Man Tasered after chase

A suspect who led Spokane County sheriff’s deputies on a chase through Spokane Valley Tuesday night was overpowered with a Taser after crashing into two patrol cars.

Deputies said the suspect deliberately rammed their cars about 10:30 p.m. when he lost control of his car, and they used their vehicles to block him in at the corner of Wilbur and Cataldo, near the Pines Road interchange of Interstate 90.

There apparently were no serious injuries, but deputies said they called for medics from the Spokane Valley Fire Department as a precaution because the suspect, 25-year-old Joseph MacDonald, fought violently and was stunned at least once with a Taser.

Sgt. Dale Golman said deputies broke out a window of the man’s late-model, two-door coupe and pulled him out. Golman said deputies fired a wired Taser probe at MacDonald, but weren’t sure whether it struck him. Then a jolt was applied by pressing the Taser weapon directly against MacDonald.

Golman said MacDonald fled after a deputy tried to pull him over near Wilbur and Cataldo for investigation of suspicious activities. The chase, which reached speeds of 80 mph, proceeded about a mile west on Mission Avenue and other streets before MacDonald looped back to Wilbur and Cataldo.

MacDonald was on probation and had a crack pipe in his possession, Golman said.

Richland

Historic Hanford site lauded

Supporters of saving a research reactor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation held a bittersweet commemoration for the Fast Flux Test Facility to celebrate it being named a National Nuclear Historic Landmark.

The Fast Flux Test Facility is the last remaining sodium-cooled reactor in the United States. Built to test advanced nuclear fuels, from 1982 to 1992 the reactor was used for research, to produce medical and industrial isotopes and to make tritium.

The federal government ordered the reactor closed in 1993 after determining it had no profitable mission.

Work continues to permanently shut down the reactor.

Those who led efforts to pay for, design, build and operate the reactor gathered Monday to celebrate the reactor’s landmark designation by the American Nuclear Society.

“I’ve frequently said it is a beautiful reactor,” said former Rep. Mike McCormack, D-Wash., who fought to get money for FFTF. “And its mission was spectacularly successful.”

ELMIRA, Idaho

Derailment cause unknown

A BNSF Railway train derailed near this small town north of Sandpoint but no one was injured, railway spokesman Gus Melonas said Tuesday.

The line was reopened Tuesday night, Melonas said, and an investigation into the cause continued.

About 13 of the train’s 105 grain cars derailed at 11:15 p.m. Monday, he said. Two cars remained upright and 11 tipped over.

The train was traveling about 22 mph in a 50 mph zone.

About 40 trains use the line each day.

During the line closure, Amtrak bused passengers on its Empire Builder train between Libby, Mont., and Spokane.

The freight train originated in Wolf Point, Mont., and was bound for Kalama, Wash., Melonas said.

HILLSBORO, Ore.

Accused thief seeks new plea

A Tigard man accsed of stealing women’s underwear from college campuses and of having child pornography on his computer will return to court in May after attempting to change his guilty pleas.

Attorneys for Sung Koo Kim filed a motion last week to withdraw his guilty pleas to charges of encouraging child sexual abuse and burglary.

Washington County Circuit Judge Donald Letourneau set arguments for May 2.

Letourneau had been scheduled to sentence Kim under a plea agreement to 10 years in prison. The sentence was to be added to another from Yamhill County on burglary and theft charges.

In December, Kim pleaded guilty to the Washington County charges but said he “may have questions later on because this is a complicated case.”

One of Kim’s new attorneys, his fifth set, said the judge is unlikely to grant the motion.

Compiled from staff and wire reports