RPS crash investigation

A lawyer with the state attorney general’s office who provided a legal review of an investigation into a fatal 2006 River Park Square garage crash believed his review was being used “for political cover,” according to a memo written by David Savage, the ex-husband of the woman who died in the incident. In the memo to himself, Savage, an attorney who worked on the civil case against River Park Square, discusses details of a phone call between him and Scott Marlow, the lawyer who handled the examination for the attorney general’s office.

No charges will be filed from the 2006 death of a woman whose car broke through a parking garage barrier and plunged five stories to the ramp below. Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker said Friday he is closing the investigation of the death of Jo Ellen Savage after his office and the state Attorney General’s office concluded in separate reviews that there’s not enough evidence to prove the owners of the River Park Square garage were guilty of criminal recklessness or criminal negligence beyond a reasonable doubt.

Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker has asked for advice from the state attorney general’s office on an investigation into the death of a woman whose car fell from the River Park Square parking garage in 2006. Tucker said this week that he and Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll reviewed boxes of information on the case gathered by federal investigators and that the two of them came to similar but slightly different conclusions. He declined to elaborate.

Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker has asked for advice from the state Attorney General’s office on an investigation into the death of a woman whose car fell from the River Park Square parking garage in 2006.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said Friday he fully supports Spokane Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick's decision to forward homicide allegations involving the River Park Square garage to the FBI. Former Pend Oreille County Sheriff Tony Bamonte sent a letter dated Aug. 18 to Kirkpatrick and Knezovich urging them to open a manslaughter investigation into last year's death of Jo Ellen Savage, who died after her car hit a barrier and fell from the garage's fifth floor on April 8, 2006.

A former Pend Oreille County sheriff believes manslaughter charges should be filed in connection with the death of a woman whose car plunged from the River Park Square parking garage last year.

Seven months after a woman died when her car fell from the River Park Square parking garage, construction will start to prevent future failures of the structure's walls. The city of Spokane approved the mall's plans to make the improvements and issued a building permit for the work on Wednesday.

The city of Spokane told River Park Square officials Friday that the mall's plans to strengthen the walls of its garage are incomplete. The city's building department said it would not approve the building permit for construction until River Park Square provides more calculations and test results about the strength of the walls, according to a letter signed by city Inspector Supervisor Dan Skindzier and sent to the mall's general manager, Rob McOmie.