In brief: Witness gives leads in Whitley fire
More arrests in the Whitley Fuel fire are possible.
Witness Antoinette Miller told fire officials she saw four men shooting bottle rockets from a roof into the fuel depot two days before it exploded and recognized one of three men standing near her northeast Spokane home as the flames raged skyward July 23, court documents revealed Tuesday.
She heard Timothy L. Jacobs tell the two men, “Dudes, we have to get out of here,” she told investigators.
Chief Bobby Williams, of the Spokane Fire Department, confirmed the report of other possible arson suspects. He said Jacobs, 19, was the only one positively identified.
“We don’t know whether the individuals he was on the roof with on Saturday (July 21) are the same individuals he was seen with Monday (July 23),” Williams said.
Another witness, Dave Hopkins, told investigators he saw Jacobs lighting fireworks the day of the explosion, then saw him running away from the inferno and switching clothes with other people, according to the documents.
In an interview Monday with The Spokesman-Review, Jacobs said he had been at a Laundromat washing his clothes when the explosion occurred.
Appearing in Spokane County District Court for a first-degree arson charge Tuesday afternoon, Jacobs sat as Judge Gregory Tripp set bail at $250,000. With a robust criminal history and three prior failures to appear in court, Jacobs poses a risk of flight and to reoffend, Tripp said.
View a document related to this story at spokesmanreview.com.
Man sues Spokane in wrongful arrest
A man wrongly arrested for making death threats over the Internet has filed a lawsuit against the city of Spokane, among other defendants, after the city did not settle a $78,160 damage claim.
On Feb. 14, Spokane police arrested Dean Dunn at gunpoint at his home after tracking statements made on MySpace.com to his Internet Protocol address. After a jail booking and $10,000 bail, it was found that detectives incorrectly copied the postings’ IP address and that a 13-year-old girl had written the threats to burn down the victims’ house and “chop your whole family into little pieces,” according to past reports in The Spokesman-Review.
Dunn filed a claim against the city on July 11, alleging he suffered emotional distress, lost wages, legal expenses, loss of his computer and undeserved media exposure.
His lawsuit, filed Oct. 5, requests monetary compensation from the city, Spokane police employees and Qwest – which gave Dunn’s address to police when they requested information on the IP address, court records state. No media are listed as defendants.
Detectives ultimately arrested the girl, who was charged in Juvenile Court for sending threats to other juveniles who lived in her home on East Hoffman Avenue, according to past reports.
Boxer sentenced to work release
The Hillyard Hammer, arrested in April 2006 for an assault outside a Spokane bar, has been sentenced to 120 days of work-release confinement and 18 months of probation.
Chauncey K. Welliver, 24, convicted of fourth-degree assault, will work outside the fences of Geiger Corrections Center but will spend the night there, said his lawyer, Robert Cossey.
Welliver must report to Geiger by Monday, according to court records.
A boxer known in the Spokane area as the Hillyard Hammer, Welliver was arrested after an apartment manager reported that Welliver punched him in the side of the head outside the Spread Tavern – now the Zombie Room. Welliver was working as a bouncer at the business and had been trying to break up a fight, according to past reports in The Spokesman-Review.
Boise
Volunteers sought for planting effort
Gov. Butch Otter on Tuesday outlined his plan for hundreds of volunteers in November and December to collect sagebrush seeds in hopes of using them to restore wildfire-damaged rangeland.
In southwestern Idaho, 80 volunteers will be needed for four days in November and December. Sixty volunteers are needed for a similar effort near Twin Falls.
Otter says he wants to help restore more than 2 million acres of territory that burned this year in Idaho.
Volunteers will use 80 seed hoppers made this year by state prisoners in addition to 70 hoppers that have been in use since 1992.
To sign up, contact the Department of Fish and Game near Boise at (208) 327-7095 or in the Magic Valley at (208) 324-4359.
From staff and wire reports