In brief: Spokane parking violators can pay or get boot
Prolific parking violators will have the chance to pay off past-due tickets at face value before Spokane begins putting immobilizing wheel boots on cars flagged as having more than four outstanding tickets.
Through the end of June, those with unpaid parking tickets can settle their debts minus late fees and interest, city officials announced Thursday. Parking enforcement agents will begin booting vehicles July 1 that have more than four unpaid tickets on file as part of sweeping ordinance changes approved by the City Council in December. Those with eight or more unpaid tickets could have their vehicles towed under the new laws.
Boots last appeared on Spokane streets in December 1987.
City officials pitched the creation of the so-called “scofflaw list,” also employed in cities such as Seattle and Boise, to crack down on repeat offenders. City records show the five Spokane parkers with the most tickets amassed more than $30,000 in fines.
To settle up, call Valley Empire Collection at 800-669-8139 or visit spokanecity.org/parking.
Woman and child found safe by police
The woman and child rescued last week near Horseshoe Lake with homicide suspect Jeremy Arnold have been located by Spokane police and are safe.
Mandy Waters and Arnold’s 2-year-old daughter were in a fishing boat with Arnold that sank April 24. The trio made it to shore. Arnold then swam back across the lake to call 911, prompting a successful helicopter search for Waters and the girl.
Four days later Spokane police were called to 2512 N. Standard St. by a concerned friend looking for Waters, according to court documents. Officers found Arnold, several children and a woman now identified as 46-year-old Tracy Fergerstrom at the home Monday.
Neighbors found Fergerstrom stabbed to death at the address Tuesday morning.
Police contacted Waters by phone and confirmed she was safe, a police spokeswoman said. The daughter has also been located and is safe, she said.
Arnold is the lone suspect in Fergerstrom’s death, according to police. He returned to the scene of the homicide, drove through a barricade armed with a handgun and was shot dead Tuesday afternoon. Spokane police have not yet released names of the officers who fired.
Spokane deputy fired for misconduct
Spokane County sheriff’s Deputy Todd Saunders was fired for misconduct Thursday after investigators concluded he spent much of his on-duty time at the home of a woman who was not his wife.
The behavior began last August, according to Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich. Saunders would call in previously collected names and license plate numbers for dispatchers to run to make it appear that he was busy, Knezovich said. Saunders was put on paid administrative leave in March when someone complained that his patrol car was parked in front of a house on the West Plains for hours at a time, sometimes with the engine running.
The termination of employment can be appealed.
Restaurateur takes deal in drug case
A Spokane restaurant franchise owner implicated in a two-state Oxycontin ring will plead guilty to a misdemeanor, pay a $6,000 fine and testify against alleged partners in a deal reached Wednesday.
Sally B. Guthrie, owner of several Flamin’ Joe’s chicken wing restaurants in the Spokane area, was arrested in February 2013 along with more than 60 other people. Guthrie was indicted on a single criminal count of conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance between October 2012 and her arrest.
In the deal signed Wednesday, Guthrie agreed she had knowledge that Arvin Carmen, one of the alleged masterminds behind the drug trade, was selling painkillers illegally but did not inform police. She has agreed to plead guilty in a Washington state court to providing a false statement to police.
Man stabbed trying to break up fight
A man was stabbed in the back Wednesday while attempting to break up a fight. The suspect in the case, 23-year-old Gary E. Adams, was ordered held on $50,000 bond on an assault charge during a court appearance Thursday.
Numerous witnesses told police Adams fought with another man that day. The fight was broken up and the man Adams was fighting with went to another room in the apartment at 4023 E. Pacific Ave., but Adams allegedly picked up a kitchen knife before bursting into the bedroom to confront the man again, according to court records. Witnesses said the victim and others tried to intervene, and the victim was stabbed.
Adams denied using a knife in the fight, according to court documents.