Bill Morlin

An East Wenatchee chiropractor and tax protester who has been locked in a lengthy battle with the Internal Revenue Service was arrested Tuesday on four counts of income tax evasion. Biffer A. Wellendorf was released without bond after an appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno. Wellendorf, 49, is named in a four-count indictment accusing him of four counts of willful failure to file his federal income tax returns. The indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Spokane.

A professional home appraiser in Spokane who delivered inflated appraisals of houses purchased by vulnerable buyers faces 18 months in federal prison and $287,796 in restitution. John T. Hansen, who owned J. Hansen Appraisals Inc., was the last of five conspirators sentenced in the Century Mortgage fraud investigation.

A commercial pilot who lied on his annual Federal Aviation Administration license renewal for four consecutive years must complete 45 days of work release after being found guilty of making false statements to a government agency. Clifton Ray Dyer, of Kennewick, could have faced up to six months in jail after pleading guilty to four counts of making false statements.

A medical doctor from Colville betrayed society's trust when he involved his patients in a scheme to fraudulently obtain prescription pain medications to fuel his personal addiction, a federal judge said Wednesday. "The involvement of your patients in this was a terrible thing," U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley told Dr. James R. Alderson before sentencing him to 21 months in prison – the maximum under sentencing guidelines.

The daughter of embattled Spokane Raceway Park operator Orville Moe testified Thursday she bought back shares in the drag strip from investors for only a fraction of their purchase prices. Susan M. Ross was called as a plaintiff's witness in an ongoing court battle where limited partner investors are seeking court-appointment of a receiver to take over financial operations at the drag strip and oval track on a square-mile of land in Airway Heights.

A Coeur d'Alene man charged with sexual abuse of a child lighted a barbecue in his company sales van and died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but authorities said Thursday they are unsure if his death was a suicide or accidental. The death last week of Kerry G. Malmberg, 48, will be listed as "undetermined," said Grant County Coroner Jerry Jasman.

The operator of Spokane Raceway Park testified Tuesday that he can't explain a $182,500 "consulting fee" he claimed as a business expense to neutralize his tax liability on a 2002 federal income tax return. Orville Moe also couldn't answer why limited partners who invested in the Airway Heights drag strip were told they are responsible for a $1.4 million note, while Moe told the IRS on tax returns that the receivable amount is $760,515.

After secretly listening to telephone conversations for months, a drug task force arrested 26 suspects accused of being part of a crime ring that distributed huge quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine in the Inland Northwest, authorities said Friday. The investigation was dubbed "Operation Replacements" because, at the outset, every time midlevel participants got arrested they were immediately replaced, and the drug ring operations continued, said Rodney G. Benson, regional boss of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

A former legislative candidate was taken into custody Wednesday in a federal courtroom in Spokane after he fired his defense attorney at the outset of a sentencing hearing for Internet fraud. Travis J. Sneed was ordered held in jail and his sentencing postponed indefinitely after Assistant U.S. Attorney Aine Ahmed told the court Sneed continues to victimize potential customers.

A neo-Nazi felon formerly from North Idaho was arrested Tuesday by federal agents in Seattle on charges of possessing and selling machine guns to an undercover informant working with a terrorism task force. Keith D. Gilbert, formerly of Post Falls, was ordered held in jail without bond until a detention hearing is held on Friday in U.S. District Court.

A federal drug agent told a Spokane jury Tuesday that he feared for his life a year ago when he fired a single bullet into the windshield of a suspected drug dealer's fleeing sports utility vehicle. The driver, John A. Grace, was wounded in the face, but sped off in a late-model Mitsubishi, leading undercover DEA agents on a high-speed chase that ended with the collision of four vehicles at First Avenue and Cedar Street.

A state charge of intimidating a witness has been filed against a Spokane Valley man accused of threatening a key witness in two pending federal criminal cases. Frank E. Ward, who's also known as Alex Michaels, was arrested after the federal witness told sheriff's deputies he was threatened last month while playing poker at Ringo's Casino, 11420 E. Sprague Ave., in Spokane Valley, court documents say.

Former securities broker Barbara Sue Edgemon, who played a subordinate role in a $1.5 million Spokane-based investment fraud scheme, avoided federal prison but will be confined for a year under a sentence handed down Monday. The 34-year-old woman must serve six months at Turner House, a community corrections facility in north Spokane, to be followed by six months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Frem Nielsen said.

The families of most murder victims don't get the treatment a Spokane couple received last week in a Seattle courtroom at the conclusion of a 26-year-old cold case. Just minutes after a jury had found William Bergen Greene guilty of first-degree murder, the 12-member panel sent a bailiff out to scour the courthouse hallways to find Sam and Joan Durante.

A former securities broker, who is assisting the FBI in its criminal investigation of Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities Co., was sentenced Friday to 30 months in prison for his organizing role in an unrelated $1.5 million investment fraud. Lee Douglas Tusberg got entangled in the fraud scheme involving his own company, Trans-Link Research and Development Group, after leaving Metropolitan in 1995.

The chief executive officer of the Coeur d'Alene Casino on Thursday again urged the New York Racing Association to reinstate that state's simulcast signals used for off-track betting. The signal to the Coeur d'Alene Casino and nine other off-track sites was unplugged Tuesday by the New York horse-racing governing body after a criminal indictment was returned.

A Spokane emergency medical technician who wants to be a police officer is out of jail after being arrested by the FBI on child pornography criminal charges. Christopher J. Twelves was released without bond, with strict conditions, after an initial appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno.

Premier New York off-track betting at the Coeur d'Alene Casino ended Tuesday following intervention by that state's racing association, acting on a criminal indictment targeting organized crime figures. The New York Racing Association ended betting and broadcasting arrangements with 10 off-track outlets, including the Coeur d'Alene Casino, after the indictment alleged such locations were being used for high-volume betting by associates of the Gambino organized crime family.