SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Newly released documents show several grievances were filed by inmates of the Monroe Correctional Complex over operations of the prison chapel in the years before corrections officer Jayme Biendl was strangled there last January. Biendl was the subject of numerous grievances…
Mary Beth Jorgensen learned the hard way that theft can occur anywhere. Even in church. On June 26 people started arriving for Sunday service in the large Coeur d’Alene church Jorgensen attends. Jorgensen, who usually sings in the church’s choir, was instead filling in for…
When a rapist who murdered one of his cellmates in the Spokane County Jail requested a transfer to a medium-security prison several years later, the approval process at the Washington Department of Corrections was quick and routine. Although prisoner Michael Lee West Jr. was known…
A Sandpoint biker awaiting trial on charges of recruiting criminal gang members was drawn to crime because of a rare gender disorder that causes him to be self conscious about his masculinity, his lawyer says. Dale Michael Champine, 42, (right) suffers from epilepsy, bi-polar disorder,…
A former treasurer for two Spokane charities who became involved with a cash-strapped woman he met at a spa has been ordered to repay $24,000 after pleading guilty to felony theft. Curtis G. Wasson, 59, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree theft last week…
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The FBI says the so-called "Bad Hair Bandit," sought in connection with as many as 18 bank robberies or attempted robberies in Washington, is now suspected in a robbery in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego. Portland FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne…
Public safety news from the Inland Northwest and beyond.
