to Neppel Landing, a park near the waterfront. Lamens was making a traffic stop at a nearby intersection and planned to search a man’s car for drugs using his police dog, Maddox.

Criscuolo said Slyder was acting friendly when he approached the police dog. Lamens testified that Slyder charged him and Maddox and that he tried nonlethal measures to keep Slyder at bay, including kicking him.

Lamens fired multiple rounds, killing Slyder, according to court documents.

State settles abuse lawsuit

OLYMPIA – Washington state has agreed to pay a combined $8 million to settle a lawsuit filed by six King County siblings who said they were abused and neglected in the care of a family friend while the state failed to properly investigate more than a dozen separate tips.

The Seattle Times reported that the settlement in the 2012 lawsuit was reached Tuesday.

The children are now between 9 and 21 years old. In the lawsuit, they say they were repeatedly beaten and tortured between 2008 and 2011. They allege the state allowed the abuse to continue by failing to properly investigate 17 separate tips to Child Protective Services, a division of the state Department of Social and Health Services. The children were living with the friend because they otherwise would have been homeless. The friend is awaiting trial on multiple assault charges.

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