Thomas Clouse

Spokane’s quest to restore police accountability will largely succeed or fail based on the department’s ability to improve how it investigates its own officers, a consultant concluded. Police procedure expert Michael Gennaco, whose work helped steer the city’s Use of Force Commission, found Spokane Police officials sometimes did a great job documenting officers’ use of force. Gennaco also found problems, however, including investigators asking leading questions, failing to ask key questions of officers and not interviewing key witnesses.

Spokane County officials, rebuffed by their own medical examiner for years, want to take another look at using coroner inquests to help restore public trust in the integrity of investigations into police-involved fatalities without violating privacy protections. Commissioner Todd Mielke said he supports providing more transparency to investigations that sometimes take months or even years for prosecutors to decide whether to pursue criminal charges. Prosecutor Steve Tucker, Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and other local law enforcement officials have in the past voiced support for broader use of coroner inquests, but county Medical Examiner Dr. John Howard opposes them.

Charges were dropped Wednesday against a Montana man accused of threatening to rape the wives of a Spokane County sheriff’s detective and a deputy prosecutor. He made the threat during phone calls he knew were recorded at the Spokane County Jail. Spokane City Prosecutor Ellen O’Hara, who was appointed to serve as special prosecutor, dismissed without comment two counts of intimidating a public servant and one count of witness tampering against Terrence D. Riley, 33.

A man cleared by a jury last week of helping a friend after a Spokane Valley shooting faces new charges that he threatened to rape the lead detective’s wife. Terrence D. Riley was found not guilty Friday of first-degree rendering criminal assistance to Jarrod E. Veilleux. Veilleux, 30, was accused of shooting a man outside the Oasis Tavern on Feb. 24, 2012, and Riley was charged with helping him flee. Veilleux was exonerated of charges of attempted murder and first-degree assault, but convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

A kidnapping suspect shot and killed by Spokane County deputies last summer suffered two gunshot wounds to the back, new documents show. Spokane County prosecutors are still reviewing whether the fatal shooting of Edward S. Gover, 47, was justified.

A Spokane County jury exonerated two Montana men Friday of a shooting last February inside the Oasis Tavern in Spokane Valley. While the jury found 30-year-old Jarrod E. Veilleux not guilty of attempted first-degree murder and first-degree assault, it found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The jury also exonerated his friend, Terrence D. Riley, 33, of rendering criminal assistance to Veilleux during the Feb. 24 shooting. They had argued the shooting was accidental.

Several community members on Wednesday thanked the city of Spokane’s Use of Force Commission for months of work, and police Chief Frank Straub said he and Mayor David Condon will soon announce plans to implement suggested changes in the police department. The commission held the first of two public hearings to comment on 26 recommendations it made Dec. 20. The report is part of Condon’s stated goal of restoring community trust in the department following the conviction of former Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr. for using excessive force and lying to investigators about his 2006 confrontation with Otto Zehm.

Murder solved in Colville coffee shop

Spokane police continue to investigate a rush of gang violence Saturday that left two people shot and two others badly beaten. The four victims were found at separate, nearby locations about three blocks east of Division Street in north Spokane.

An Airway Heights man told police that he accidentally shot his son in the face during an early Sunday morning fight, according to court records. The fight and fatal shooting happened after a night of drinking.

Spokane Police continue to investigate what they have called a gang-related shooting Saturday morning in which two victims were shot and two more victims had blunt-force trauma to the head.

A man killed on Sunday morning north of Airway Heights was shot in the face by his father, according to court records.

Some young lawyers will now get a boost paying off their law school debts thanks to a gift from the family of an attorney who often put the law and his clients ahead of fees for his service. Spokane defense attorney John R. Clark died in 2010 following a long battle with cancer. Even approaching his last days, Clark could often be seen standing at the lectern in local courtrooms in obvious pain as he practiced what he considered his calling.

A former Spokane police sergeant convicted in 1994 of raping a deaf developmentally disabled woman no longer must register as a sex offender. William A. Gentry, 67, told a Spokane judge Friday that he was fighting severe depression in 1993 and had a gun to his temple just moments before the 20-year-old victim, who had the mental maturity of an 8-year-old, came into a Spokane COPS station and asked to have sex.

Former Spokane police Officer Karl F. Thompson Jr.’s attorneys argued Friday that Thompson shouldn’t have to pay restitution stemming from his criminal conviction for using excessive force against Otto Zehm. Federal prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Fred Van Sickle last month to order Thompson to pay $824,163 in restitution for lost wages, medical bills and attorney’s fees.

Colville and Stevens County law enforcement officials are investigating the apparent homicide of a 56-year-old man who was discovered dead Thursday in an apartment.

Defense attorneys believe they won an important victory Thursday against a major investigation into eight suspected Spokane-area brothels that several months later has yet to produce a single criminal charge. Attorneys Mark Vovos and Carl Oreskovich convinced Superior Court Judge James Triplet to order the return of thousands of dollars of cash and property that was seized from two owners of massage parlors that were raided last summer as part of Operation Red Light. While their clients were initially taken into custody for allegedly promoting prostitution and money laundering, prosecutors have not filed any formal charges.

The 18-year-old woman who was shot Jan. 1 in what Spokane police previously described as a possible drive-by shooting told police that she believes she was shot twice by someone inside the home where a fight broke out over a missing pistol during a New Year’s Eve party. Detectives found ammunition for four different caliber guns at the home at 4207 N. Jefferson St., where neighbors have complained about parties for years.

The trial of two men charged in connection with a shooting outside a Spokane Valley bar last February got under way Wednesday. Jarrod E. Veilleux, 30, is charged with attempted first-degree murder, and Terrance D. Riley, 33, is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance for helping the shooter get away.

The 18-year-old woman who was shot Jan. 1 in what Spokane Police previously described as a drive-by shooting actually told police that she believes she was shot twice by someone inside the home where a fight broke out over a missing pistol during a New Year’s Eve party.