State agency suspends adult family home’s license

The state Department of Social and Health Services has suspended the license of an adult family home in Spokane.

In a statement released Tuesday, the agency prohibited Gambill’s Adult Family Home, which is licensed to Nancy Davis, from admitting any new residents. The home is located at 9515 E. Shannon.

Last month, a state investigator found the home had failed to ensure resident privacy, meet basic needs for a patient’s pain management, and obtain proper background checks for people who had unsupervised access to vulnerable adults in the home.

The provider has the right to contest the suspension and ban within 28 days, the agency said.

Detectives probe apparent homicide

Spokane County sheriff’s detectives on Tuesday were still investigating the apparent slaying of a man whose body was found Monday in a remote location near Elk.

The victim’s name has not been released, said Cpl. Dave Reagan, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office. The body was found Monday afternoon by a man driving a four-wheeler on East Laurel Road.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Tower said Monday the man appeared to have suffered trauma and was likely a local resident, and the death was likely recent.

Jury duty topic of public discussion

Stevens County residents are invited to share their views on jury duty in a public discussion Saturday at the Library of the Lakes in Loon Lake.

The 10 a.m. gathering is part of a nationwide program, called the September Project, that two University of Washington students started as a means of encouraging people to talk about issues of citizenship, patriotism, freedom and democracy. Participants are asked to consider whether jury duty is a right or a burden.

The discussion will occur a day before Patriot Day, which Congress has declared to commemorate the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Al Nielson plans to attend the event, according to Regan Robinson, director of the Stevens County Rural Library District.

For more information on the September Project, go to: www.theseptemberproject.org.

Man injured in motorcycle crash

An Athol, Idaho man was in critical condition at Kootenai Medical Center Tuesday evening after an early morning accident near Athol.

Douglas Lamar Harsh, 41, was riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle west on Brunner Road around 7 a.m. when a deer came onto the road, Idaho State Police said. Harsh reportedly swerved to avoid hitting the deer, and was thrown from the bike.

Pepper spray charges dismissed

A prosecutor has dropped child endangerment charges against a Sagle woman who was accused of dousing an infant with pepper spray during an argument at a Wal-Mart store.

Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson moved to dismiss the case against Lorlie Marie Gantenbein last month, and District Judge Steve Verby signed an order of dismissal on Aug. 18.

Gantenbein, 37, said the case against her was abandoned because she passed a polygraph examination. Gantenbein has denied allegations that she sprayed the 2-month-old with the incapacitating mist.

The case stemmed from an argument at the Wal-Mart in Ponderay on May 2.

According to testimony at a preliminary hearing, Gantenbein and her daughter, Jordanna L. Gantenbein, 16, crossed paths with acquaintances 15-year-old Lacey Clayburn and her mother, 38-year-old Ethel “Rusty” Clayburn, near the shoe department.

Witnesses claimed Lorlie Gantenbein took the canister of the chili pepper spray from her daughter and sprayed it directly at the baby, who was in the arms of Ethel Clayburn. Lorlie Gantenbein said she and her daughter discharged the spray in self-defense and did not aim at the child.

“The baby was not sprayed in the face. The grandmother walked through the spray with the baby when she was going after my daughter,” Lorlie Gantenbein told the Bonner Daily Bee.

The baby’s mother, Christina Clayburn, told police Lorlie Gantenbein was “yelling, ‘Get the baby! Get the baby”’ before she allegedly directed the spray at the child.

The baby was treated and released from a local hospital. The incident prompted the evacuation and brief closure of the store.

Jordanna Gantenbein pleaded guilty in juvenile court in July to a reduced charge of disturbing the peace in exchange for having two battery charges dismissed.