Thomas Clouse

Accused bear spray robber gets $10,000 bond

After escaping just after midnight, two Benewah County jail inmates were arrested following a multi-departmental search near Worley, Idaho.

Murder charges against a Spokane Valley man accused of stabbing his pregnant girlfriend more than 50 times were dismissed Tuesday by a judge who deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial. The accused killer, 22-year-old Robbie W. Bishop, instead will continue to be held at the Spokane County Jail until a formal hearing can be arranged to civilly commit him to a mental institution, Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque ruled. The fatal stabbing occurred in 2009.

Spokane Police are seeking help identifying a woman who was struck by a vehicle at 37th Avenue and Crestline Street on Saturday evening.

A Loon Lake man pleaded guilty Friday in Colville to a road-rage shooting in March that nearly killed a Spokane man. Matthew T. Richmond, 27, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree assault. Superior Court Judge Al Nielson then sentenced Richmond to 45 months in prison.

A Loon Lake man pleaded guilty Friday in Colville to a road-rage shooting in March that nearly killed a Spokane man.

The alternate juror who claimed last year’s trial of former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. was marred by jury misconduct was unable to provide any specific examples of impropriety during a rare judicial inquiry into the allegations, new court documents show. Transcripts of the secret proceedings, unsealed Thursday following a legal challenge by The Spokesman-Review, show that the alternate juror spoke only in vague generalities about behavior he felt might have been inappropriate and that other jurors questioned by U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle disputed any suggestion of impropriety. Names of the jurors questioned as part of the inquiry into the conviction of Thompson for excessive force in the fatal confrontation with Otto Zehm were redacted from the documents.

Federal investigators are attempting to seize an Arizona property owned by Spokane real estate investors as part of a broader probe into alleged fraud by the couple, who are tangled in the complicated ownership of the former Ridpath Hotel complex. FBI agent Lisa Jangaard filed a request last week to seize an office building in Sun Lakes, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix.

Federal investigators are attempting to seize an Arizona property owned by Spokane real estate investors as part of a broader probe into alleged fraud by the couple, who are tangled in the complicated ownership of the former Ridpath Hotel complex.

The forewoman of the jury that convicted former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. of using excessive force said in a letter to a federal judge that defense attorneys have twisted her words in their effort to force a new trial for the decorated officer. The documents are contained in files previously sealed by U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle.

Woman gets 18 1/2 years for murder

The decaying Ridpath Hotel complex, once a shining focal point of Spokane’s downtown skyline, has become linked to a broadening federal investigation into potentially fraudulent real estate practices, newly filed court documents show. Two of the Ridpath’s owners, Spokane real estate investors Gregory and Kimberly Jeffreys, are under active FBI investigation, along with developer Steven “Brian” Main, for a series of what investigators describe as essentially sham investments designed to defraud other investors of millions of dollars.

A man who once licensed foster care homes for the state pleaded guilty today to two federal counts of distribution of child pornography.

A Stevens County judge sentenced a convicted gun thief Tuesday to 125 years in prison – a term that’s about 100 years longer than the prison terms given to three others for a murder committed using one of the stolen guns. Superior Court Judge Pat Monasmith sentenced Christopher G. Nichols, 27, to 125 years in prison, despite the fact that he had no role in the 2011 killing of Colville resident Gordon Feist.

Attorneys for a North Idaho girl have agreed to settle a civil suit alleging she was molested by a man who worked as substance abuse counselor and coach at the Paschal Sherman Indian School, which is operated in Omak, Wash., by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The suit was filed last year relating to an incident in November 2008, when the girl was attending the school and staying in an on-campus dormitory. The suit names Clinton J. Nicholson, who was 44 at the time. He no longer works at the school, according to his attorney, Mark Carroll.

The secretive query of jurors who convicted former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. will be made public after a federal judge decided Thursday to unseal court records. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle said he would open the files, pending some limited work to black out the names of the jurors, following a motion to intervene by attorneys representing The Spokesman-Review.