Kevin Graman

Three people were hospitalized at Kootenai Medical Center after a five-vehicle accident on U.S. Highway 95 between Hayden and Athol.

A unanimous jury ruled against plaintiff Kenneth Putnam on Friday, handing victory to Morning Star Boys’ Ranch in the first of 19 sex abuse lawsuits to go to trial. Putnam, who was a resident at the group home for troubled boys in 1988 and ’89, claimed the ranch’s former director, the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner, and now-deceased counselor Doyle Gillum molested him.

Jurors in the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch trial began deliberations Tuesday afternoon after opposing attorneys tried to define the case as all about accountability or all about profit. “This case is about years and years of a gross violation of the public trust that continues today,” said Daniel Fasy, attorney for Kenneth Putnam, who is suing the group home for troubled boys where he was a resident in 1988 and ’89.

Jurors in the Morning Star Boys’ Ranch trial began deliberations Tuesday afternoon after opposing attorneys tried to define the case as all about accountability or all about profit.

Attorneys defending Morning Star Boys’ Ranch rested their case on Monday after bringing the ranch’s accuser, Kenneth Putnam, to the stand in the civil trial’s last day of testimony. Closing arguments are expected today in the first of 19 separate lawsuits filed in Spokane County Superior Court against the Spokane residential facility for troubled boys.

Attorneys defending Morning Star Boys’ Ranch rested their case on Monday after bringing the ranch’s accuser, Kenneth Putnam, to the stand in the civil trial’s last day of testimony.

A former attorney for Morning Star Boys’ Ranch rebutted the testimony of a witness who said the ranch’s former director paid him to keep quiet about alleged abuse in the late 1970s. Matthew Daley testified Tuesday that he never discussed the alleged payoff with a potential witness he interviewed in 2005 while working for Keefe, King and Bowman, a now-defunct Spokane law firm that once represented the home for troubled boys.

A former attorney for Morning Star Boys' Ranch rebutted the testimony of a witness who said the ranch’s former director paid him to keep quiet about alleged abuse in the late 1970s.

The number of suicides among veterans in the Spokane region dropped dramatically last year, according to newly released records. In response to a Spokesman-Review request for information, the Spokane Veterans Affairs Medical Center reported nine suicides from July 2008 to July 2009, including three veterans who had contact with the medical center.

A former resident of Morning Star Boys’ Ranch testified Monday that Kenneth Putnam was motivated by financial gain in suing the ranch for alleged abuse. Spokane County Superior Court jurors heard from four former residents of the group home for troubled boys. All said they had never seen any inappropriate behavior by then-director the Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner or counselor Doyle Gillum, now deceased.

A former resident of Morning Star Boys' Ranch testified Monday that Kenneth Putnam was motivated by financial gain in suing the ranch for alleged abuse.

A former Morning Star Boys’ Ranch employee and close friend of a counselor accused of abusing a former ranch resident testified Thursday that he never saw inappropriate conduct. Ray Roberts, 44, worked for Morning Star during the time Kenneth Putnam was sent there as a ward of the state at age 12. Putnam, now 34, is suing Morning Star in Spokane County Superior Court, claiming to have been physically and sexually abused by ranch director Rev. Joseph Weitensteiner and counselor Doyle Gillum, now deceased.