John Craig

(From For the Record, September 26, 1996): Nikolay Senchenko was convicted of transporting wildlife with the intent to sell, but during his federal court trial, witnesses did not directly testify that he had sold bear parts. A story on Tuesday indicated otherwise.

Incumbent Stevens County Commissioners Fran Bessermin and Fred Lotze turned back challengers in the Republican primaries for their districts. Unofficial results from Tuesday's election show Suncrest resident Bessermin defeating Tony Delgado of Loon Lake 818 votes to 627. Lotze, who was appointed last spring, easily fended off former Commissioner John Hodde 1,710 to 877 in the race to represent Colville and the northern part of the county. Lotze will face little-known Democrat Jeff Johnston in the Nov. 5 general election. Johnston drew 445 votes in his uncontested primary. Bessermin faces a tougher fight in November. M. Grant McMullen of Suncrest made a strong showing in his uncontested Democratic primary. With 581 votes, he had 28.7 percent of the overall vote, compared with 40.4 percent for Bessermin and 31 percent for Delgado.

A Ukrainian immigrant was convicted Tuesday of 12 more charges related to illegal bear hunting in Pend Oreille County. Nikolay Senchenko, 46, already had been convicted in federal court and sentenced to three months in jail for illegal trafficking in animal parts. He remained free pending appeal of his federal conviction in April. As in the federal trial, Senchenko, who immigrated from the Ukraine in 1989 and speaks broken English, represented himself with the help of an interpreter. He made little use of his "standby" court-appointed attorney. A Pend Oreille County District Court jury of four women and two men heard two weeks of testimony and deliberated about five hours Monday and Tuesday before convicting Senchenko as charged. The charges included hunting out of season, exceeding the limit, using illegal snares and lacking a bear tag.

Stevens County Commissioner J.D. Anderson, a far-right constitutionalist, wasn't at a candidates forum here, but he was on people's minds. A written question from the audience of 140 at Colville High School on Thursday night asked whether candidates for two other commissioner positions support Anderson's proposal to have the county sue the state or federal governments over land-use policies. Answers from the six candidates ranged from hedging to disdain.

(From For the Record, September 14, 1996): A Friday story about a lawsuit against the Pend Oreille County clerk incorrectly identified Spokane County Superior Court Judge Paul Bastine.

Stevens County's North Country Faire will dish up a mellowed version of the '60s today, Saturday and Sunday. The peace-and-love generation may have mortgages and grandchildren, but fair organizers say they haven't lost their ideals. They promise to put counterculture's best foot forward with a noncommercial fair that bans war toys, military hardware, junk food and electrical generators.

Seven candidates are scrapping over two Ferry County commissioner's positions. Republicans Lorna Johnson and Dennis Snook and Democrats Chris Kroupa and Ed Watt want to represent the county's northern district. In the county's southern district, most of which is within the Colville Indian Reservation, incumbent Gary Kohler and fellow Democrat Jerry Sullivan are competing for the right to face Republican David Schumacher in November.

Incumbent Republican Pend Oreille County Commissioner Mike Hanson has two Democrats breathing down his neck. Sandi Lewis and Al Earl will compete in the Sept. 17 Democratic primary for the right to challenge Hanson in the November general election.

Two Republicans and a Democrat want to replace 7th District state Rep. Steve Fuhrman when he steps down at the end of the year. Republicans Penny Rosenberg of Grand Coulee and Bob Sump of Republic will compete in the Sept. 17 primary for the right to battle Democrat Kurt Matter in November.

Incumbent Stevens County commissioners Fran Bessermin and Fred Lotze face challengers in Tuesday's Republican primaries in the county's northern and southern districts. The district winners will meet Democrats Jeff Johnston and M. Grant McMullen in the countywide November general election. Johnston and McMullen have no primary opposition.

Lovelace

Lincoln County businesswoman Penny Rosenberg has some important support in the race to replace 7th District state Rep. Steve Fuhrman, but Ferry County mechanic Bob Sump has some important money. Sump and Rosenberg, making their first bids for elected office, are competing for the Republican nomination in the Sept. 17 primary. The winner will face Stevens County heavy equipment operator Kurt Matter in the Nov. 5 general election.

Three candidates want a half-time Stevens County District Court judgeship with more work than a full-time judge is supposed to be able to handle. Based on statewide averages, the Washington Court Administrator's Office said the Stevens County District Court workload justified 1.2 judges in 1995.

Criminal charges against bankrupt L-Bar Products Inc. of Chewelah may be dismissed because they weren't brought to trial soon enough - and unpaid employees may benefit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Harrington concedes in court documents that criminal charges against the defunct magnesium-waste recycling company weren't brought to trial within the required 70 days.

Newport attorney Doug Lambarth is being reprimanded by the Washington State Bar Association for mishandling a debt-collection case. Lambarth, 54, will be summoned before Bar Association directors for a public rebuke as soon as the reprimand text is completed, said Barrie Althoff, the association's chief disciplinary officer.

The grandson of former Springdale mayor and councilman Ray Turner was charged Thursday with burning down the town hall this summer. James S. Clark, 15, was charged in Stevens County Juvenile Court with second-degree arson and second-degree burglary.

Two veteran attorneys want to replace Fred Stewart, who will retire in January as a Superior Court judge for Stevens, Pend Oreille and Ferry counties. Both Rebecca Baker, of Republic, and Andy Braff, of Colville, are 47 and already have some judicial experience.

The county commissioner's position being vacated by Democrat Ed Windsor in northern Ferry County has the most crowded primary field of any commissioner's race in rural northeastern Washington. Republicans Lorna Johnson and Dennis Snook and Democrats Chris Kroupa and Ed Watt want to represent the district, which extends south from the Canadian border to a line about a half-dozen miles north of Republic. In the county's southern district, incumbent Democrat Gary Kohler and fellow Inchelium-area resident Jerry Sullivan are competing for the right to face Republican David Schumacher in November. Johnson, 39, came to the Curlew area in 1975 after graduating from high school in Seattle. She has been a Republican precinct officer for three years and is the party's Ferry County secretary, a state committeewoman and vice chairman of the 7th District Republican organization.

A 33-year-old Deer Park man was sentenced to 18 years in prison Friday for kidnapping, beating and raping a 17-year-old girl before leaving her on a snowbank - apparently unconscious - in the woods near Loon Lake. Stevens County Superior Court Judge Larry Kristianson said he is convinced David R. Craig is a "predator" who was "leaving her to die." Court records show Craig got a year in jail for raping a drunken woman in 1987 in Spokane County. A presentence report says he is suspected in two other rapes, but the victims declined to testify. The 17-year-old Mead victim told authorities she feigned unconsciousness to escape Craig. Defense attorney Charles Burns said he thinks Craig knew she was conscious when he carried her into the woods, but Craig continued to insist he never attacked her. Unremorseful, Craig called the victim a liar who convinced him to give her a ride to a party at Loon Lake by claiming she desperately needed to get home. Earlier, he told authorities the teen offered him sex for the ride, and he forced her out of his car at Loon Lake when she couldn't find the house where she wanted to go. "I am sorry I tried to be a helpful person," Craig told Kristianson. A jury saw pictures of the teen's battered face and convicted Craig in June of firstdegree kidnapping, second-degree rape and second-degree assault as charged. Kristianson recalled that Craig took the stand and called himself "a people person," opening the door for the jury to hear his criminal history. In addition to the thirddegree rape in 1987, Craig was convicted of first-degree trespass in 1983. "A people person is someone who cares about his fellow citizens," Kristianson said. "No, sir, you are something else. ... You're a predator." Authorities say Craig approached the teen Jan. 7 at a north Spokane gasoline convenience store and offered to help her find a ride to Loon Lake to visit her boyfriend. Craig wound up giving her the ride himself after taking her to the nearby Diamond Bowl bowling alley and introducing her to some of his friends. When she refused to kiss him or date him, Craig drove her to a secluded area near Loon Lake and dragged her out of his car, the victim testified. She said he threw her on the ground and struck her three times in the face to stop her from screaming. The victim said Craig raped her after she pretended to pass out so he would stop beating her. Kristianson gave Craig more than twice the standard maximum sentence of 8 years because the victim was "particularly vulnerable" when Craig abandoned her in the middle of the night. It was raining, 37 degrees and "pitch black," Kristianson said. The victim was among some 40 people in the courtroom for Craig's sentencing. She didn't speak, but Prosecutor Jerry Wetle cited a letter in which she said the rape made her fearful of men. "I don't like what I've become," Wetle quoted her as saying. Her father and sister urged Kristianson to impose the maximum possible sentence.

Pend Oreille County and Ponderay Newsprint officials settled their 3-year-old tax dispute this week only to have a vexing new question pop up. The Cusick School District was in the middle of a two-year, $365,010-a-year levy when Ponderay Newsprint stopped paying 51 percent of its property taxes in 1994. Now the company must pay a substantial portion - $3.9 million - of the money it withheld from the school district and other government agencies.

Newport attorney Dennis Scott seldom misses an opportunity to tweak the noses of public officials who cross paths with his clients. But the tables were turned last week when one of Scott's flamboyant legal tactics backfired and a Newport police officer cited him for driving with a suspended license. Scott's license was suspended because he missed court dates while challenging a ticket for running a stop sign in Spokane, where he lives.

A pair of Democrats are vying to replace incumbent Pend Oreille County Commissioner Mike Hanson. Democrats Sandi Lewis and Al Earl will compete in the Sept. 17 primary for the right to challenge Hanson in the November general election.

Two incumbent Stevens County commissioners face challengers in next month's Republican primaries in the county's northern and southern districts. The district winners will meet Democrats Jeff Johnston and M. Grant McMullen in the countywide November general election. Johnston and McMullen have no primary opposition. One of the biggest questions in the primary races is the commissioner who's not up for election: J.D. Anderson, a far-right constitutionalist who represents the county's middle district.

Police say one or more teenagers may have been responsible for the apparent arson that destroyed the Springdale Town Hall July 1. Stevens County Sheriff Craig Thayer said an investigation is focusing on "a person of interest who is a juvenile." He and town Marshal Bob Lind declined to identify the suspect.