County Accepts Lawsuit Settlement

Fri., Jan. 28, 2000

From Staff Reports

Spokane County commissioners voted this week to accept $251,000 from the state to settle a lawsuit that arose out of a 1995 law designed to help control chronic runaways.

Spokane and 19 other counties sued the state in 1997 to recoup costs for implementing the so-called “Becca bill,” which allows county officials to hold runaways for up to five days without court approval.

It also gives parents of children under 17 the right to commit kids to drug, alcohol or mental treatment programs and requires schools to file truancy petitions with the courts for repeat offenders.

The law was named for Rebecca Hedman, a 13-year-old runaway who was murdered in Spokane in 1993.

County officials across the state supported the law but complained that state legislators did not appropriate enough money to pay for it. Those costs unfairly fell to county taxpayers, they said.

The 19 other counties in the lawsuit are expected to settle as well.

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