In brief: Therapist gets prison for rape

Thu., June 28, 2007

The Spokesman-Review

A Loon Lake family counselor has been sentenced to 16 years to life in prison for raping a Colville-area woman the state was paying him to help.

Stevens County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Baker handed 60-year-old Preston Lynn Carbary a maximum standard sentence Tuesday.

A jury convicted Carbary last month on three counts of second-degree rape by a health care provider. Because Carbary was working as a health professional, Deputy Prosecutor David Turplesmith didn’t have to prove the crime involved physical force as required in other second-degree rape cases.

The state Department of Social and Health Services faces a multimillion-dollar lawsuit based on Carbary’s misconduct. Carbary was under contract with the Family Preservation Services unit of DSHS’s Child Protective Services when he raped a client in her home on three occasions in November 2004.

Trial testimony indicated he told the victim to “go along with” his sexual advances if she didn’t want to lose custody of her children.

To show a pattern of misconduct, another Stevens County woman was allowed to testify that Carbary extorted sex from her under similar circumstances on four occasions in the summer of 2004. Carbary wasn’t charged in that case.

– John Craig

Spokane

Suspect’s death ends fatality case

A woman’s death earlier this month has ended the vehicular homicide case against her.

Elizabeth Mary Van Zandt, 48, was scheduled to stand trial later this summer in connection with a collision on Nov. 3, 2005, that killed 88-year-old pedestrian Mae H. Leary.

Leary was hit by Van Zandt’s car while crossing Grand Boulevard near 21st Avenue at about 5 p.m. on a stormy evening. Later blood tests showed that Van Zandt had a blood alcohol content of 0.13 percent, according to court records. The legal intoxication threshold is 0.08 percent.

Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Clint Francis said he read a police report about Van Zandt’s death, but he was unable to determine how she died. “She had been having health problems,” Francis said.

According to court records, Van Zandt’s attorney, Mark Vovos, had asked a judge for a competency hearing to determine whether Van Zandt was fit to stand trial. In his motion filed in court records, Vovos said Van Zandt had been diagnosed with cancer, was on medication and had been dealing with psychological problems.

– Thomas Clouse

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