In brief: Spokane attorney disbarred for deception
The Washington Supreme Court has disbarred Spokane attorney Gail Schwartz, effective today, for deceiving a client, incompetence, ignoring a potential conflict of interest, charging an excessive fee, and mishandling and misappropriating a client’s money.
Schwartz previously was suspended after failing to respond to a Washington State Bar Association investigation.
Schwartz edged out Spokane County Superior Court Commissioner Joe Valente in the three-way 2004 primary for a Superior Court vacancy but lost the runoff with then-District Court Judge Harold Clarke III by a 2-1 ratio.
Motorcyclist hits pickup, flips into its bed
A motorcyclist crashed into a U-turning pickup and flipped into its bed Wednesday, then was driven for a block before the truck stopped.
The 47-year-old male motorcyclist, whose name was not available late Wednesday, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, said Cpl. Tom Lee of the Spokane Police Department. Jim M. Wilson, 62, who allegedly made the illegal U-turn in his pickup at Francis Avenue and Cedar Street, was arrested on charges of vehicular assault after being processed for DUI. He was not injured.
Wilson stopped at Francis and Adams Street, where citizens reportedly detained him until police arrived shortly after 6 p.m., Lee said. Paramedics attended to the motorcyclist, who was still in the truck bed even though his motorcycle was a block west.
A city bus had almost smashed into the pickup at Cedar but was able to stop in time, Lee said. Early 911 calls reported that the motorcyclist hit the bus.
Assistant Chief Brian Schaeffer, of the Spokane Fire Department, said the crash was “possibly one of the oddest I have been to.”
Okanogan County
Marijuana growers raided on reservation
About 50 law enforcement officials raided a 10,000-plant marijuana growing operation in the Colville Indian Reservation on Tuesday, arresting two people who had set up a camouflaged camp in the forest.
The marijuana plants were growing among a network of plastic pipes that siphoned water from nearby creeks, which also provided water for the suspects’ living, cooking and bathing locations, said Sheriff Frank Rogers, of Okanogan County.
“It’s amazing when you get in there, it’s like, ‘Good grief,’ ” he said, adding that the operation appeared to have been there for at least a year.
The bust followed 1 1/2 months of investigation by the North Central Washington Narcotics Task Force, which includes at least 10 local and federal agencies. A seizure of such size is rare in the area, though operations are moving northward into heavily wooded areas that are patrolled by fewer police, Rogers said.
Northeastern Washington
U.S., Canadian crews team up to fight wildfire
About 200 firefighters from Canada and the United States are now working together to fight a wildfire along the border.
The Pend Oreille fire has burned about 500 acres in British Columbia and an unknown amount of dense forest in far northeastern Washington in the Jubalee Creek basin, according to a statement from the Colville National Forest.
No structures are threatened, but firefighting officials say the heat wave and the area’s steep, remote topography are making it difficult to control the blaze.