Boys Arrested As Accomplices In Assault By Girls

Three teenage girls forced their way into a house Friday, tried to drag a 14-year-old girl outside and then beat her when she resisted.

The victim was alone at a home in the 1700 block of South Evergreen when the teens burst in. When she threatened to call police, they smashed the phone, deputies said.

The assailants tried to pull the victim out of the house. When she resisted, the girls punched and kicked her.

After the girls fled in a car driven by two teenage boys, the victim called deputies from a phone in a bedroom.

Shortly after the attack, deputies arrested a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy. They were charged as accomplices to first-degree burglary and assault.

Detectives are still searching for the three girls, but believe they know who they are, said Lt. David Wiyrick.

Woman’s ex-boyfriend arrested

Deputies arrested a Valley man early Saturday and charged him with breaking into a his ex-girlfriend’s home and assaulting her.

The 20-year-old woman told deputies she awoke to find her former boyfriend, Gary D. Richey, 28, hovering above her. She said Richey had broken into her home in the 8300 block of East Knox.

The two argued and Richey punched the woman in the back, then pulled her off the bed by her hair, deputies said.

When the woman ran into another room and tried to call 911, Richey hit her repeatedly, Wiyrick said. But again she wriggled free, grabbed her 18-month-old daughter and raced back into the bedroom.

Richey followed, threatening to kill the woman, her daughter and himself with a knife he had taken from the kitchen, the woman told deputies. The two struggled for the knife and she managed to wrestle it away and hide it, Wiyrick said.

Richey then pulled the woman into the living room with his arm around her neck, the woman said.

He finally calmed down and then fell asleep about 5:30 a.m., and the woman fled with her child.

Deputies found Richey, who gave his address as 17127 E. Sprague, asleep in the woman’s living room. Richey was charged with first-degree burglary and booked into the Spokane County Jail.

Woman’s arm broken, man arrested

A Valley man was arrested Saturday after a woman told deputies he pushed her down, breaking her arm.

Deputies arrested Jeffrey A. Mewes, 35, at Valley Hospital and Medical Center, where the 34-year-old woman had been taken for treatment.

Mewes, who told deputies he lives at 11920 E. Mansfield, No. 41, was charged with second-degree assault.

Fire damages house

A small attic fire Friday afternoon caused about $1,000 worth of damage to a house at 4904 N. Campbell.

Michael Abney, 36, summoned firefighters at about 4 p.m. after smelling smoke inside the single-story house.

Firefighters cut a hole in the ceiling and discovered a small fire burning in the insulation and along the wood framing.

Faulty wiring was believed to have caused the fire.

Fire destroys dog house

Ernie Wathrich put a light in his dog’s house Friday night to keep it warm. Unfortunately, things got a little too hot.

At about 10:40 p.m., Wathrich saw flames coming from the dog house and summoned firefighters to 308 N. Hodges.

The dog house and a pickup truck canopy next to the kennel were destroyed by the fire.

The dog, which is trained to find drugs for the Spokane Police Department, escaped uninjured. Wathrich, 33, is its handler.

, DataTimes