Trio arrested in prowling cases

Spokane Valley Police Officers Rustin Olson and Todd Miller said they arrested a 21-year-old man after observing him pry the radio out of Buick.

According to police spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan, the officers watched Richard J. Freim use a small flashlight to look through the windows of parked cars at the Pheasant Hill Apartment complex, 601 S. Woodruff, about 3 a.m. Saturday.

Olson saw the suspect seated in the front seat trying to remove the radio out of the dash with a large screwdriver. The officers had been alerted to the in-progress vehicle prowling by a tenant who had watched Freim allegedly break into another car.

In the ensuing investigation, the officers learned that Freim had allegedly broken into and pillaged three vehicles at the complex, and that two accomplices, 20-year-old Cody M. Marler and a 16-year-old girl, had spray-painted sexual slurs on two additional vehicles and a fence.

Reagan said cost of the property stolen was $375 and damage to the five vehicles and fencing was at least $4,400.

Officers found Marler and the girl at a nearby address and detained them there. Both were interviewed and then arrested for third-degree malicious mischief. Spent paint cans were found and seized as evidence in the case.

Freim was arrested for first-degree malicious mischief and second-degree theft, both felonies, and for three counts of vehicle prowling and one count of possession of burglary tools, all gross misdemeanors. Officer Olson booked him into the Spokane County Jail.