Thomas Clouse

Two Republican candidates for Spokane County prosecutor took turns throwing haymakers at 12-year incumbent Steve Tucker at a forum Monday that did not include two other hopefuls. Chris Bugbee and Dave Stevens, who both worked under Tucker, challenged his leadership and community outreach at the event sponsored by Republicans of Spokane County. Democratic candidate Frank Malone and self-proclaimed “Law and Order” candidate Jim Reierson were not invited, although Reierson attended.

The federal trial of Spokane Police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. has a new date: March 7.

The real talking in the race for Spokane County prosecutor begins Monday when the Republicans of Spokane County hosts a forum for three of the five candidates seeking the post. The forum will be moderated by Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, who has not endorsed any of the candidates. The forum starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Quality Inn Valley Suites, 8923 E. Mission Ave., in Millwood, and will include incumbent Steve Tucker, Chris Bugbee and Dave Stevens, who all list themselves as Republicans.

An appeals court judge on Thursday upheld a $2.8 million judgment for the family of a man who died in 2006 after falling on a crumbling step at Spokane Raceway Park. In an unrelated case, the state Court of Appeals Division III also upheld a contempt charge against former raceway owner Orville Moe, who had failed to turn over documents in a timely manner in the lawsuit filed by creditors of the track that is now owned by Spokane County.

An appeals court judge on Thursday upheld a $2.8 million judgment for the family of a man who died in 2006 after falling on a crumbling step at Spokane Raceway Park. In an unrelated case, the state Court of Appeals Division III also upheld a contempt charge against former raceway owner Orville Moe, who had failed to turn over documents in a timely manner in the lawsuit filed by creditors of the track. Both legal cases pre-date Spokane County's ownership of the track.

A former survival instructor smiled Wednesday as a Spokane jury read its decision to exonerate him of three counts of first-degree rape. Michael W. Fassbender, 32, asked his attorney, Christian Phelps, if he was free to go and left with his friends and family.

Jury clears man of vehicular homicide

An 11-man, one-woman jury this morning will begin deliberating the rape case of a civilian contractor at Fairchild Air Force Base.

A man charged with shooting another man several times June 3 pleaded not guilty Tuesday and was given a trial date of Aug. 16.

A motorist who ran over a Spokane man near Finch Arboretum two years ago was acquitted today of vehicular homicide.

The white powder sent in envelopes to eight federal buildings in the Northwest is not hazardous, but a Spokane FBI official said he could not say whether all the substances were the same.

Spokane’s Police Ombudsman has a new tool to make it easier for people to file complaints against officers.

National security questions have been raised during the Spokane rape trial of a civilian contractor who, according to court testimony, took a woman he just met over the Internet into one of the military’s most secure facilities. The woman got a tour of a secure section of Fairchild Air Force Base used to train military personnel in what to expect if they’re taken prisoner. The tour included a mock prisoner of war camp – complete with barrels half full of water where instructors simulated drowning their subjects – and a building that houses an interrogation center.

National security questions have been raised during the Spokane rape trial of a civilian contractor who, according to court testimony, took a woman he just met over the Internet into one of the military's most secure facilities.

Driver on trial for disabled man's death

The trial started Tuesday for a hostage interrogation expert charged with taking a woman he had just met over the Internet into one of the most restricted facilities at Fairchild Air Force Base and raping her repeatedly. Michael W. Fassbender, 32, is charged with three counts of first-degree rape and second-degree assault with sexual motivation after an encounter with a woman on Oct. 19 inside a survival school at Fairchild. Fassbender is on leave from his civilian job at SERE Solutions, which provides contract instructors who train military personnel both how to interrogate prisoners and how to avoid giving information to their captors.

The vehicular homicide trial began Tuesday for a man accused of running over another man near the Finch Arboretum in 2007. William L. Hagy, 37, apparently didn’t see 51-year-old Robert Kenyon, who was crossing an unmarked crosswalk on Nov. 20, 2007, at the intersection of 10th Avenue and Rosamond Street.

The trial started Tuesday for a hostage interrogation expert charged with taking a woman he had just met over the Internet into a one of the most restricted facilities at Fairchild Air Force Base and raping her repeatedly.

With a jury pool waiting in another room, a federal judge Monday postponed the criminal trial against Karl F. Thompson Jr. after prosecutors announced their intention to appeal his ruling that barred evidence showing Otto Zehm had not committed a crime before Thompson confronted him. U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle ruled that attorneys for both sides could not introduce evidence about Zehm’s mental illness, items found in Zehm’s pockets, or essentially anything that Thompson didn’t know before the confrontation on March 18, 2006.

With a jury pool waiting in another room, a federal judge Monday postponed the criminal trial against Karl F. Thompson Jr. after prosecutors announced their intention to appeal his ruling that barred evidence showing Otto Zehm had not committed a crime before Thompson confronted him.

A trial that starts Monday in federal court is as much about the credibility of the Spokane Police Department as it is the officer charged with using excessive force and lying to investigators, some in Spokane’s legal community say. City detectives found no wrongdoing by fellow Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. and told Spokane County prosecutors that they could find no evidence that he used excessive force when he beat Otto Zehm with a police baton and shocked him with a Taser on March 18, 2006. Other officers joined the struggle and Zehm eventually was hogtied for about 17 minutes, a plastic mask with a dime-size breathing hole on his face, before he stopped breathing.

After years of Spokane police officials claiming that Otto Zehm suffered from “excited delirium,” a defense attorney said Thursday that he will avoid offering any evidence or expert testimony about the disputed medical condition often cited by police agencies to explain controversial in-custody deaths. Defense attorney Carl Oreskovich said he could no longer include testimony about excited delirium following rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle barring any mention that Zehm suffered from paranoid schizophrenia or that he’d had a physical confrontation with a Spokane County deputy sheriff in 1990.

After years of Spokane Police officials claiming that Otto Zehm suffered from “excited delirium,” a defense attorney said today that he will avoid offering any evidence or expert testimony about the disputed medical condition often cited by police agencies to explain controversial in-custody deaths.