Adam Lynn

A suspected burglar on the run from Spokane police sent his pursuers a first-class insult. Fred W. Nolan Jr., who embarrassed officers on Monday by disappearing from the Public Safety Building while handcuffed, mailed the cuffs back. The undamaged handcuffs arrived at the county courthouse Wednesday morning, officials said.

A mentally ill man accused of stabbing a Spokane police officer has spent time in jails across the nation, authorities said. Rocklin G. Lerwick has felony convictions from California to North Dakota for crimes including robbery and weapons violations, corrections officers said. The 53-year-old transient is in the Spokane County Jail now, charged with first-degree assault.

A Spokane police officer has filed a $3.5 million claim against the city, saying he suffered "personal trauma" after being sexually harassed on the job, then punished by his superiors when he complained. But Officer Ken Lesperance says he's willing to settle out of court for $1 million. Lesperance delivered his "notice of claim" to City Hall last week. He gave Spokane officials 60 days to settle the dispute before he takes it to court.

Meehan

1. Sheriff Goldman 2. Chief Mangan

The Spokane Humane Society, which has sheltered homeless dogs and cats for more than 100 years, won't take in the city's strays after today. The strapped-for-cash agency no longer will accept pets that animal-control officers pick up within the city limits. It will shelter only animals dropped off by their owners or good Samaritans, director Susan Canterbury said Monday. "Our decisions are based on what's best for the animals we take care of."

1. Martha Duxbury 2. Thomas Duxbury

It's nice to know someone appreciates your art enough to steal it, says Spokane artist Marcus Bausch, but he'd still like to have his painting, "I Know Hair," returned. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review

1. Abduction. Tom Henderson of the Sheriff's Department, left, and Washington State Patrol Trooper Greg McNeilly examine where a man jumped out of a moving car Thursday. Photo by Dan Pelle/The Spokesman-Review 2. A bat is removed as evidence.

Spokane Mental Health has offered to help Barbara Lindley find a new home away from her mentally ill neighbor. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

A citizens panel has recommended that a special counsel be appointed to investigate a vegetable farmer's brutality complaint against a Spokane police detective. Police Chief Terry Mangan, who previously had cleared the officer of wrongdoing, said Monday the recommendation from the Citizens Review Commission is inappropriate and the committee is overstepping its bounds.

Three agencies are responsible for animal control in Spokane County. SpokAnimal CARE and the Spokane Humane Society, both nonprofit organizations, currently share duties within the city of Spokane. SpokAnimal has a contract with the city to pick up strays, sell dog and cat licenses and run a free spay-neuter clinic.

1. Despite controversy surrounding Gail Mackie, she is still in charge of SpokAnimal. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review 2. SpokAnimal has weathered controversies and charges and now is poised to gain the new animal control contract. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Harold and Crystal Grammer

Spokane police officers investigate a hit-and-run accident Tuesday morning. A bicyclist was severely injured when he was hit on Sunset Hill. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

A Spokane man who admitted taking out his frustrations with a 2-month-old girl by shaking her until she suffered a critical brain injury was arrested Monday, police said. Robert Charles Nelson IV, 27, was booked into the Spokane County Jail on suspicion of first-degree child assault after surrendering at the Public Safety Building, said police spokesman Dick Cottam. Nelson is scheduled to make his first appearance in District Court today. Prosecutors have requested he be held in lieu of $50,000 bail.

One of the teenage escapees being questioned in the murder of an elderly Spokane woman lived in the victim's neighborhood before being sent to a juvenile detention center last year. Court records indicate Simeon Terry, 17, lived in a house with his mother in the 700 block of West Shannon Avenue, six blocks from the long-time home of Mildred Klaus. Klaus' son discovered the 85-year-old woman dead Tuesday afternoon inside her house at 326 W. Mansfield.

FROM FOR THE RECORD (Saturday, September 6, 1997): Correction: Wrong charge: Spokane Police Officer Markus Meehan is not accused of the crime of forgery. He is charged with false swearing for allegedly preparing a false police report. A story and headline on The Region page of Friday's Spokesman-Review incorrectly labeled the accusation. Meehan

Joy riders stole eight cars from a Spokane auto dealership late Sunday or early Monday, driving one of them through a fence and setting fire to another. It appeared to be nothing more than a wanton act of destruction, police said. Officers arrested five teenagers Monday evening as they went freewheeling through downtown Spokane. The teens, described by police as "buddies," were booked into the Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of car theft.

Harry Haight has driven illegally just about every way possible. Since 1980, the 56-year-old Spokane businessman has been convicted of drunken driving six times, driving without a valid operator's license nine times, negligent driving twice and reckless driving once.

Harry Haight, being led to court in a 1994 photo, spent two years in prison and has had months of counseling. File/The Spokesman-Review

Hernandez

Two men repairing farm machinery on Peone Prairie discovered a badly decomposed body Tuesday evening, about six hours after another corpse was found in Spokane. The men found the body, thought to be that of a woman, near the intersection of Forker and Judkins roads in northeastern Spokane County about 5:30 p.m., deputies said.

Looking for clues. Spokane police gather evidence in the 1800 block of E. Springfield, where a body was discovered Tuesday in an overgrown lot behind a business. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review