Thomas Clouse

For more than a decade, Washington state has paid $9,500 a month plus regular legal fees to two big Seattle law firms to represent indigent clients in their appeals – an arrangement that was unknown to the chief justice of the state Supreme Court and one that has angered lawyers in Spokane, who are paid much less for the same work. The discovery of the arrangement comes at a time when lawmakers are slashing budgets in every state agency, and officials at the Office of Public Defense are struggling to explain why it maintains such a two-tiered system.

Felony charges against a registered sex offender have been dismissed on technical grounds after a federal judge ruled that the search warrant used to find hundreds of images of child pornography on the suspect’s computer was invalid. Andrew V. Davis, 34, of Deer Park, faced at least 15 years in federal prison if convicted, but U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush concluded that police failed to disclose when seeking the search warrant that key information came from a girl who had lied to detectives in other cases. Throwing out the search warrant rendered the evidence against Davis inadmissible.

A Spokane jury on Wednesday convicted a 67-year-old man of assault against one of the deputies who shot him three times in 2009. The jury convicted Donald J. Lafavor of one count of second-degree assault in connection with an incident on Nov. 28, 2009.

Felony charges against a registered sex offender have been dismissed on technical grounds after a federal judge ruled that the search warrant used to find hundreds of images of child pornography on the suspect’s computer was invalid. Andrew V. Davis, 34, of Deer Park, faced at least 15 years in federal prison if convicted, but U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush concluded that police failed to disclose when seeking the search warrant that key information came from a girl who had lied to detectives in other cases. By throwing out the search warrant, it rendered the evidence against Davis inadmissible.

Montana and Idaho authorities responded this afternoon to an airplane that apparently crash landed in the Clark Fork River just east of the Cabinet Gorge Dam. The pilot survived the crash and has been transported to Bonner General Hospital in Sandpoint for hypothermia treatment, a dispatcher said.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor on Thursday described a series of random events that came together two years ago in an altercation that left a 24-year-old man dead and resulted in a 21-year prison sentence for the convicted felon who brought a knife to a fistfight. The judge sentenced Matthew M. Nedeau, 26, to 252 months in prison after a Spokane jury convicted him in April of second-degree murder in connection with the July 6, 2009, slaying of Vitaly Shevchuk.

Dorothy Millican sat on a courthouse bench and cried Thursday after losing a five-year legal battle to hold someone responsible for her son’s death. Millican’s son, Daren Lafayette, 19, was working on a road crew on Sept. 12, 2006, when a truck began rolling downhill toward a car that had two people inside. Lafayette chased down the truck and climbed inside, but could not stop it before it careened over an embankment and exploded.

Nearly five years after he died in a fiery crash, the family of Daren Lafayette should know soon who, if anyone, is responsible and how to compensate the family for his loss. The jury will begin this morning deliberating the case that included three weeks of testimony about what happened Sept. 12, 2006, on the highway construction site on Flowery Trail Road near Chewelah when a work truck began rolling downhill toward waiting cars.

Nearly five years after he died in a fiery crash, the family of Daren Lafayette should know soon who, if anyone, is responsible and how to compensate the family for its loss. The jury will begin Wednesday morning deliberating the case that included three weeks of testimony about what happened Sept. 12, 2006, at the highway construction site Chewelah.

Four Seattle residents didn’t just steal $33,000 from several Spokane banks in one afternoon; they were handed the money as if it were theirs, according to court records. In a chilling new example of identity theft, authorities say four people – one suspect has already pleaded guilty – went to local banks on March 12, 2010, with stolen credit cards. They identified themselves as the cardholders and sought cash advances, which were declined.

A serial arsonist’s prolific criminal past earned him the wrath of a federal judge who on Friday sentenced the man to 10 years in prison. Anthony W. Sotin, 42, previously agreed to accept responsibility for setting his own car on fire on Jan.12, and later torching a commercial building at 13412 E. Nora Ave. on Feb. 9. The commercial building was next to an occupied apartment complex.

A Spokane man who claimed to have invented a computer chip that could capture energy from lightning pleaded not guilty this week to federal charges that he defrauded investors of more than $2.5 million. Robert B. Hiatt, 65, presented himself to investors for a decade as a successful inventor and businessman, according to the indictment on three counts of wire fraud returned Wednesday by a grand jury. Hiatt pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno on Thursday afternoon.

A Spokane man who claimed to have invented a computer chip that could capture energy from lightning strikes pleaded not guilty this week to federal charges that he defrauded investors of more than $2.5 million.

The state’s highest court on Thursday upheld a $6.5 million ruling against an engineering firm found responsible for the implosion of a sewage digester that killed a Spokane sewer plant worker and injured two others in 2004. The Washington Supreme Court affirmed the decision by now-retired Superior Court Judge Robert Austin, who ruled in 2008 that CH2M Hill caused the event and should pay more than $6 million to the families of the workers.

The state’s highest court upheld a $6.5 million ruling today against an engineering firm found responsible for the implosion of a sewage digester that killed a Spokane sewer plant worker and injured two others in 2004.

A judge ruled Monday that defense attorney Chris Bugbee will continue to represent accused crossbow killer Cole K. Strandberg. But the lawyer now has an added job title: witness. Bugbee has a different recollection of what his client said during a mental health exam regarding when he had sex with the victim than the doctors, putting the defense lawyer in the unusual position of having to present Strandberg’s legal defense as well as present testimony as a sworn witness.

The trial of domestic terrorism suspect Kevin W. Harpham was delayed Friday from May 31 to Aug. 22 following a request for more time from defense attorneys. Kim Deater, of Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho, asked for the delay to prepare a defense for Harpham, who faces several felony charges in connection with a bomb found Jan. 17 along the planned route of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity March.

Spokane County juries have been reluctant to convict people who tussle with police, end up being shot by officers and then charged with assault. One prosecutor is having second thoughts about proceeding with those cases. Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Patrick Johnson said he is not seeking a second trial against Michael E. Young, 56, after a jury deadlocked March 3 in deciding whether Young committed second-degree assault against the officers who shot him.

A hooded, BMX bike-riding Spokane man who terrorized local bank tellers for almost a year pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to nine counts of armed bank robbery that netted more than $166,000. Lucas G. Woodard, 34, faces between 17 and 22 years in prison after admitting he was the so-called Bicycle Bandit. Woodard would don a hooded sweatshirt, cover his face, display a black handgun and ask tellers to count backward from 500 before he pedaled away on his bike.

A hooded, BMX bike-riding Spokane man, who terrorized local bank tellers for almost a year, pleaded guilty today in federal court to nine counts of armed bank robbery that netted a total of more than $166,000.