Bulletin Column

These reports are from the previous four issues of the Daily Bulletin in Colfax. They are reprinted here for the benefit of Gazette readers who reside outside of Colfax. Some accounts have been updated.

JOHNSON TO KEEP DRY PARADE

Organizers of the annual Johnson Fourth of July parade are again requesting participants and spectators refrain from squirting water during the unique event south of Pullman. Kathy Wolf, one of the organizers, said the water ban was announced last year after numerous years of complaints from parade participants with band instruments, vintage cars and animals.

Wolf noted some of the spectators of the county’s most unique parade were also “unwilling recipients” of water.

They are again asking participants and spectators to leave squirt guns and other water missiles, such as balloons, at home.

EXPLOITATION TRIAL SET

Thomas Takeuchi of Wailuku, Hawaii, who was booked into the county jail last week after being arrested in Portland on a warrant with bail set at $100,000, pleaded not guilty in superior court Friday to a charge of sexual exploitation of a minor. The charge alleges he took photos of an underage girl.

Takeuchi, 60, was allowed pre-trial release on his own recognizance after he told the court he would reside in Spokane. He was ordered to remain in the area. His trial date was set for Aug. 20.

CELLIST PLAYS FOR MORSE FUND

A benefit concert by cellist Amelie Bruya earned approximately $3,700 for the Tyler Morse fund June 6 at the Courtyard in Colfax. Amelie, who will be a senior next year at Colfax High, has played the cello since she was a youngster. Approximately 100 people attended.

Tyler Morse, a member of the 2010 class at Colfax High School, is now undergoing cancer treatments. Donations to the Tyler Morse fund can be sent to Box 109 at US Bank.

FISHER SENTENCED TO EIGHT MONTHS

Douglas K. Fisher, 58, Oakesdale, was sentenced to eight months in jail Friday morning after pleading guilty to a residential burglary last December in Colfax. Fisher was charged after police investigated reports of burglaries at condominium units at Hill Ray in Colfax.

Fisher was assigned an offender score of two for sentencing with a 2008 burglary listed on his record report.

Judge Doug Robinson allowed Fisher to serve the sentence in alternating segments of 30 days in jail and 40 days of electronic home monitoring.

Fisher was also ordered to not go within 500 feet of Hill Ray except for the use of the county road in front of the condominium.

Judge Robinson presided over the Fisher case after Judge David Fraizer recused himself because he was raised in Oakesdale.

OAKESDALE

DRIVER UNHURT

Marcus A. Wright, 31, Oakesdale, was unhurt Thursday morning, June 7, when the 2002 Chevrolet pickup truck he was driving went off Highway 271 north of Oakesdale and struck an embankment. According to the Washington State Patrol report, he was driving northbound at 5 a.m. when the truck drifted onto the shoulder and then into the ditch 2.8 miles north of Oakesdale.

THREE ARRESTED

AT EWAN

Three suspects were arrested June 4 after deputies responded to a report of a possible burglary at the former Grange hall in Ewan. The arrest report said a resident who lives near the hall reported seeing two men who had been dropped off at the hall by a red car. Another resident in Ewan located the car and delayed the driver, identified as Jimmy Brown, 21, Spokane, until deputies arrived at the scene.

According to the report, a resident observed one man climbing out of a back window of the Grange building while the other man waited outside. The two were last seen walking away from Ewan and were later apprehended in a field along Pierson Road.

Booked into the jail on probable charges of burglary and theft early Tuesday were Jonathan L. Schierman, 21, St. John, and Benjamin Salzman, also 21, Endicott. They were later allowed release on their own recognizance. Brown was booked on a probable charge of being an accomplice after he returned here from Spokane.

Conditions of release were exonerated by the court Friday after formal charges were not filed within three days.

ARREST AT STEPTOE

A $25,000 release bond was ordered Tuesday for Mark H. Short, 41, Spirit Lake, after he was booked into jail Monday afternoon on probable charges of assault, driving with a suspended license and theft of a 1985 Ford 250 truck.

Deputies responded to a report of a man assaulting a woman and boy. Residents reported the woman had apparently made an effort to walk away from a camp location near the Blackwell Road area of Steptoe. The arrest report said the alleged victim told her Short had assaulted her previously.

Short Friday pleaded not guilty of formal charges of kidnapping, taking a motor vehicle, and two counts of assault. He was scheduled for trial July 16.

JUDGE TOSSES JUNK CAR NOTICE

Colfax Municipal Judge Scott Bergstedt last Tuesday disqualified a junk vehicle notice which had been sent to Loren Jensen who resides on S. Meadow in the Hamilton Park neighborhood. Jensen had sought the court hearing after receiving one of the notices which were issued this spring by the city police department.

Judge Bergstedt ruled the city failed to show Jensen’s vehicles, which are parked on private property, qualified under code requirements which would have classified them as junk and subject to removal.

Residents who received the notices had the option of seeking a civil code hearing in municipal court. One other petitioner, Peggy Barney, has been scheduled for a hearing June 26. Barney has contested a notice involving vehicles they have parked on private property along Deanway.

MARKWART

SENTENCING DELAYED

Formal sentencing of Tyler Markwart, the former WSU student who was convicted by a jury last December after acting as his own attorney in a trial involving a marijuana grow operation, was delayed Friday after Markwart’s defense attorneys learned that Markwart could face five to seven years in prison.

The decision came after the court rejected a motion for a new trial and asked if the attorneys wanted to proceed with sentencing.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Bill Druffel told the court the state would seek a lengthy sentence because of convictions on multiple counts and because of a conviction for having a firearm at the apartment where Markwart was conducting the grow operation. Druffel said under his compilation, the firearm conviction could add a mandatory 18 months to Markwart’s sentence.

Douglas Hiatt, one of the attorneys representing Markwart Friday, said he planned to file a motion to reconsider the ruling on the firearms conviction.

Hiatt earlier in the hearing argued Markwart should be entitled to a new trial as the result of a pre-arrest conference which was conducted in the prosecutor’s office. Hiatt argued Druffel and Prosecutor Denis Tracy, who met with Markwart at that time, should have been considered witnesses when the meeting was later included in the trial testimony.

Druffel in his response contended the “sum and substance” of the state’s position was that Markwart opted to defend himself at the trial and “didn’t do a good job.” He added that all crimes involved in the conviction involved events which happened after the office session.

Markwart was allowed continued pre-sentence release pending the outcome of the new motion. His next court appearance is slated Aug. 17.