Region in brief: Free carriage rides offered downtown

Free holiday horse-and-carriage rides for downtown Spokane visitors begin Friday and continue through Christmas Eve.

Riders can board the carriage free of charge at Wall Street and Main Avenue from 3 to 8 p.m. Fridays, from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, and from noon to 3 p.m. Christmas Eve.

Rides are given on a first-come, first-served basis.

The holiday horse- and-carriage rides are sponsored by Spokane Teachers Credit Union, the Downtown Business Improvement District and the Downtown Spokane Partnership.

Sara Leaming

Another suit filed against Morning Star

Attorneys for 15 former residents of Morning Star Boys’ Ranch who say they were sexually abused at the south Spokane facility filed a separate lawsuit Wednesday over the transfer of the ranch’s assets to a nonprofit foundation.

The lawsuit, filed in Spokane County Superior Court, accuses officers, directors and advisers of “a massive conspiracy to defraud the plaintiffs” by transferring more than $12 million in securities and $4 million in real estate from the ranch to the Morning Star Foundation. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent future transfers.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys moved last week to delay the civil trial of the first sex abuse case, scheduled to begin the first week of January, until they have time to depose ranch and foundation officials about the transfers.

The chief executive officers of the ranch and the foundation had not seen the lawsuit Wednesday and declined to comment.

Kevin Graman

Glass shards found on burglary suspect

An 18-year-old man was in Spokane County Jail on Wednesday accused of burglarizing a downtown credit union.

Shards of glass matching the bank’s broken window were found in his pocket when he was arrested, police said. Kirtis L. Porambo faces a charge of second-degree burglary.

Authorities responded to an alarm at Primesource Credit Union, 428 E. Third Ave., about 1:50 a.m. Wednesday, said Spokane police spokeswoman Officer Jennifer DeRuwe. Witnesses told police they’d seen a man jumping through a broken window at the bank.

Porambo was found at Fifth Avenue and Garfield Street, DeRuwe said. “Surveillance video from inside the bank was reviewed by officers, and Porambo was clearly seen inside the bank,” she said. “It does not appear that anything was taken from inside the credit union.”

From staff reports