Bill Morlin

Last summer, a tight-lipped Spokane City Council voted to pay $43,214 to rehire a police sergeant who was fired after an internal investigation found he'd used excessive force by kicking a suspect high on drugs while the man was being restrained by several other officers. The public was never told the name of the police sergeant or about the incident in Spokane's West Central neighborhood late at night on Jan. 24, 2004.

A suspect who made jailhouse claims of ties to al-Qaida is in custody but not yet charged after allegedly boasting of plans to blow up a Department of Social and Health Services building. The 18-year-old suspect, Anthony Garver, also told fellow inmates at the Spokane County Jail that he intended to detonate a bomb at the upcoming Pig Out in the Park in Riverfront Park and set off a secondary device when police and firefighters arrived, authorities said Wednesday.

Human bones – apparently those of a child – have been recovered from a recently burned field south of Ritzville, not far from U.S. Highway 395, the Adams County sheriff confirmed late Monday. The bones were recovered in an area where authorities previously have conducted extensive separate searches for 11-year-old Cody Haynes and 5-year-old Sofia L. Juarez.

A federal grand jury on Tuesday indicted a convicted sex offender on three counts accusing him of using the Internet to violate federal child pornography laws while he lived with a Spokane police officer. Thomas A. Herman, who has been in jail since July 25, was indicted on one count of receipt of child pornography, advertising child pornography and a third count of possession of child porn.

A schoolteacher from Iowa says he was severely bitten six weeks ago in a remote area of Mount Spokane after his dog encountered two other dogs owned by a deputy prosecuting attorney, who walked away without summoning medical help. "I was bleeding, I was in shock and I thought I might die," 57-year-old Dennis L. Ferguson said Thursday, describing the attack he experienced in a wooded area about three miles from the Snowblaze condominiums, where he spent the summer.

A Spokane police officer, who had a convicted sex offender living in his basement, is now under investigation by his own department, Deputy Chief Al Odenthal confirmed Wednesday. There also are companion investigations under way by state Child Protective Services caseworkers and the FBI into the relationship between Police Cpl. David Freitag and registered sex offender Thomas A. Herman, who now is accused in a child pornography case.

A $1 million claim for "wrongful conduct" was filed Friday against Spokane's Fire and Police departments by attorneys representing the 16-year-old girl who now contends she was raped by an on-duty firefighter. Digital pictures firefighter Daniel W. Ross took of the partially naked girl during their firehouse encounter in February were deleted from his camera at the direction of two police detectives. One detective received a two-day suspension without pay; the other was suspended for three days.The detectives ordered deletion of the digital pictures because the photos would have proven Ross had committed a crime by raping the teenager, attorneys Scott Miller and Greg Devlin said in the claim.

Acting Spokane Police Chief Jim Nicks acknowledged Thursday that he gave inaccurate information while trying to defend his officers' actions during a fatal struggle with Otto Zehm, the mentally disabled janitor beaten and hogtied by police four months ago.

Four finalists who want to be Spokane's next police chief currently work at departments where civilian oversight is either defunct, under challenge or doesn't exist at all. All four candidates come from departments that do, however, pay substantial attention to concerns of the minority, gay and disadvantaged communities.

There is insufficient evidence to charge a Spokane firefighter who had sex with a 16-year-old girl or seek destruction of evidence counts against two police detectives responsible for deleting photos of the firehouse sexual encounter, the county and city prosecutors announced Thursday. Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said pursuing criminal charges against former city firefighter Daniel Ross would be a waste of taxpayers' money because police couldn't locate the photos.

A Superior Court judge refused a request from Spokane County to dismiss a lawsuit brought by men who allege they were sexually abused more than two decades ago by former sheriff's Deputy David Hahn. Judge Neal Rielly, however, did dismiss two of the four plaintiffs from the suit, agreeing the county couldn't have known about Hahn's abusive behavior when they were sexually abused.

Just hours after a 20-year-old homicide victim was buried Wednesday on the Spokane Indian Reservation, authorities arraigned a 23-year-old suspect in U.S. District Court in Spokane on a federal murder charge. Joey Jake Moses was arrested by FBI and Bureau and Indian Affairs agents Tuesday evening in connection with the shooting death of Gary R. Flett Jr., authorities said.

SANDPOINT – Heavy rain and another small landslide prevented a structural engineer Saturday from inspecting the interior of the 24-unit Red Cricket condominium complex, partially buried Wednesday in a massive earth slide. The engineer, Mark Aden, of DCI Engineers of Spokane, was hired to inspect the building by the attorney representing the condominium owners, said Schweitzer Fire District Chief Spencer Newton.

Jury deliberations are scheduled to resume today in the Superior Court trial of Spokane businessman Arlin Jordin, accused of second-degree rape and indecent liberties. The jury of four men and eight women got the case Wednesday after closing arguments by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Love and defense attorney Bevan Maxey.