Controversy over a proposed deal to rehire a Spokane police sergeant after he was fired for an off-duty drunken driving collision has focused attention on an often-misunderstood state agency involved in the settlement negotiations – the Washington Human Rights Commission. The deal called for the city of Spokane to rehire fired Sgt. Brad Thoma and purported to be mediated by the Human Rights Commission, based on a claim that the city failed to accommodate the officer’s disability of alcoholism. However, Sharon Ortiz, the commission’s executive director, said she had not signed off on the deal that had been brokered by an investigator in the commission’s Spokane office and that it would need further review.

Two female inmates escaped from the Geiger Corrections Center on Tuesday night, but were captured within an hour by law enforcement officers from several area agencies. Kathleen Stockton, 49, and Rachel A. Banks, 25, escaped the corrections center at about 7:20 p.m. by scaling a security fence, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has identified the pedestrian killed last week when he was struck by a semitrailer truck. Larue Brown, 39, died of head, neck and chest injuries as a result of the Nov. 23 incident at Second Avenue and Thor Street in Spokane, according to a medical examiner’s spokeswoman.