In brief: Child porn brings federal sentence

A 45-year-old Spokane Valley janitor was sentenced to 80 months in federal prison for possessing and transporting child pornography, officials with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Washington announced Friday.

Frank E. Murinko Jr. pleaded guilty to the crimes in August.

Based on an FBI investigation on the East Coast, in March 2007 agents discovered a computer in Spokane Valley was used to distribute child pornography. Officials found more than 750 images of child pornography on Murinko’s home computer, and they learned he had pretended to be a teenage boy to solicit dozens of sexually explicit photos from adolescent girls on the Internet.

Upon release from prison, Murinko will be under the court’s supervision for 15 years.

Felon with gun gets 15-year term

A Spokane Valley man was sentenced to 15 years in prison this week under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act.

Christopher A. Kleckner, 61, was arrested in October 2008 on outstanding warrants, and upon arrest police found a loaded .380-caliber pistol in his pants pocket.

Kleckner subsequently pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearm, and he was sentenced by a federal court to 180 months in federal prison, with 60 months of community supervision upon release, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, Eastern District of Washington.

The law requires a mandatory sentence of 15 years up to life in prison for defendants who possess firearms or ammunition after being convicted of more than three felony crimes or serious drug offenses.

Electrical outlet blamed for fire

An electrical outlet overloaded by a portable heater is to blame for a fire Friday morning that displaced a family of five from a northeast Spokane home.

Spokane firefighters quickly extinguished the small blaze in a home at 2803 N. Mayfair St., one block east of Division Street.

The 9:45 a.m. fire was found burning inside a wall, and fire damage was contained to the upper floor of the home, fire officials said.

Fire officials said the number of fires caused by overloaded electrical outlets from space heaters tends to increase this time of year. Residents should only plug portable heaters into outlets designed to handle the electric load of the heater.

Teck Resources fined for spill

Teck Resources Ltd. will pay $115,000 to the Canadian government for a 2008 spill at its Trail, B.C., smelter that dumped lead and acid into the Columbia River.

British Columbia’s Ministry of the Environment levied the penalty after Teck pleaded guilty in September to a single count of violating the province’s environmental laws.

Teck discharged 900 kilograms of lead refinery electrolyte and 360 liters of acid in the river following a technical failure at the smelter. The spills occurred over a five-hour period May 28, 2008.

Teck’s penalty includes $110,000 to help recover the Columbia River’s white sturgeon population, and $5,000 in fines.