In brief: Teacher accused of sex with girl

A schoolteacher has been accused of starting a sexual relationship with one of his fifth-grade students, then dating and moving in with her mother while continuing to have sex with the child.

Jesus Vega Barcenas, 26, a teacher at Adams Elementary School in this lower Yakima Valley town, was charged Monday in Yakima County Superior Court with two counts of first-degree child rape and three counts of second-degree child rape. He remains in jail with bail set at $200,000. Trial was set for Feb. 11.

School officials said Barcenas used to teach fulltime but is now a substitute. An internal investigation is likely, Assistant Superintendent Daniel Murray said.

The girl, now 12, told investigators he “brainwashed” her into a sexual relationship that lasted more than a year until her mother learned what was going on and went to police last week, according to documents filed by prosecutors in court.

Barcenas was arrested Friday.

According to a Yakima police affidavit, the girl and teacher met and became friends in an after-school program when she was in third grade.

After she was assigned to his fifth-grade class in September 2006, she told authorities, he gave her $50 for her 11th birthday and they began kissing at school. Starting two weeks later, she said, they engaged in sex acts about half a dozen times in his classroom during the school year.

Following the end of the school year in June, prosecutors wrote, Barcenas began dating the girl’s mother and by the end of the summer he had moved in with the family in Yakima, continuing to have sex periodically with the girl.

Twin Falls, Idaho

Police identify hit-run victim

Law enforcement officials in Twin Falls have released the name of a 50-year-old man killed Sunday night in a hit-and-run traffic incident.

Hagerman resident Steven Willis died shortly after he was hit in the intersection of Blue Lakes Boulevard and Park Avenue at about 7 p.m.

Willis was walking south on Blue Lakes Boulevard, a major street in this Southern Idaho town, when he was struck.

The dark sedan that hit him may have suffered a damaged grille or a broken windshield. It left the scene without stopping.

Police say they are still trying to determine whether alcohol was a factor in the accident.

They haven’t made any arrests and are asking for tips about the driver of the car.

Federal Way, Wash.

Trooper kills man who ran onto I-5

A state trooper shot and killed a man who ran onto Interstate 5 on Christmas Day and attacked an officer who tried to talk to him.

Patrol spokesman Cliff Pratt said the 27-year-old man jumped out of a car, started to take off his pants and exposed himself on an off-ramp around 2 p.m.

When troopers arrived at the scene, an officer tried to talk to the man, and he attacked the trooper. The officer used a Taser on the man, who responded by choking him.

The 11-year veteran fired his gun and the man died at the scene.

Portland

Officials recover stolen sculptures

Authorities have recovered two of four sculptures stolen last week from the Portland property of Jean Vollum, the late philanthropist.

The recovered sculptures, one by Portland artist Tom Hardy and the other by the late Hilda Morris, were still on the Vollum estate but moved from their original spots, the Oregonian newspaper reported in its Tuesday editions.

Dorie Vollum, Jean Vollum’s daughter-in-law, told the paper that the pieces were intact, but had numerous scratches.

Still missing were an untitled welded metal piece made in 1970 by Hardy and a 1967 cast bronze titled “Mother and Child” by the late Frederic Littman

Deputy Travis Gullberg, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said the sculptures were taken late Wednesday or early Thursday, and a wheelbarrow that might have been used to take the art has been found.

The works are valued in the tens of thousands of dollars, but have little resale potential because of their large size. It’s possible the pieces were turned into scrap or melted down, Gullberg said.

“In the past years, there’s been a rise in metal theft,” Gullberg said.

“You get so much per pound for selling it. If that’s the case, it may be that’s what they (the thieves) were after.”

Dorie Vollum said she didn’t notice anything unusual leading up to the theft, though she says the property has been busy with construction work since Jean Vollum died in June. Jean Vollum was one of the city’s most significant philanthropists of the past three decades and also an art patron who championed many leading artists.

Despite the rise in metal theft, there hasn’t been a noticeable climb in art thievery, Gullberg said. He added that there were no leads in the case.

From wire reports