In brief: Dominguez resigns from police panel
The last of three Spokane police oversight committee members targeted in a disputed whistleblower investigation has resigned.
Adrian Dominguez, who last week asked for extra time to respond to the investigative findings, decided against addressing the Spokane City Council in person and submitted his resignation Wednesday. The Ombudsman Commission’s chairwoman, Rachel Dolezal, was removed by the council last Thursday and commissioner Kevin Berkompas complied with requests to immediately resign even though he describes the investigation as a sham.
Dominguez also remains critical of the investigation: “This process has been anything but fair and just,” he wrote in his letter of resignation.
The investigation found the three commissioners tried to overstep their authority, created a negative work experience for an ombudsman office employee and that two exhibited anti-police bias.
With the trio gone, the five-member oversight panel has too few commissioners left to function. The city is accepting applications for replacements.
Family files suit in man’s death
The family of a man killed in a confrontation with Spokane County sheriff’s deputies at a Moran Prairie gym in June 2013 have filed a lawsuit seeking $20 million in damages.
Will Berger died after he was shocked with a Taser and placed in a neck hold by Deputy Shawn Audie near the fitness center at 5501 S. Regal St. on June 6, 2013. Prosecutors cleared Audie of criminal charges in July 2014, and an independent civilian advisory board cleared deputies of wrongdoing earlier this summer. The lawsuit was filed by Berger’s brother and sister-in-law in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Washington. It alleges Audie and fellow Deputy Steve Paynter violated Berger’s civil rights by using excessive force.
The lawsuit also names Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and Spokane County, alleging inadequate training to handle the mentally ill. Berger had been hospitalized days before the incident after an erratic episode at another gym in Spokane.
The family originally filed a claim against the county requesting $100 million in damages. Berger’s father, Bill Berger, started a campaign last summer to seek funding for local law enforcement agencies to train officers in dealing with the mentally ill.
Bill calls for prison after fourth DUI
OLYMPIA – A driver guilty of a fourth driving under the influence charge could face prison time under a bill that passed the Senate unanimously on Wednesday.
For the third time this year, the Senate approved Spokane Valley Republican Mike Padden’s proposal to strengthen the state’s DUI law, which now only allows a felony charge for the fifth offense. Statistics Padden quoted from Mothers Against Drunk Driving showed that of the 46 states that allow felony charges for drunken or drugged driving, only Washington waits for a fifth offense.
The bill now goes to the House, which failed to pass it during the regular and first special session, forcing the bill to return to the Senate.
Senate OKs money for drought relief
OLYMPIA – Washington would set aside $18 million over the next two years to help communities and residents fight drought, under a bill the Senate passed unanimously Wednesday.
The state Department of Ecology would have $14 million from the general fund for its emergency drought response which could include securing water for farmers whose water rights are too junior to get adequate supplies. The bill, sent to the House on a 44-0 vote, sets aside another $4 million in the capital budget, which could be used for projects including help for cities that need deeper wells because of dropping water tables or for diversion projects for migrating fish.
The money would be available over the 2015-17 biennium, although if the drought ends next year, unused money would be transferred to an account for disaster preparedness. The bill passed the Senate for the second time. It passed last month during the first special session, after Gov. Jay Inslee declared a drought emergency, but failed to get a vote in the House and returned to the Senate for the second special session under legislative rules.
Suspect in killing faces another trial
A man who had his murder conviction overturned by the Washington Court of Appeals on a technicality appeared in court Wednesday as prosecutors prepare to retry the case.
Ben A. Burkey, 55, is being held on $1 million bond on charges of murder, kidnapping, robbery and assault.
He was found guilty of killing Rick L. Tiwater, 52, in 2005.
Though a police informant himself, it was Burkey’s belief Tiwater was a police snitch which allegedly led Burkey and James Phillip Tesch to beat Tiwater to death.
During the trial Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque allowed prospective jurors to be interviewed in private. The state Supreme Court has since ruled all aspects of a trial must be public.
A new trial is tentatively scheduled for January.
5.8 earthquake hits south-central Alaska
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A magnitude-5.8 earthquake has rocked south-central Alaska on, but the U.S. Geological Survey says there’s little likelihood of damage.
The West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center said the earthquake isn’t expected to cause a tsunami.