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.

****************

WELFARE FRAUD CONTRACT

A contract for dismissal of welfare fraud charges against Karl Ian Keith-Andersson, 61, was filed in superior court Friday. The state has agreed to drop charges of theft by welfare fraud and providing false verification in exchange for an agreement by the defendant to pay back sums alleged due.

Andersson was charged with taking $35,189 from the Department of Social and Health Services between Dec. 1, 2008, and May 5, 2011.

The contract calls for him to make $125 monthly payments to the department and make a lump sum payment of $14,000 by Feb. 1, 2015.

The Nov. 1, 2012, charge alleges he failed to report he owned a building at Main and Crosby in Tekoa, failed to report income for storing cars, that he was the registered owner of 13 cars, that he had income from restoring vehicles, that he had a joint checking account with his mother and a private account.

The agreement calls for Andersson to waive his speedy trial rights to July 1, 2027, when the prosecutor will dismiss the charges or renew the case depending on whether he completes terms of the agreement.

PERMIT FOR 2ND REDTAIL HOUSE

Tom Hockett of Kennewick Monday applied for a permit to construct a house on Redtail Ridge in Colfax. It will be the second house to go up on the ridge which has undergone a construction lag after the real estate slump. Adair Homes will be the contractor for the $170,000 house. Hockett earlier applied for permits to build a pole building and a horse shelter. They plan to make Colfax their retirement home.

Redtail Ridge includes 36 lots which are located in the rural residential zone.

GRADS PLAN JACK BAFUS RITE

Colfax High graduates who gather regularly in Spokane Valley plan a celebration of life for the late Coach Jack Bafus Monday, Aug. 5, during their luncheon at the Timber Creek Buffet in Argonne Village, 9211 E. Montgomery, in Spokane Valley. The luncheon will start at 11:30 and the program for Mr. Bafus will begin at approximately 1 p.m.

One-time Colfax Coach Jerry Martin will emcee the program, and Mrs. Bafus will bring scrapbooks.

Coach Bafus was a Colfax teacher and coach in the 1950s. He later coached baseball at Pasco High School and then at Spokane Falls Community College where he started the baseball program in 1965. He retired as SFCC athletic director in 1979. He died at his home in Spokane June 7 at the age of 89.

SENTENCED FOR CHILD RAPE

Walter Merrell Weeks III, 36, Des Moines, was sentenced to seven months in jail Friday after he pleaded guilty to a charge of rape of a child in the third degree. Weeks, who underwent an evaluation after his arrest, was ordered to undergo sexual offender treatment as an out-patient for up to 36 months.

He was arrested after Pullman police received a report from a resident who said her 15-year-old daughter told her she had met Weeks in Pullman and had sex with him in a motel room. The daughter said she had agreed to meet Weeks after she met him in an internet chat room.

Weeks’ sentence includes seven additional months of jail time which was suspended pending his completion of the sexual offender treatment.

PAVING WRAPS GAS LINE JOB

Crews from Morgan Industries out of Clarkston applied asphalt surfacing Monday to finish out the two-week Avista gas line repair project in South Main Street. The crew applied three lifts of asphalt to the 100-foot cut which was made by Avista to replace a gas main along the east side of Main in front of the River View Apartments.

The project involved cutting through the street surfacing which was applied last year for the state reconstruction project on Highway 195. Avista crews removed the leaking segment of gas line, assembled and installed a replacement line. The project included use of temporary slide protection boxes at each end of the line and use of a temporary bypass line.

During fill operations Friday both northbound lanes were blocked off to allow the front loader to apply the fill material. Barriers remained around the newly installed asphalt patch Tuesday morning but were removed later to allow entry to the front lot parking at River View Apartments.

THC TREAT NETS SENTENCE

Jacob Samuel Stutesman, 21, Pullman, was sentenced to 364 days in jail with all but 30 suspended after he entered a plea of guilty Friday in superior court to a charge of fourth degree assault. The charge was reduced from second degree assault in a plea bargain agreement.

Stutesman was charged after Karen Trebitz, an instructor for one of his WSU classes, became ill and was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital. The cause of her illness was determined to be a Rice Krispie treat which tested positive for being laced with THC from marijuana.

Trebitz said Stutesman dropped by her office after a class session to return a vest she had left behind and the vest contained the cereal bar treat.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bill Druffel Friday read a letter from Trebitz to the court. She noted she was bothered by the thought of what the outcome would have been if she had opted to give the treat to another student or staff member.

Stutesman was ordered to pay a total of $3,181 in fines and fees including $1,731 in restitution to the Department of Labor and Industries for medical expenses. He was credited with one day already served in jail and placed on two years of probation.

ADMITS VEHICULAR ASSAULT

Travis A Hightower, 35, Uniontown, pleaded guilty in superior court to a charge of vehicular assault while intoxicated. Hightower was scheduled for sentencing Aug. 16. He was allowed continued release under previous restrictions including wearing an ankle monitor.

Hightower was the driver of a 2005 Dodge pickup truck which pulled out in front of a Jeep Cherokee driven by Vicktor Bumgart of Covington on Highway 195 just south of Uniontown April 26. Bumgart sustained a broken right leg and other injuries in the accident.

Prosecutor Denis Tracy said a test on Hightower for blood alcohol content after the accident resulted in a reading of .15 which is over the state’s standard for being intoxicated.

PULLMAN FACES BIKE CRASH SUIT

A suit seeking damages against the City of Pullman related to an accident involving a Pullman Transit bus and a bicycle rider was filed week before last in Superior Court. The suit was filed by Kenneth W. Anderson who sustained extensive injuries in the accident.

Also named as defendants were Pullman Transit and the driver of the bus, Michael J. Elliott.

Filed by Pullman attorney Tim Esser, the suit contends Anderson was injured when he was sucked up in the wheel well of the bus while riding a bicycle on Stadium Way Nov. 18, 2011.

The suit says Anderson rode the bike into a curb cut in a construction zone along Stadium Way when the Martin Stadium construction project was underway. The suit said he rode into the curb cut because a crowd of people was on the sidewalk after getting off the bus.

He was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital, Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane and then Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle.

The suit lists $572,603 already paid to Group Health, Anderson’s auto insurer and the Department of Labor and Industries. He seeks award of those costs to resolve subrogation interests. It also seeks general damages for alleged lasting injuries and future medical expenses.

The suit contends site of the accident was the lone bus stop on Stadium Way which does not have an indent for the bus to stop. It also alleges the bus was traveling too close to the curb and the driver was intent in making a green light.

The suit said a claim for damages had been filed against the city in May of last year.

ALL SPORTS PARENT MEETING

A meeting for parents and players of all sports has been slated for Aug. 20 at 7 p.m. at the high school. The aim of the meeting will be to consolidate the information session for all sports with one meeting a year.

For several years the district has conducted parents meeting at the start of each sport session. Parents and players involved in any sport are asked to attend the Aug. 20 session and get the information they need.

A meeting for coaches has been booked for Aug. 19.

Colfax school officials are still in the process of hiring a new athletic director to take the spot being vacated by Shawna Kneale, who earlier announced plans to resign.

ARSON SUSPECT MOVES ON

Brian Lee Kitchen, 31, the Pullman apprentice plumber who was ordered held in jail here July 23 on $1,000,000 bail after his arrest on a pending charge of arson, has been moved to Spokane after a warrant for his arrest was issued by a U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington by a grand jury July 24.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bill Druffel July 24 filed a motion to exonerate the bond set in superior court and allow release on the arrest warrant issued by the U.S. Court.

Kitchen was arrested by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and taken to Spokane. Agents had participated in the investigation at Pullman and issued a polygraph test to the suspect July 22 when Kitchen was questioned at the Pullman Police station before his arrest. He failed the polygraph test administered by a ATF agent and later confessed to lighting the fire at the Grove Apartments Complex in Pullman, according to allegations filed in the arrest report here.

The federal warrant was issued by a grand jury at Spokane. Kitchen is charged with starting the fire at the Grove on July 14. The bill from the federal grand jury charges him with malicious use of fire to damage property used in Interstate Commerce.

Estimated loss in the July 14 Grove Complex fire was placed at $13 million.

Prosecutor Denis Tracy told the court here July 23 he anticipated charges would be filed in U.S. Court following review by the grand jury. A formal charge against Kitchen was not filed in court here.

MILLER WINS STITCHERS QUILT

Diane Miller of Colfax was the winner of the quilt raffle conducted by the Peace Stitchers of Peace Lutheran Church. The quilt was displayed at Rosauers, Chase Bank and the Quilt Shop.

The project earned $511 for the church youth group which recently conducted a mission trip to Lapwai.

HOOD SUSPECTS SENT TO STATE

Three suspects arrested for taking cash from Larry Hood at his residence south of Pullman last April have been sent to the Department of Corrections to begin terms after pleading guilty to burglary.

The last of the three warrants of commitment sent Justin Jaquith, 24, Clarkston, to the state Department of Corrections last Wednesday, July 24. Jaquith, pleaded guilty July 22 to a charge of first degree burglary.

Jaquith had been scheduled for a jury trial Sept. 12 after he pleaded not guilty on charges of robbery, theft and burglary. The other two charges were dismissed Friday as part of the plea bargain agreement.

Also convicted and sent to the DOC were Matthew Evans, 25, Lewiston, and Andrea Sarvabui, 25, Clarkston.

Evans was committed to the DOC for 20 months after pleading guilty to first degree burglary July 18. Both he and Jaquith were credited with 101 days served in jail pending resolution of the charges against them.

Sarvabui was sentenced to 16.5 months in prison July 19 after she pleaded guilty to a charge of first degree burglary. She has also been sent to the Department of Corrections to serve her term which exceeded a year.

According to the arrest report, they were arrested at Pullman after taking $3,780 in cash from Hood who had been the victim of a prior robbery and a burglary at his residence south of Pullman.

The arrest report said Hood thought he recognized Sarvabui when she knocked on his door in the early morning hours, and she was followed into his residence by two males, later identified as Jaquith and Evans. The report said Evans carried a folding baton which Hood considered a threat.

Hood called 911 after the suspects had left his residence and reported he saw the car they were driving head north on 195. Pullman officers spotted the car and arrested the suspects, two of which Hood identified that night. He told Pullman officers he believed the man he couldn’t identify was the one who grabbed him from behind after he trio walked into his house.

Evans and Jaquith were each ordered to pay $1,250 in fines and fees, and Sarvabui was ordered to pay $1,000. Each was also ordered to pay $200 in restitution to Hood.