Navy recruiting, performing music
It’s Navy Week in Spokane. Various high schools will get presentations by recruiters, the Navy Band will play several free concerts and the commander of the service’s Northwest Region, Rear Adm. James Symonds, will make stops at colleges and join in Lilac Festival events.
The Navy Band will play free concerts at 6 tonight in Riverfront Park, 7:30 p.m. Friday at Mt. Spokane High School and noon Saturday at Riverfront Park. The Navy Rock Band has a 5:30 p.m. concert in the park Saturday. Symonds will serve as honorary grand marshal of Saturday’s Lilac Parade.
Child rape suspect in police custody
A 75-year-old sex offender living in north Spokane was arrested Tuesday in connection with the rape and sexual exploitation of an 8-year-old.
Robert A. Nist was booked into Spokane County Jail on charges of child rape and first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, Spokane County sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan said. Nist was living in the 200 block of East Nordin Avenue.
Reno, Nev., detectives reported the suspected abuse occurred in Reno and Spokane, Reagan said. The girl told Reno detectives that Nist videotaped her without clothing and physically assaulted her as early as age 7. During a search of the Nordin Avenue home, Detective Kevin Bechtold seized several videotapes but had not reviewed them yet, Reagan said. Nist is a Level 1 sex offender with convictions dating to 1952.
Seattle
O’Donnell says he didn’t report past
Former Spokane Diocese priest Patrick O’Donnell testified in Seattle Wednesday that in addition to the two men whose lawsuit is being tried there this week, he abused at least four other boys while serving at St. Paul’s church in Seattle in the late 1970s.
But, he said, he didn’t tell people in Seattle about the abuses or of his abusive history.
The trial opened Tuesday with lawyers for the two plaintiffs questioning O’Donnell, who has a long history of abusing boys and has admitted to molesting at least 30. The plaintiffs are suing the Seattle Archdiocese, saying it failed to protect them from O’Donnell.
Lawyers for the archdiocese questioned O’Donnell to try to advance its argument that the archdiocese knew nothing of O’Donnell’s history and that primary responsibility for him lay with the Spokane Diocese.
O’Donnell said he told people in Seattle he was furthering his graduate studies and did not disclose that the Spokane bishop had sent him to Seattle for sexual-deviancy treatment.
From staff and wire reports