Officer drowns on West Side

Seattle A police officer who made a dramatic rescue in 2001 drowned after falling into the Lake Washington Ship Canal while trying to secure a tugboat in high winds, authorities said.

Officer Jackson V. “Jack” Lone, 39, an 18-year-veteran, was underwater for eight to 10 minutes Wednesday before his partner found him and got him out of the water, police said. Lone was pronounced dead soon afterward at Harborview Medical Center.

The death was the first in the history of the 25-member Harbor Patrol since the unit was formed in the early 1900s, police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said.

Lone, an experienced diver and boat owner who previously worked in drug enforcement and fugitive apprehension, is survived by his wife, Jeannie, and their 18-month-old son.

Officer Scott Moss said Lone and his Harbor Patrol partner were working to secure an old tugboat that had been blown free from one of its moorings in Fremont, a few blocks west of the Ballard Locks.

As his partner stayed on the police boat, using it to nudge the wayward tug toward shore, Lone was on land, pulling on the vessel with a rope.

With the tugboat between them, the partner lost sight of Lone, then saw Lone’s life vest floating on the surface, put on his diving gear and got Lone out of the water, then performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until medics arrived, Moss said.

It was not known how Lone fell into the water, whether he hit his head or whether he had been wearing his life vest, Moss said.

The drowning occurred not far from where Lone plunged into Lake Union to rescue a suicidal woman who had jumped off a 160-foot-high bridge amid jeers from passing motorists. Lone was one of several officers who received a “Chief’s Award” for heroism in the rescue.

Post Falls man faces drug charges in Britain

A Post Falls man suspected of manufacturing the drug ecstasy is standing trial in Great Britain on charges of manufacturing and exportation of a controlled substance.

He also is suspected of operating drug labs in North Idaho, Sgt. Christie Wood, of the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, wrote in a press release.

The case began in July 2003 when U.S. Customs intercepted ecstasy coming into the United States to Memphis by FedEx, Wood reported. Coeur d’Alene police say the drug was originally intended to be delivered to an address in Post Falls.

Customs notified the Kootenai County Drug Task Force and a former Post Falls resident was arrested. Police have not released his name because he has not yet been charged in the United States.

About the same time, English authorities had an anonymous tip about a lab in Brighton that was operated by another Idaho man. Police there carried out search warrants for “what was later determined to be one of the largest LSD/synthetic drug lab seizure and dismantle in the history of the United Kingdom,” Wood wrote in her press release.

The Kootenai County Drug Task Force assisted the Brighton police in the investigation and an Idaho detective traveled to England in January. He provided court testimony and follow-up information to the Brighton police.

The British investigation led the Kootenai County Drug Task Force to the two inactive, but fully intact lab sites in Post Falls, where officials on Wednesday executed search warrants at 18446 Holland Road and 409 Potlatch Road. They recovered chemicals, lab equipment, a pill press, and hand-written notes and journals on the making of synthetic drugs, Wood wrote.

Man arrested in attack, robbery

A 37-year-old man accused of attacking two men earlier this month and stripping one of the alleged victims was arrested Wednesday.

James J. Fiorino Jr. is charged with two counts of first-degree robbery. He remained in the Spokane County Jail on Thursday on a $50,000 bond.

The victims told police that Fiorino picked them up about 10:30 p.m. March 5 to hang out and drove them to a parking lot at Pettet and Meenach drives.

The alleged victims said Jesse T. Duhamel, 29, was waiting at the parking lot and that Fiorino attacked one of them several times with a hard object wrapped in cloth, according to records. The man told police that he lost consciousness and was lying naked in a ditch when he awoke. He said his shorts, shirt, underwear, socks, shoes, keys, cell phone and wallet had been stolen.

The other victim told police that Duhamel punched his head twice and Fiorino demanded that he strip, records say. When he refused, Fiorino struck him with the object wrapped in cloth. The alleged attackers left when a car drove by.

Duhamel also faces two counts of first-degree robbery. He was arrested Sunday.