Briefly

Sheriff’s sergeant crashes into car on off-ramp

Four people received minor injuries Wednesday evening when a Spokane County sheriff’s sergeant crashed his car into the back of another.

Sgt. David Fray was on his way to the Public Safety Building in a sheriff’s unmarked Crown Victoria, said sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan. He was eastbound on Interstate 90 and pulled onto the Maple Street off-ramp about 4:40 p.m. when he struck the back of a Ford Escort driven by Steve E. Blasier, 44, of Mead. Traffic on the off-ramp was backed up almost onto the freeway, Reagan said.

The Escort was pushed into a Toyota Corolla driven by Kristyn E. Gintz, 23, of Colville.

After the accident Fray set up flares to direct traffic from the accident. He suffered wrist, knee and elbow pain, and was taken to a hospital for X-rays, Reagan said. Blasier, his passenger and Gintz were taken to a different hospital for minor injuries.

The incident was investigated by the Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol.

Sex offender faces 5-year sentence for rape

A sex offender who raped a 14-year-old girl four times last summer faces five years in prison when Spokane County Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza sentences him on Jan. 28.

The sentence is the statutory maximum for the four counts of third-degree child rape for which Christopher M. Foster, 20, was convicted.

Ordinarily, defendants face standard-range sentences that are well below statutory maximums. But the ranges are based on the defendant’s criminal history, and Foster’s history would have pushed him beyond the statutory maximum, according to Deputy Prosecutor Ed Hay.

Foster was a Level II sex offender when he had sex four times in two days in June. He was under a court order to have no contact with minors two or more years his junior, and the girl wasn’t old enough to consent to sex.

A Superior Court jury convicted Foster on Tuesday of four counts of third-degree child rape.

The sex was witnessed by a friend of the victim’s, a young woman who allowed Foster and his victim to sleep in her South Hill home. The woman said the victim told her Foster had taken her virginity, according to court documents.

Foster’s 20th birthday occurred during a two-day stay in the woman’s home.

As a juvenile, Foster was convicted in 2000 of first-degree child molestation in Pend Oreille County. As an adult in 2002, he was convicted in Spokane County of first-degree theft, two counts of second-degree burglary and possession of stolen property.

Construction work causes downtown outage

Construction at an Avista Utilities substation resulted in a power outage that left several blocks of downtown Spokane without electricity for 30 minutes Wednesday, disrupting business and trapping a few people in elevators.

The outage occurred at Avista’s Post Street substation at 9:15 a.m., and the utility restored electricity by 9:45 a.m., said Catherine Markson, communication manager for Avista Utilities. She said the substation is undergoing improvements as part of a $5 million investment in Avista infrastructure. The outage was caused as result of construction work.

The substation routes electricity to downtown buildings, including City Hall, River Park Square, the city’s downtown library, the Spokane Club, the Federal Building, the U.S. Post Office and the Spokane Business Development Center, Markson said.

City Hall was closed during the brief outage, as well as the shops at River Park Square, which was left in semi-darkness, running on emergency generators.

Jan Neumann, projects manager for the Spokane Regional Sports Commission, was stuck in an elevator between the fourth and fifth floors at the Spokane Business Development Center, 801 W. Riverside.

“She was able to open the doors herself with us telling her how to do it,” said Lt. Brian Faulkner, Spokane Fire Department incident commander.

He said there were a few other people stuck in downtown elevators during the outage. Faulkner’s crew also used a ladder truck to rescue a couple of window washers for American Building Maintenance, whose scaffold was stuck outside the center’s second story.

Firefighters help with Toys for Tots drive

With so many Marines deployed to the Middle East, Spokane firefighters have volunteered to help with the annual Toys for Tots drive, which is organized by the Marine Corps.

Spokane Firefighters Local 29 will be collecting new and unwrapped toys for needy children from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at NorthTown, at the entrance to the old Emporium store inside the mall, said firefighter D.J. Hill.

Hill said there has been a shortage of donations, especially for children 12 and under.

Explosives unit called to school after suicide

The Spokane City-County Explosives Disposal Unit was called to Lakeside High School on Friday as a precaution after a student committed suicide, according to a letter sent this week by the school district to parents.

Skyler Cullitan, 16, shot himself in the school’s foyer about 1:20 p.m. Friday, less than an hour before the end of the school day. He died Friday evening at Deaconess Medical Center.

The explosives unit came to the school after a Stevens County sheriff’s deputy found a quart-sized plastic container located in Cullitan’s backpack, which was in a corner of the foyer. It was later determined that the cylinder contained shotgun shells, rifle cartridges and fireworks. Investigators told school officials that the container was not a bomb and did not have a triggering device.

As a precaution, the unit used a remote-controlled robot to search the backpack and remove the container from the building. The robot was unable to open the container, so it was shot with a water cannon, causing it to explode, said the letter, which was written by Nine Miles Falls School District Superintendent Michael Z. Green. Investigators searched the school for explosives, and none was found.

“We just wanted to make sure our building was safe,” said Lakeside High School Principal Bob Anacker.

Green said Wednesday that investigators have concluded that Cullitan did not intend to hurt anyone but himself.

“If the boy had wished to bring harm upon others, he certainly had the opportunity,” Green wrote in the letter. “My belief is that he meant no harm to others.”

Also in the letter, Green announced that the district will hold a forum on school safety at 7 p.m. on Jan. 27 at Lakeside Middle School.