Bill Morlin

The public has no constitutional right to see the results of a mental evaluation of killer Joseph Duncan, a federal judge in Boise ruled Thursday. Duncan's right to a fair trial outweighs the public's right under the First Amendment, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge ruled before sealing the results.

An expanded federal investigation is expected to begin this week into three fully assembled and potentially lethal pipe bombs found Friday in a Coeur d'Alene home's garage, authorities say. One suspect, Hoss Dillon, 25, remained in jail Saturday on federal charges accusing him of counterfeiting and possession of explosive devices.

Should the public be given the names of businesses and individuals who competed against Spokane County to buy parcels at Spokane Raceway Park at a court-ordered auction this month? Eighteen parties joined Spokane County commissioners in bidding on 13 racetrack parcels, but their names are being kept secret by court-appointed receiver Barry W. Davidson.

A man accused of hiding in a Spokane Valley sporting goods store after it closed last month and then stealing 14 handguns has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Spokane. Patrick Thomas Boam, 34, faces charges of stealing firearms from a federally licensed dealer, possession of a stolen firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm, authorities said Wednesday.

The public should be able to "observe all matters" considered by a U.S. District Court jury that will decide if confessed killer Joseph Duncan should face the federal death penalty, 16 media and open-government organizations argued in a legal brief filed Tuesday. The organizations, including The Spokesman-Review and three Spokane television stations, urged U.S. District Court Judge Edward Lodge to keep his Boise courtroom open if kidnap victim Shasta Groene is called to testify or if the jury is shown a graphic videotape Duncan made as he tortured and killed her brother.

Joey Jake Moses, one of two men involved in a 2006 home-invasion murder on the Spokane Indian Reservation, was sentenced Thursday to 35 years in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Shea. The 24-year-old confessed murderer received the long sentence even though Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Kimball urged the court to only impose a 20-year term because Moses had agreed to be a government witness against Norman "Griz" Ford, 31, of Wellpinit, Wash.

Spokane attorney Amos Hunter faces paying $58,624 in legal bills because he filed a state court lawsuit on behalf of a client previously convicted of arson in federal court. Hunter filed the state court lawsuit in April 2006, representing Kelly Falcon, who had been convicted by a U.S. District Court jury the previous September of burning down the Wild Horse Saloon, a Spokane Valley bar he operated.

A Spokane man is one of a dozen suspects arrested as part of a "highly sophisticated and well-organized" nationwide ring that distributed child pornography on the Internet using encrypted files, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Warren King Mumpower was arrested Friday by FBI agents who searched his home at 1429 E. Courtland and seized computer equipment, authorities said.

A federal task force that's three years into investigating a Spokane-based diploma mill ring filed new charges this week against a man who is accused of running a copycat online university after working for Dixie Randock. Richard H. Cleigh is scheduled to appear today before Senior U.S. District Court Judge Frem Nielsen after being charged with one count of wire fraud and a second count of mail fraud.

Otto Zehm died two years ago Thursday, after a series of events that started at a cash machine outside a bank in north Spokane.

A convicted swindler who is a key player in a $50 million nationwide investment scam has been selling "reverse mortgages" to senior citizens in the Spokane area while he awaits a date to report to prison. Michael Duane Smith has worked as a "reverse mortgage planner" for Golf Savings, a subsidiary of Spokane-based Sterling Savings, according to a brochure touting the loans, which are geared toward older homeowners. "He no longer works here," Sterling spokeswoman Jennifer Lutz said Tuesday. She and other senior officials with Sterling and Golf declined to answer other questions, including why a felon would be working for a lending institution.

Super-salesman Michael Duane Smith sits alone in his nondescript house in northeast Spokane, an electronic monitoring bracelet around his ankle, wondering when he will appear before a federal judge in Denver. If federal prosecutors get their way in the next few weeks, the judge will sentence Smith to 15 years in prison for his role in a high-yield investment scheme. The fraud led to the loss of more than $50 million by 1,000 investors in this region and elsewhere in the United States.

A body linked to a 66-year-old World War II mystery has been identified as that of an airman from Ohio, his family confirmed Tuesday. Ernest "Glenn" Munn was 23 when he died in a military plane crash on the Mendel Glacier near the 13,830-foot summit of Mount Darwin in California's rugged Sierra Nevada mountains.

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a higher-education reauthorization bill that includes language to crack down on so-called diploma mills that sell fraudulent degrees and transcripts. The College Opportunity and Affordability Act includes portions of another anti-diploma mill bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat.

U.S. District Court Judge Lonny Suko on Friday authorized a team of defense attorneys and investigators to travel from Spokane to Africa at taxpayer expense to take sworn statements from Liberian officials in preparation for a forthcoming diploma mill trial. The ruling means Justice Department prosecutors and their investigators also will travel to Liberia to be present for the depositions, probably sometime this spring.

A federal judge in Spokane heard arguments Tuesday over whether to send a team of defense attorneys, prosecutors and investigators to Africa at taxpayers' expense as part of the upcoming criminal trial of the accused operators of a diploma mill. Defense attorneys for Dixie and Steve Randock want to take sworn statements from top-ranking Liberian officials, including a former ambassador who was videotaped taking cash bribes from a diploma-mill co-conspirator in a Washington, D.C., hotel room.

A federal judge Tuesday agreed to release a Spokane man arrested last week by FBI agents investigating what authorities described as a commercial driver's license mill that involved cheating on tests and bribes. Brano Milovanovic, who operated a commercial driving school called CDL Consulting, isn't a flight risk, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno ruled at a bail hearing.

Washington's Department of Licensing is taking steps to revoke the commercial driver licenses it granted to almost 100 truck and school bus drivers through a Spokane-based operation allegedly involved in a mail fraud conspiracy, Director Liz Luce said Friday. The drivers, mostly from other states, used mail-drop addresses in Spokane, didn't meet state residency requirements and were part of a scheme involving cheating and paying bribes to a third-party test evaluator, U.S. Attorney Jim McDevitt said at a press conference with Luce.

Accused murderer Norman "Griz" Ford Jr. told a federal jury Wednesday he kicked in the door at Gary Flett Jr.'s home but did not fire a 9mm handgun that fatally wounded him on the Spokane Indian Reservation in 2006. The 31-year-old Wellpinit man testified in his own defense on the seventh day of his U.S. District Court trial on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and use of a firearm during a crime of violence.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward Shea on Tuesday rejected a defense motion to dismiss a first-degree murder charge and two companion counts against Norman "Griz" Ford Jr., who is on trial for his role in a June 2006 homicide on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Defense attorney Mark Vovos asked for dismissal of the charges after Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Kimball rested the prosecution's case after five days of testimony from various witnesses.

A former police officer who's now medically disabled told a federal jury Friday that Norman "Griz" Ford Jr. confessed in a living room conversation in North Spokane to killing Gary Flett Jr. in June 2006 on the Spokane Indian Reservation. "He admitted it and told me he was the shooter," witness Jonathan Lubben testified in response to questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Jared Kimball.