Jurors deadlock in rape trial
A 3½-week trial of a man accused of raping a toddler and a 7-year-old girl ended Thursday with a hung jury.
Jurors, who had been deliberating since noon Wednesday, indicated they were deadlocked at 10-2 in favor of convicting David Scott Waring, 23, of three counts of first-degree child rape.
One count relates to a girl who hadn’t had her second birthday when she allegedly was raped last summer in Spokane. The other two counts involve the 7-year-old, whom authorities say was raped between July 1 and Sept. 28 last year.
Spokane County Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza declared a mistrial about 10:45 a.m. after jurors said they didn’t think they could break the deadlock.
“We’re clearly going to reset it for trial and talk to the family and see what they want to do,” said Deputy Prosecutor Ed Hay, head of the Special Assault Unit in the prosecutor’s office.
High court upholds tax on non-Indians
Olympia The state Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a ruling that residents of the Yakama Indian reservation who aren’t members of the tribe must continue paying a utility tax imposed through an agreement between the tribe and the state.
The Citizens Standup Committee, a Toppenish group that opposes tribal authority over non-Indians, sued the state Utilities and Transportation Commission and two utilities in Yakima County Superior Court, contending the charge is imposed illegally on people who have no voice in tribal government.
The court dismissed the group’s petition, a decision the state Court of Appeals upheld.
Diving board work to close Valley pools
Today is the last day to swim at the Park Road Pool, and the two other Spokane Valley pools will both close in coming weeks so the city can install new diving boards.
Terrace View Pool will close Aug. 22 through Aug. 26 while workers do concrete work necessary for new diving boards. Afterward, it will be open through Labor Day.
Valley Mission pool will be open while the other pools are closed. But it will shut down for the season Aug. 28 when new diving boards are installed.
For hours and other information on Spokane Valley pools, call the YMCA at (509) 777-9622.
Steer breaks loose, disrupting concert
Ridgefield, Wash. A rambunctious steer broke free at the Clark County Fair and bounded into the grandstand arena during a concert by Ted Nugent before being corralled, officials said.
The fair’s executive director, Thomas D. Musser, said the young steer’s unplanned entrance drew cheers from a packed house of Nugent’s fans Tuesday evening, but he couldn’t recall what the rocker had to say.
Musser said the animal got loose while being unloaded and bolted downhill from the livestock barns.
“They had it once on the side of the hill and they were starting to lead it back when all of a sudden it spun and came down through the entrance to the grandstand,” he said.
The steer leaped over a security fence, rumbled into the rear quarter of the compound behind the stage and stopped in a corner.
A fair employee for the bull riding competition happened to be nearby and “grabbed the rope on the steer and wrapped the rope around a post and held onto it, and the steer was caught,” Musser said. “We brought in a trailer, loaded him up and got him the heck out of here.”
An employee who tried to stop the steer earlier was taken to a hospital for a possible shoulder separation, Musser said.
The wayward steer may have caught a break. Nugent and his wife Shemane are authors of “Kill It & Grill It,” a wild game and fish cookbook.