Bill Morlin

A former U.S. Border Patrol employee was sentenced to four months of confinement Tuesday for using his work computer to plan a sexual rendezvous with a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet who really was a Spokane Police Department detective. Rick A. LeVa, who lives in Florida, faced the possibility of several years in prison but was given credit by Senior U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush for post-arrest rehabilitation under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Quackenbush also said LeVa's behavior met the guidelines' definition of "aberrant," meaning it was unusual for him.

The co-owner of a downtown Spokane nightclub will spend 12½ years in federal prison for being an organizer and leader of a conspiracy to import $6 million worth of marijuana into the United States from Canada. Corey S. Leavell used some of his drug profits to buy a 51 percent ownership in the Pub Club at 415 W. Sprague Ave. and start a hydro-seeding business.

A former police officer faces a three-count federal indictment accusing him of setting the April 7 fire that heavily damaged a Spokane Valley nightclub. Kelly L. Falcon, who previously worked as a police officer for the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene police departments, allegedly started the fire to collect insurance on his failing Wild Horse Saloon, the indictment alleges.

Three North Idaho residents and two men from Western Washington are accused of money laundering and conspiring to traffic in contraband cigarettes in a federal indictment returned by a grand jury in Yakima. The federal charges, carrying lengthy possible prison terms, are the outgrowth of an 18-month investigation into the shipments of millions of dollars in untaxed cigarettes to various locations on Washington state Indian reservations, authorities said Thursday.

A medical doctor from Colville pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Spokane to nine counts of acquiring prescription medicines by fraud, misrepresentation, deception and subterfuge. Dr. James R. Alderson, a 52-year-old podiatrist, confessed to writing prescriptions to various patients who were instructed to fill the orders and return the drugs to him.

HAYDEN, Idaho – Fellow racists, friends and family members gathered Saturday at a funeral home in this North Idaho community to pay their final respects to the late Richard G. Butler who died Wednesday of heart disease. The body of the founder of the Aryan Nations lay in state for 90 minutes in Yates Funeral Home on Hayden Avenue, just a few miles south of Butler's former 20-acre compound that became a gathering spot for racists throughout the United States.

Two men arrested at a Spokane Valley RV dealership and accused of possessing an expensive stolen motor home are now being tied to the alleged theft and sale of two other expensive coaches. The three motor homes – reported stolen in Florida and Louisiana – are worth a combined total of $702,000, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

A former accounts-payable officer for a downtown Spokane real estate investment company is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court today to face eight counts of bank fraud. Valerie M. Hughes, 26, is accused of forging signatures on checks and filing false vouchers and pay advances while employed at Pacific Security Financial Inc.

A former candidate for the state Legislature was arraigned Monday in U.S. District Court in Spokane on three additional counts of wire fraud related to online sales of electronic equipment. Travis Justin Sneed now faces 11 counts of wire fraud alleging he defrauded customers throughout the United States of more than $125,000.

The federal trial of a Spokane couple accused of possessing stolen top-secret military documents was postponed again Wednesday at the request of defense attorneys. Rafael Davila, a former Washington Army National Guard intelligence officer, and his ex-wife, Deborah Cummings, now are scheduled to stand trial Feb. 7.

A group of angry investors who bought more than $2 million in stock in Spokane Raceway Park in the 1970s filed an amended suit Tuesday, naming general partner Orville Moe and his wife as defendants. The filing of the modified suit is the latest development in a year-old legal battle challenging Moe's financial control over the drag strip and oval track facility on a square mile of land in Airway Heights, west of Spokane.

A convicted sex offender from Tennessee sent live "streaming video" over the Internet as he raped an 8-year-old boy in an East Spokane apartment, a federal prosecutor said in court Tuesday. Agents who arrested Timothy S. Oakes in late July are now looking for two other out-of-state men, one of whom traveled to Spokane to engage in sex acts with the suspect and the same child, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aine Ahmed said.

Workers soon to be laid off at an auto plant in Indiana have spent at least $42,000 in educational retraining money by buying worthless advanced degrees from a "diploma mill" based in Spokane, an Indiana official says. The details are contained in a letter from the state of Indiana's Commission on Proprietary Education to Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

A convicted sex offender from Tennessee is under federal arrest in Spokane, accused of raping an 8-year-old boy, filming the encounter and distributing the child porn over the Internet. If convicted, Timothy S. Oakes faces a minimum of 25 years in prison because of his prior conviction in Tennessee, Assistant U.S. Attorney Aine Ahmed said at a court hearing Thursday.

What does it take to meet the legal definition of an American Indian? Is it simple enrollment in a federally recognized tribe? Does the question turn on cultural traditions – sweet grass, tribal drums, stick games, powwows and sweat lodges?

A letter posted on the Aryan Nations Web site Friday listed the names of 10 prominent Washington state Democrats, accusing them of being aligned with a "domestic terrorism task force" to eliminate the leadership of the North Idaho white supremacy group. Senior law enforcement officials discounted the letter as being bogus, but there was concern because the list of names included home addresses for at least four of the prominent Democrats.