In brief: Teens arrested after chase, crash
Four juveniles crashed a stolen car in a high-speed chase with police early Wednesday, officials said.
The teenagers are believed to have been involved in a gunpoint carjacking early Tuesday in the 1500 block of East Boone Avenue.
Police were alerted Wednesday morning to people in a car brandishing a weapon near East Fifth Avenue and South Rebecca Street. Officers pursued the car but backed off when the driver reached speeds of about 70 mph on Freya Street, police said.
Officers lost sight of the vehicle as it crested the hill, “only to come over the top of the hill and see the vehicle crashed into a building and the four suspects fleeing,” according to a police news release.
The car burst into flames. Patrol officers and a K-9 helped track the suspects within half an hour after the crash. No one was injured in the crash but two were treated for dog bites at local hospitals.
The suspects, three boys and a girl, were booked into Spokane County Juvenile Detention on charges of possession of stolen property.
Developer guilty of murder for hire
A federal jury has unanimously convicted a former Coeur d’Alene-area developer of crafting a murder-for-hire scheme to kill Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Cook and key witnesses in a North Idaho drug case.
Kelly J. Polatis, 41, was found guilty Wednesday of 14 combined counts of witness tampering and using interstate commerce in the commission of a murder-for-hire. The jury acquitted Polatis of three charges. Defense attorney Lawrence Leigh said he’ll appeal.
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups will sentence Polatis on Sept. 30. He faces more than 130 years in prison.
Prosecutors say Polatis attempted to hire an undercover FBI agent posing as a hit man to kill five people who spoke to authorities about his involvement in a marijuana growing operation in Coeur d’Alene.
Polatis was acquitted of the drug charges in 2010 and arrested on the murder-for-hire charges the same day.
River area, boat launch open late
The Spokane River is now open for recreation between the Spokane Street Bridge in Post Falls and the area just upstream of the Post Falls Dam.
Officials at Avista Corp., which operates the dam, said river flows have dropped sufficiently to allow all of the dam’s spill gates to be closed.
The boat launch at Q’emiln Park opened to the public on Monday. High water flows this year had delayed the opening of the boat launch, which typically opens in June or early July. Avista expects summer operation at the dam to continue through Labor Day, as long as weather conditions permit.
Avista’s 24-hour telephone information line gives updated information about changes in Lake Coeur d’Alene and the Spokane River. In Idaho, call (208) 769-1357; in Washington, call (509) 495-8043.
Weather and water flow information is also available at www.avistautilities. com/inside/resources/ pages/waterflow.aspx.
Medicaid payments prompt lawsuit
The Washington State Hospital Association has sued the state for cutting Medicaid payments.
The lawsuit filed Monday in King County Superior Court claims that the Legislature raided money from a dedicated fund to help pay medical bills accrued by the poor and instead will route the money into the state’s general fund. WSHA said the move creates an unconstitutional tax on hospital patients.
The suit, filed in Seattle, outlines a special assessment the Legislature approved in 2010 to collect $200 per day per hospital patient. The money would be matched by federal funds and that would help stabilize Medicaid funding for hospitals and award the state extra cash to help alleviate last year’s budget crunch.
This year, the Legislature, facing more shortfalls, cut the Medicaid payments to hospitals but kept the assessment in place, using the money to preserve programs and ease deeper cuts. WSHA alleges this action turned the assessment into an illegal tax.
Colville Tribes re-elect chairman
Michael Finley was recently re-elected to his third term as chairman of the Colville Business Council, the governing body for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.
Finley was sworn in last week, along with Ernest “Sneena” Brooks III, who is the council’s vice chairman, and Darlene Zacherle, the council’s secretary.
The Northeast Washington tribe has more than 9,000 members.
Judge Boyle wins Idaho bar award
A federal judge in Idaho has been chosen to receive the Idaho State Bar’s 2011 Distinguished Lawyer Award.
U.S. District Judge Larry Boyle, who sometimes presides in cases in Coeur d’Alene, was chosen last week to receive the award, which recognizes attorneys who distinguish themselves through “exemplary conduct, professionalism, and years of dedicated service to the legal profession,” according to a news release.
Boyle has worked 39 years in the legal profession, including 25 years as a state and federal judge.
Police: Woman denies delivering baby
OLYMPIA – A woman who authorities believe delivered a boy who died at birth at a home on Olympia’s west side has repeatedly denied to friends, family, medical professionals and detectives that she had been pregnant or gave birth, Olympia police said.
The woman was brought to Providence St. Peter Hospital on Monday morning complaining of abdominal pain. Hospital staffers found evidence that she had given birth and notified police.
Olympia police found the baby in a plastic bag in a closet at the woman’s residence on Monday, Olympia Police Detective Jeff Herbig said Tuesday.
After the baby’s autopsy Tuesday, Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said the baby might have survived had the mother sought medical attention when giving birth.
“It was during the birth that he died,” he said.
Monday’s death is the second time in less a week that a woman in the Olympia area allegedly gave birth without telling anyone.
Jasmine Marie Ritchey, 23, is being held at the Thurston County Jail on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder and abandonment of a dependent person after she allegedly gave birth to a boy in a bathroom at Providence St. Peter Hospital and placed in a trash can. The baby was found blue in the face with its umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, police said. He was taken to Tacoma General Hospital, where he was in stable condition last week.