Judge uses escape as lesson

Trevor Long’s chance at Spokane County drug court was already beginning to slip Thursday morning when Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins called for a deputy to transport him to the Spokane County Jail.

Tompkins asked Long to step into the jury box to wait. He took two steps toward the seats but then turned and bolted for the courtroom door.

He apparently didn’t see the little girl coming back in to retrieve her book.

The 6-year-old girl’s forehead stopped the door as Loran fled down the hallway, Superior Court Judge Robert Austin said.

The girl, who is the daughter of another drug court participant, suffered a nasty bump on her head but appeared to be fine, Austin said.

Long outran corrections deputies but he now has a felony arrest warrant chasing him.

“I am so disappointed there may have been an injury,” said Tompkins, who didn’t see the girl after the collision. “But that was a life lesson.”

Tompkins then used Long’s poor choice as a lesson the other participants should not repeat.

She took over the drug court in January, one month after its 10-year anniversary in Spokane County.

As of December, some 250 people have graduated and 263 people have failed.

But of those who have succeeded, statistics show just about 10 percent commit new felony crimes compared with the approximately 70 percent of offenders who simply go to jail, Tompkins said.

“I have seen so many people overcome so many odds,” Tompkins said. “It’s not a numbers game. It’s saving people person by person. They’ll never stop committing crimes until we can get them on the stability track.”

Long, believed to be 22, was new to the program. “He was developing a concerning pattern of not attending treatments or testing,” Tompkins said.

If drug court participants show up as much as five minutes late to a counseling session, they don’t get credit for attending, she said. “There are immediate consequences,” she said.

Running through the door caused another.

“That shows how much damage you can cause in a split-second decision,” Tompkins said.