Bulletin Column: October 31, 2019

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.

FIRST SNOW WRECKS BLOCK 195

Highway 195 between Colfax and Pullman was blocked by traffic mishaps Monday night following a snowfall. Snow started falling here at about 4:30 p.m. and sub-freezing temperature led to ice on the highway.

No injuries were reported.

Numerous minor slide-off accidents were reported in the area at Round Barn Hill at mile 27. A semi truck jackknifed on the grade and northbound traffic was halted at 7:21 p.m.

The northbound traffic was opened at 10:18 p.m. and both lanes of the highway were opened before 10:30 p.m.

The sheriff's log lists a deputy assist to the State Patrol for a semi slide-off on Highway 195 at 7:56 p.m.

A disabled vehicle reported on James Street in Colfax at 7:24 p.m. turned out to be a driver who was chaining up.

A Colfax ambulance crew was dispatched at 6:29 p.m. to a report of an accident at the intersection of Highway 195 and Shawnee Road. The accident turned out to be a slide-off with no injuries involved and the crew returned to the station.

Downtown temperature sign readings in Colfax Tuesday at 7 a.m. ranged from 17 to 22 degrees.

SCOUTS FOOD DRIVE NOV. 9

Colfax Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts plan to conduct their annual Scouting for Food collection drive Nov. 9. Depending on the number of recruits available, the scouts might deliver food bags this Saturday. If the bags do not get out, they will post notices next week of the Nov. 9 collection drive.

Food collected on that date goes to the downtown food pantry. Colfax troops and both packs will participate.

Scouting for Food is the largest two-day event organized by the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts of America and is always the first and second Saturdays in November.

PALOUSE MAN CHARGED

Steven Tyler Griffin, 27, Palouse, has been ordered to appear in court Friday after a formal charge of possession of a stolen credit card was filed against him Oct. 23 in superior court.

Griffin was formally charged with taking a Washington State Employee Credit Union Card which belongs to his mother.

According to the arrest report by Sheriff's Sgt. Keith Cooper, Griffin's mother called to report the suspected card theft after Griffin was involved in a rollover accident Oct. 21 on Highway 27 at mile four. Griffin was arrested at the scene on a probable charge of driving with a suspended license and taken to jail.

His mother subsequently called the sheriff's office and reported her card was missing. She said she was concerned about her son's safety and her safety because she believed he was using drugs.

The report said Griffin called his mother to get a ride home after his release from jail on DWLS booking. He was later located in Rosauers in Colfax where he had been apprehended for attempted theft of ice cream balls and the alleged credit card theft and returned to jail.

Griffin was later allowed release on his own recognizance, but ordered to have no contact with his mother and return to court for a first appearance Nov. l.

COURTHOUSE PHONE LINK

Whitman County Courthouse posted a telephone link just before opening for business Monday morning. The temporary contact number to make a call is 509-553-8025. The number links to a telephone tree which refers callers to an extension number to contact the office they are attempting to call.

The courthouse lacked telephone service all last week and the service broke down on Tuesday the previous week.

Lance Bishop, county IT director, told county commissioners Monday he anticipates direct telephone service to individual county offices will be restored by Friday.

Courthouse callers first reach a temporary phone tree, and then have to make a second selection to get a call through. The first recorded response gives numbers for groups of offices. That connects with a second tree which lists individual numbers for offices in the group, and callers have to make a second selection.

For example, courts, sheriff, juvenile services, prosecutor and jail are all contacted by first dialing two. After that, each office is listed with another number.

The service does offer a zero to contact an operator.

EIGHT DAYS ON REDUCED CHARGE

Justin Jurgens, 37, was sentenced to eight days in jail with credit for time served after he pleaded guilty Friday to a reduced charge filed in justice court. Charges of possession of methamphetamine and resisting arrest, filed in superior court, were dismissed, and Jurgens pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of soliciting to possess methamphetamine.

The initial charges were filed against him after Pullman Police responded to a report early Oct. 18 of a man who had allegedly become aggressive with staff members at Stubblefield's in Adams Mall on college hill.

The Stubblefield's staff asked the Pullman officer to issue a trespass order against Jurgens who was then told he could not return to Adams Mall. The report said Jurgens left, but later turned up at Jimmy Johns on the other side of Adams Mall and Pullman officers arrested him there for trespass.

The arrest report said officers had to take Jurgens down during a struggle to put handcuffs on him. Jurgens told the court Friday he sustained arm pain when officers attempted to subdue him.

He was listed as homeless in the court record, but he told the court he was residing in a tent in Pullman. He said he gets water from the Humane Society where he leaves $2 donations.

Jurgens said he went to Jimmy John's that night to check out chances of getting a job.

He was placed on probation and ordered to undergo evaluation and any recommended treatment.

THREE CART ARREST AT WAL-MART

Miles A. Stohler, 25, Pullman, was booked into jail Oct. 21 on probable charges of theft and harassment. According to the Pullman Police report, Stohler was arrested at Walmart after he was stopped by store security staffers while attempting to exit Walmart with two shopping carts and one garden center cart.

The arrest report said a Walmart security officer provided a tally of the value of items in the carts which exceeded $5,244.

The report said Stohler attempted to hang himself with his shirt sleeve after being taken to the holding cell at the Pullman Police station and he was briefly taken to Pullman Memorial Hospital where he was denied admission.

Stohler was accepted into the drug court in February of 2018 after being arrested on drug possession charges. Pullman police in May of that year responded to a report of a man seen slashing a tire, and Stohler allegedly was found to be in possession of methamphetamine during that arrest.

CRASH ENDS 3-CHASE EPISODE

Robert Brown, the Moscow resident who allegedly led Moscow and Pullman police on chases Oct. 22 and 23 was arrested late Oct. 23 on the University of Idaho campus and booked into the Latah County Jail. Brown, 49, was driving a Nissan pickup truck which was believed to have been stolen in Pullman after a chase there last Wednesday morning.

Pullman Police Commander Jacob Opgenorth said the Oct. 23 morning episode ended in Pullman when the Chevrolet Suburban Brown had been driving was found abandoned on the WSU campus. After that Pullman Police posted an attempt to locate notice with Brown's picture.

Opgenorth said Pullman officers had identified Brown, who was also suspected of leading a chase Oct. 22, when he spun out on Kitzmiller Road, north of Pullman. The Suburban spun around so the pursuing officer had a face-to-face view of the suspect and was able to identify him.

Brown had been clocked at speeds up to 70 mph Wednesday morning, Oct. 23, on N. Grand in Pullman and officers opted to break off the chase.

According to an account in the Lewiston Tribune, Brown was spotted driving the Nissan pickup at approximately 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in Moscow and a chase ensued at speeds up to 50 mph. Brown drove the pickup into a gravel parking lot at the UI steam plant, spun in a circle and collided head on with the squad car which was chasing him. He then drove into a concrete retaining wall a block away from the plant. Officers had to use a taser gun to subdue Brown and get him out of the pickup.

HARGRAVES TRIAL CONCLUSION

A final order for declaration of a mistrial following the jury report in the trial of former Pullman Officer Dan Hargraves was filed last Friday, Oct. 18, in Whitman County superior court. The jury reported Sept. 19 that they were unable to reach a consensus and jurors were individually polled at that time by Judge Gary Libey who then declared a mistrial.

The findings of fact and conclusion of law filed by the court Oct. 18 reviewed the final hours of the jury's deliberation and their report at 5:55 p.m. Sept 19 that they could not reach a verdict.

The findings noted jurors earlier reported they had not reached a verdict and reported they were considering taking a day off the next day and resuming deliberation Monday, Sept. 23.

They later informed the court they planned to keep deliberating past the 5 p.m. closing time and then reported at 5:55 p.m. that they could not come up with a verdict.

Prosecutor Dennis Tracy Oct. 10 issued a report that he will not seek another trial for Hargraves, who was charged with coercing a WSU freshman to conduct oral sex while he was in the process of taking her to the Pullman police station. Tracy's report said he made the decision because the alleged victim did not want to go through another trial.

LEWISTON TRUCKER INJURED

A Lewiston man was injured Oct. 23 when he lost control of the dump truck he was driving on the Walla Walla Highway, seven miles south of Dusty. Terran D. Peery, 21, was taken by Colfax ambulance from the scene of the accident to Whitman Hospital and later flown by Lifeflight helicopter to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, according to the Washington State Patrol report.

Peery was driving northbound on Highway 127 at 1:55 p.m when the 1998 Kenworth dump truck he was driving went onto the shoulder of the highway. He over-corrected, and the truck veered across the oncoming lane and rolled on the passenger side on the southbound shoulder of the highway.

The report said Peery was driving too fast for conditions.