County Prosecutors Sift Waterlogged Files Investigators Seek Cause Of Broadway Centre Blaze

Wed., Sept. 9, 1998

By Tom Sowa toms@spokesman.com (509) 459-5492

Fourteen Spokane County prosecutors dug through waterlogged file cabinets Tuesday, working through the aftermath of a fire that damaged their offices the day before.

Investigators spent the day searching for the cause of the blaze that apparently started on the third floor of the Broadway Centre Building.

The four-story structure is one of six buildings used by county prosecutors.

Its third floor houses deputy prosecutors assigned to the drug and property crimes units. Most said they could continue working, but would need to replace damaged records or papers.

Investigators from the state and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the fire apparently started about 7 p.m. Monday in the southwest corner office of the third floor.

That is the office of drug team leader Sara Beemer. Beemer said Tuesday morning she was the only deputy who lost all her court files and other papers.

The key losses were files from 30 active drug case files and 20 cases still not charged. Beemer works as the assigned prosecutor to the area’s Regional Drug Task Force.

She said she’ll need to start from scratch to replace those reports, police affidavits and court records.

“I’ll be calling area police agencies and find out what cases they’ve referred to me,” she said.

In the meantime, she and the other displaced deputies will move to leased offices in the nearby Monroe Court. That building also houses the offices of the prosecutor’s domestic violence team.

County officials said they’ll wait for a structural analysis of the Broadway Centre before estimating when the building will reopen.

Also displaced by the fire were the county’s community services, community development and purchasing departments.

Those workers will relocate in portable offices near the county’s Human Resources Office.

Deputy Prosecutor Carlin Jude started work Tuesday by rummaging through her office about an hour before starting a fraud trial in Superior Court.

“I needed a couple of firemen to get me into my office where I could get my files,” Jude said.

“My files are all right. They just smell bad.”

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