In brief: Inmate attempted suicide, officials say
An inmate who attempted suicide at the Spokane County Jail is hospitalized with no brain activity, officials say.
The jail was locked down at about 8:35 a.m. Friday after a corrections deputy making scheduled cell checks found the man unresponsive. His name was not released.
Deputies performed CPR until medics arrived, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. Medics established a pulse and transported the man to a hospital.
Hospital employees contacted jail staff three hours later and requested the man’s family information, saying he had no brain activity.
Policy dictates that the jail be locked down after a major incident of that type to ensure all available resources are devoted to handling it, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Man in hospital after being pulled from river
A man was hospitalized after being pulled from the Spokane River on Friday evening.
Witnesses had pulled the unresponsive man from the river when fire crews arrived at the Boulder Beach area near East Upriver Drive, according to a dispatcher.
Medics took over CPR efforts and transported him to Deaconess Medical Center, where his condition was not available Friday night.
Dispatchers took the call at 8:27 p.m.
Cops seek Nguyen’s fellow partygoers
Investigators are looking to speak with people who were at a party attended by a man accused of a drunken hit-and-run that injured a 2-year-old girl in Spokane Valley last week.
Timmy Nguyen, 22, was at a party at the clubhouse at the Pasadena apartment complex at East Wellesley Avenue and North Pasadena Lane before he left in a 2003 Honda Element and allegedly struck a family riding bicycles near East Maringo Drive and North Argonne Road.
Danika Packard was riding in a bicycle trailer that police say was flattened by Nguyen’s car. A witness followed Nguyen back to the apartment complex, where Nguyen was arrested.
Cpl. Dave Thornburg interviewed the witness and said the witness doesn’t consider himself a hero, rather “he did what any parent or concerned citizen would do in similar circumstances,” according to a Friday news release.
Thornburg is looking to speak to partygoers to learn more about Nguyen’s actions before the crash.
“Nobody from the party is in trouble or suspected of committing a crime,” Thornburg wrote.
The girl was released from a hospital Wednesday and is recovering well. Thornburg served two search warrants Thursday, one for the car and another for Nguyen’s medical records at Valley Hospital. Nguyen, a student at Gonzaga Law School, was treated there briefly after he vomited in the back of the patrol car and police noticed labored breathing.
Man’s confession leads to another arrest
A robbery suspect has been arrested after his alleged accomplice told police about a crime that hadn’t been reported.
Travis Heath Bertholf, 40, is accused of robbing an apartment in the 2500 block of East Hartson Avenue with David Fredrick Smith sometime in May.
Spokane County sheriff’s Detectives Jack Rosenthal and Mike Ricketts were on a tour of home-invasion robbery sites with Smith when he directed them to the Hartson location.
They identified the resident, Loyalee Elton, through utility records and contacted her. She told them two men wearing bandannas over their faces robbed her at gunpoint of a backpack containing 200 to 300 watches, according to court documents. Her brother also was held at gunpoint.
One of the men threatened to kill her, Elton said. Smith told police he and Bertholf entered the residence through an open back door. Smith had a 9-mm semi-automatic gun; Bertholf had a .380 semi-automatic, according to documents.
Smith admitted to pointing a gun at Elton when she pleaded with him not to take the backpack, police say.
Bertholf was arrested Thursday. Smith also is in jail, charged with a series of home-invasion robberies.
Police say mentally ill man choked cellmate
A mentally ill man accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend choked his cellmate unconscious at the Spokane County Jail on Friday, police say.
Robbie W. Bishop. 22, faces a second-degree assault charge for attacking Terry Ingram Jr., 33, who is in jail on a $1,000 District Court warrant, according to jail records.
Ingram told deputies that Bishop challenged him to a fight about 12:20 a.m. and said, “I’m going to kill you” before choking him unconscious.
A corrections deputy said he heard someone yelling “guard” and went to the cell, where Ingram said, “He tried to kill me; get me out of here!”
The deputy said Bishop said, “Yeah, I choked him out.”
Bishop has been in custody since July 2009 in the stabbing death of 33-year-old Robin M. Anderson, who was pregnant with Bishop’s child.
Man sentenced in taped child sex abuse case
A Wenatchee man who sexually abused a 6-year-old girl and broadcast it live on the Internet was sentenced in Spokane to 15 years in federal prison.
Scott J. Martin, 49, abused the girl at the direction of Christian Webb, a former Minot, N.D., school district employee who used a school-assigned Internet connection to help facilitate the crimes. Webb was sentenced in May 2011 to 12 years in prison.
News reports say he regularly contacted pedophiles through the Internet and persuaded them to sexually abuse children while he watched through a webcam. Webb had 75 webcam videos depicting the sexual abuse of children when he was arrested.
His case led to the arrest of six people in Washington, Kansas, Ohio, Louisiana and Texas, as well as the rescue of eight children from abuse, according to the Minot Daily News.
Martin’s lawyer described him as a man with cerebral palsy who is easily influenced by others.
Martin was sentenced last week in U.S. District Court last week after pleading guilty to production of child pornography/use of a child to transmit live images of abuse. He’ll be on probation for 15 years after his release.
CPS takes baby left alone in car
Child Protective Services has taken custody of a 1-year-old girl who was left alone in a car while her mother was shopping in Spokane.
Witnesses called police Wednesday, and officers found the baby alone in the car with a window rolled down and the engine running. She appeared happy.
KHQ reports police estimated she was alone in the car for 10 or 15 minutes.
The mother said she left the baby with the father, but police weren’t able to confirm that and called CPS.