John Craig

Pend Oreille County authorities will retain control of 205 allegedly abused dogs seized last month from a Newport-area kennel. Under an agreement prosecutors and defense attorneys worked out Friday, the dogs may be placed in "foster care." They may not be given to new owners unless the current owners, Jeanette and Swen Bergman, are found guilty of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges at their May 12 trial.

The Kalispel Tribe's proposed casino at Airway Heights has another obstacle: Spokane Raceway Park President Orville Moe. Moe said the tribe needs to get Spokane Raceway Park's approval for the casino under a joint-venture agreement between the racetrack corporation and the tribe. Tribal Planning Manager David Bonga said the tribe views the agreement as outdated and irrelevant. "As far as the tribe is concerned, it is dissolved," Bonga said. "The final wrap-up, I guess you would say, hasn't been reached." The joint-venture agreement was drawn up about four years ago, before a casino was planned. At that time, the parties envisioned a bingo hall and an automotive trade show building next to the track. Spokane Raceway Park sold 40 acres to the joint-venture company, which transferred it to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BIA subsequently designated the land as part of the Kalispel Reservation, most of which is 60 miles away in Pend Oreille County. Bonga said the tribe decided to pursue a casino after a more conservative Congress was elected in 1993 and federal funding began to dry up for the social service center the tribe also planned to build on the property. "At that point," Moe said, "they just said, 'We don't need you,' but it takes a little bit more than that in the real world to dissolve a partnership." While Moe declined to say what he wants to settle the matter, he said Spokane Raceway Park spent more than $1 million on surveys and other work to develop the property. Bonga said Moe "has felt that he is entitled to 49 percent of anything that goes on the property," including casino revenues. That's the share spelled out in the joint-venture agreement. Moe said federal law wouldn't allow his company to share in the casino profits, so "if they want to put Indian gaming in, then we need to work out something that's agreeable." He suggested the transfer of the land to the BIA may be invalid if the agreement is thrown out. But Bonga said tribal and federal attorneys say the agreement imposes restrictions on use of the land and doesn't affect the transfer. "I have no idea what would happen if we get into a legal argument over it," Moe said, "but I don't ever see it going that far." He said he wouldn't rule out the possibility of reviving the original development plans if the casino falls through. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt is reviewing the casino proposal. If he determines that it is in the tribe's best interest and would not harm neighbors, Washington Gov. Gary Locke would have to give his blessing before the tribe could begin negotiating a regulatory agreement with the state Gambling Commission.

Joseph A. "Critter" Rowe, 44, turned himself in Tuesday on a charge that he murdered another Tonasket, Wash., man last year while shooting a cow. Rowe was charged last month with first-degree murder, five months after he allegedly killed Jack "Junior" Sherwood, 28, with two blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun.

1. Nick Thresher, five years after a bone marrow transplant, takes a break during a science test at Fort Colville Middle School where he is a fifth-grader. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review 2. Nick plays with Fiesta in his Colville home. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review

Authorities say two men who tried to kill James L. Peterson on Saturday decided it was "divine intervention" when their gun misfired - so they tried killing him with bacon instead. The suspects - Tracy S. Walter, 34, and Randy G. Thomas, 35 - stretched Peterson across the ground with his feet tied to one tree, his hands to another.

A two-year operating levy in Pend Oreille County's Newport School District was apparently defeated Tuesday, drawing the support of only 54.5 percent of voters. The unofficial tally Tuesday night was 785-655. But about 100 computerized ballots will have to be counted later by hand because they were filled out with pens instead of pencils, and 444 absentee and mail-in ballots hadn't been returned.

Another hearing will be needed before Pend Oreille County District Court Judge Chuck Baechler decides what to do with 205 dogs seized last month from an allegedly abusive kennel. Baechler on Monday rejected a legal argument that could have prevented authorities from adopting out the dogs taken last month from Jeanette and Swen Bergman. Contrary to assertions by the Bergmans' attorneys, Baechler ruled the dogs are no longer evidence.

Public records show an Oldtown, Idaho, veterinarian helped Jeanette and Swen Bergman ship dogs all over the United States before animal-cruelty charges were filed against the couple.

Sven and Jeanette Bergman will get back $20,000 in cash that Pend Oreille County authorities seized earlier this month along with scores of allegedly abused dogs. District Court Judge Chuck Baechler ordered return of the cash and some other items Wednesday, but said he will wait until Monday to rule on the Bergmans' request for the return of 205 dogs, four horses and two cows.

1. Sven Bergman 2. Jeanette Bergman

Bittersweet reunion. Mary Spang slips a treat to a mastiff she calls Hyacinth at SpokAnimal. She is trying to get possession of the dog that was stolen from her yard and ended up at the Newport puppy mill that was raided earlier this month. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

Students were in make-shift classrooms all over town Tuesday after part of the Colville Junior High School library roof collapsed Sunday. No one was in the building when the roof fell, shortly before a volunteer entered the building about 2 p.m. and noticed minor flooding from a broken pipe.

The first agreement in years between Pend Oreille County's two Superior Court judges is causing a stir among the county's lawyers. The county bar association was preparing a letter last week to protest a reduction in the number of days in which defendants are arraigned and lawyers may present motions in criminal and civil cases.

Gail Mackie of SpokAnimal C.A.R.E. hugs mastiff taken from Mountain Top Kennel. Photo by Sandra Bancroft-Billings/The Spokesman-Review

Paul Bash got his 1977 Ford pickup truck back from the Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Department - again - Thursday. It cost him only $395 this time. In 1993, when Bash was convicted of growing marijuana, he had to buy the truck back at a sheriff's auction for $500. Bash, 45, wasn't charged when deputies raided his Cusick-area home again last June and found 30 pounds of marijuana. The prosecutor's office, citing a state appellate decision, determined the search was invalid because officers ignored a locked gate and a "No trespassing" sign to get the information that convinced a judge to issue a search warrant.

A Colville area man whose 1990 first-degree manslaughter conviction was overturned because of ambigious language in an instruction to the jury has pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter. Victor A. LeFaber was sentenced to a year in prison under a plea bargain this week which spared him another trial.

Pend Oreille County officials were shaking their heads Tuesday at an avalanche of phone calls from people who seem to care more about animals than humans. Deputy Prosecutor Tony Koures has gotten far more calls about his case against two alleged dog abusers than last year's case involving an 11-year-old boy who was so brutalized by his parents he lost use of his left hand.

A Pend Oreille County couple accused of keeping 220 dogs in deplorable conditions and cheating dog buyers out of thousands of dollars were released from jail Monday without bail. Sven and Jeanette Bergman emerged from jail with their heads hidden behind their coats. They declined to talk to reporters.

Pend Oreille County commissioners are planning a new building to replace one they sold in hopes of bringing new jobs to the county. The county Mental Health Department will have to move out of the former Key Tronic building in Newport in April. The new owner, Northwest Composites of Marysville, Wash., will start remodeling the building then to accommodate one of its manufacturing operations.

Muddy and washed-out roads are causing problems for school buses in some of the rural districts around Spokane. Most problems were concentrated in southern Spokane County and Whitman County.

Construction will begin later this month on the Martin Hall regional juvenile detention center at far less cost than anticipated. A consortium of nine Eastern Washington counties was pleasantly surprised two weeks ago when the lowest of nine bids came in about $480,000 less than architects predicted.

Stevens and Pend Oreille counties escaped Hulk Hogan-style budgetary choke holds with fewer bruises than might have been expected. Pend Oreille County commissioners adopted a $5 million 1997 current expense budget Tuesday that avoids layoffs despite major revenue losses.

Pend Oreille County commissioners upheld a shoreline permit Monday that will allow public boat access to Bead Lake. About 85 percent of the shoreline of the 720-acre lake nine miles north of Newport is publicly owned, but the only public access is by hiking.

Jack Henderson, the longtime Newport city administrator who has outlasted almost all of his regional counterparts, will retire next week. Photo by John Craig/The Spokesman-Review