Man dies in single-vehicle crash

A 55-year-old Post Falls man died Sunday evening when he drove over a steep embankment off West Riverview Drive, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

Brian W. Clary was driving westbound in a 1994 Nissan Pathfinder with passenger Sandra Clary, 51, also of Post Falls. About a quarter mile west of Schilling Loop, the Nissan left the roadway and overturned about 150 to 200 feet down the embankment, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

Brian Clary was not wearing a seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle. Sandra Clary was wearing a seat belt and was trapped in the overturned vehicle. Emergency crews extricated her and she was taken to Kootenai Medical Center, where she was in stable condition, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The accident is under investigation.

Roadwork ruptures natural gas line

A construction crew working on street repairs Monday afternoon ruptured a natural gas line near Wellesley and A Street, affecting about 55 customers, Hugh Imhof, of Avista Utilities, reported.

Spokane firefighters responded to a call about 3:15 p.m., Battalion Chief Mike Inman said. Imhof said the repairs were done by 3:57 p.m. Crews continued working, “making sure everything is safe,” he said.

Prosecutors waiting for details in boy’s death

Tacoma The Pierce County Prosecutors Office has no immediate plans to charge two men, who were arrested for investigation of manslaughter in the death of a 12-year-old boy in Spanaway.

Deputy Prosecutor Jerry Costello said his office will wait for results of the investigation and an official cause of death from the medical examiner, before deciding whether to file charges.

Tyrone Sherrod, 22, of Tacoma, and Mario N. Haley, 22, of Lakewood, were arrested early Friday morning after the pair chased 12-year-old Garnet Wilis II into traffic on Washington 7, where he was hit and killed, according to investigators.

Wilis and his 12-year-old cousin had been hiding in bushes and shooting bottle rockets into traffic, State Patrol troopers said.

A green Toyota driven by Haley stopped and Sherrod got out, chased one of the boys and started beating him, investigators said.

Haley made a U-turn and chased the second boy into a nearby parking lot. Haley then got out of the car and continued chasing the boy, who ran onto the highway and was struck by a car driven by a 17-year-old Spanaway girl, the patrol said.

Investigators determined the girl who hit Wilis was not at fault. The other boy was treated for injuries and released to his parents.

Sherrod and Haley fled, but police found them three hours later at homes in Tacoma and Lakewood.

Man pleads innocent in woman’s death

Vancouver, Wash. A man has pleaded innocent to first-degree murder in the beating death of a woman whose body was found in the trunk of his car.

Trial was set for Oct. 31 for Anthony Lee Dente, 43, who remained in jail after entering the plea Friday in Clark County Superior Court. If convicted he faces at least 20 years in prison for the blunt-force death of Carlea M. Cooper, 28.

Investigators have written in court papers that records show Cooper received three calls from Dente before she was last seen by her husband the night of July 1. Dente was arrested six days later after her body was found the trunk of his 1984 Honda at the condominium complex where he lived.

Sheriff’s deputies also found blood throughout Dente’s condo and he had been scratched numerous times, prosecutors wrote.

Endangered turtles released in pond

Bremerton The state Department of Fish and Wildlife has released 43 turtles into a north Mason County pond in the hopes of restoring the endangered western pond turtle in the Puget Sound area.

The turtles were raised at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle to a size where predators, like bullfrogs and largemouth bass, could not eat them whole.

Many of the turtles were outfitted with radio transmitters that were glued to their shells, in the hopes of providing biologists locations of upland turtle nests that can be protected.

The program is called “headstarting,” said Harriet Allen of the Fish and Wildlife Department, and dramatically increases the turtles’ survival. The recovery program was started in 1990, and involves Fish and Wildlife, Woodland Park, the Oregon Zoo in Portland and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“The ultimate goal of the program is for enough young turtles to survive in the wild without headstarting,” Allen said. “But for now the risks from bullfrogs are just too great, and we need the ‘headstarted’ turtles to establish new populations.”

The western pond turtle was declared endangered in 1993 after it declined to just 150 known animals.

Post Falls’ Quad Park sports complex sold

Post Falls The Quad Park sports complex was sold last week to a local developer who intends to build high-end multifamily housing on seven acres of the 12.8-acre plot. John DeVries will apply to the city over the next six months to rezone that area from commercial to residential, and sell the rest of the land.

“Those are the hopeful plans,” DeVries said Monday.

The Quad Park will be turned over to the new owner in the fall. In the meanwhile, the softball season and tournaments will continue, said Bob Townsend, who has managed the park most of its 18 years of existence. He is retiring and selling the land was the best financial option, Townsend said. Still, he added, “it’s an era that’s closing.”