Man arraigned in child porn case
A Spokane man whose arrest is tied to a nationwide child pornography investigation is scheduled to be arraigned today in U.S. District Court.
Peter Schoen, 43, was indicted Tuesday on separate counts of receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
A third criminal count seeks forfeiture of three computers and other computer equipment seized when federal agents searched Schoen’s home at 524 W. 19th in late September.
Schoen will be arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cynthia Imbrogno, who will rule on conditions of his release.
The indictment alleges that between last Nov. 11 and Sept. 27, Schoen “knowingly” received via the Internet pictures and videos of children under the age of 12 engaged in sexually explicit conduct with adults.
He was identified after federal agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, began an investigation of a commercial Web site labeling itself “illegal.CP,” court documents say.
The documents allege Schoen was among online users who paid $80 for month-long subscriptions to the Web site where they could view “thousands of images and videos of child pornography.”
The illegal child porn site billed itself as the “best children porn site on the net!” the court documents say.
The search of Schoen’s South Hill home turned up 123 movie files that “constitute child pornography,” Homeland Security agents said in the court documents.
Reward offered for 19-year-old man
Secret Witness is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of a 19-year-old Spokane man being sought for first-degree burglary, first-degree assault and forgery.
John Paul Gillingsrud is described as 6 feet tall and 165 pounds with black hair and brown eyes, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan. The 19-year-old is wanted by the Spokane Police Department and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Anyone with information regarding Gillingsrud’s whereabouts should call (509) 327-5111. Tipsters can be anonymous, but should leave a code name or number in order to collect the reward.
Killer receives 27-year sentence
A man convicted last month of fatally shooting a man earlier this year on the lower South Hill has been sentenced to about 27 years in prison.
Paul F. “Chronic” Garner, 43, was convicted on Sept. 21 of first-degree murder in connection with the Feb. 18 shooting death of 43-year-old Steven Sleizer during a dispute inside an upper apartment at 1612 W. Seventh Ave.
Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor ordered Garner to serve 324 months in prison during the Tuesday sentencing hearing, and he was given credit for the 237 days he had been incarcerated before his trial last month.
Garner, who had no prior felony criminal convictions, received the minimum possible sentence, which included seven years of weapons enhancements after the jury found him guilty of using a knife and a gun during the crime.
According to testimony and court records, Sleizer was inside the apartment with his girlfriend, Jennifer Makaily, and another man. All were smoking crack cocaine or had just stopped.
Makaily and Sleizer began to argue, and Makaily eventually asked Sleizer to leave the apartment. He refused, according to court records. She then called Garner, who often supplied her with drugs.
Witnesses said Garner forced his way into the apartment and shot Sleizer in the pelvis and the chest.
State trooper pleads innocent
A state trooper accused of encouraging two women to expose themselves in exchange for letting them drive away from a drunken driving charge has pleaded not guilty to two counts of unlawful imprisonment and one count of official misconduct.
Mark Haas was arraigned on the charges Wednesday in Spokane.
The accusations stem from an Aug. 18 traffic stop in north Spokane. The 28- and 30-year-old women called 911 crying and hysterical within a few minutes of leaving Haas to report the incident.
Court documents allege that Haas let the women drive away even though they admitted they’d been drinking. The driver’s breath test, given nearly two hours later by a WSP investigator, revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.082, slightly over the legal limit, according to investigative reports.
Haas, a 22-year-veteran Washington State Patrol trooper, has been on paid administrative leave since Aug. 18.
Two teens admit beating death
Peter Michael Joseph’s killers pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder.
Kory J. Bruno, 17, and Kevin D. Stevens, 19, beat Joseph to death with a baseball bat, wrapped him in a tarp and left him in the basement of a Spokane Valley home for nearly five weeks. Although still just 17, Bruno was charged as an adult.
Joseph’s mother, Maria, wept as she listened to Stevens and Bruno admit their guilt before Spokane County Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly. She can’t forget that she hugged the two “boys” just hours before they murdered her son.
The homicide was discovered on April 28 after Stevens told several people he had a body in his basement, according to court documents. The motive for the killing was to rob Joseph of his money and drugs.
Detectives found the body of Joseph, 19, in the basement at 7721 E. Trent Ave., where he’d been staying with Stevens. The victim’s hands and feet were bound with duct tape, his head was covered with a plastic bag secured with tape, and a belt was wrapped loosely around his neck when investigators examined the body.
Joseph died of blunt force trauma to the head, an autopsy showed.
Stevens’ sentencing was scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 17, and Bruno’s was set for 10 a.m. Dec. 15. Both face about 18 years in prison.
Pend Oreille County
Search for missing hunter to resume
A search for a missing Spokane hunter was to resume today in northern Pend Oreille County.
The hunter, 49-year-old Nathan Swagel, was last seen Saturday morning at his campsite on Forest Service Road 1935, just south of Sullivan Lake.
Pend Oreille County sheriff’s Sgt. Alan Botzheim said Swagel was hunting in a remote and rugged portion of the Selkirk Mountains, but Swagel reportedly was in excellent physical condition and carrying a backpack with extra gear.
Swagel began his hunting trip Saturday, and was expected to return Monday evening. He was reported missing shortly before 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Botzheim said a search got under way as soon as Swagel was reported missing, and continued into the night Wednesday. Friends, relatives and other hunters participated in the search along with deputies, the Pend Oreille and Spokane county search and rescue teams, Border Patrol officers and a Fairchild Air Force Base helicopter.
Home Valley, Wash.
Faulty ties blamed for derailment
The National Transportation Safety Board reported Wednesday that improper track maintenance and inadequate federal standards are to blame for an Amtrak derailment last year near Home Valley, Wash.
That April 3, 2005, derailment of Amtrak’s Empire Builder train injured 30 of the 115 people on the train as it headed from Spokane toward Portland.
The train was traveling on BNSF Railway Co. tracks. The NTSB said that BNSF failed to respond to multiple reports about rough conditions on that segment of track. That roughness was caused by the failure of concrete crossties, which ultimately abraded to the point that they allowed the rails to bend and the train’s wheels to drop between them.
The NTSB also said that the Federal Railroad Administration lacks sufficient standards to ensure concrete crossties will be properly maintained on some classes of track, including the track in question.
As a result, the NTSB recommended that the Federal Railroad Administration extend its safety standards for higher classes of track to lower track classes, where trains travel at slower speeds. The Board also recommended that BNSF make sure its track inspectors have enough time to perform their duties, and that all railroads establish new guidelines for inspecting and maintaining concrete crossties.