A driver suspected of plowing through a Seattle-area homeless encampment and killing a man earlier this month was expected to be arraigned on charges of felony hit-and-run and vehicular homicide. An arraignment is the first step in a criminal proceeding, at which the defendant is brought in fron...
A teen accused of driving gang members to and from the scene of a shooting in July is expected to be sentenced to time served on a charge of first-degree rendering criminal assistance. The 18-year-old, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, is expected to be sentenced under juvenile court guide...
A 24-year-old Tacoma man could go to prison for 33 years in connection with a fiery truck crash that killed his girlfriend. In a bench trial earlier this month, a judge found the man guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. A bench trial is a type of trial in which there is no j...
A federal judge ruled this month that Seattle police bear no responsibility for the actions of a confidential informant -- a criminal with reputed ties to a Mexican cartel -- who violently attacked another man in 2012. In coming to that conclusion, the judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by the vi...
A former civilian employee-of-the-year at a Seattle area police department was charged earlier this month with stealing more than $51,000 from the evidence room. The multiple thefts were discovered during a routine audit in January 2015, when the civilian evidence room coordinator called in sick...
Vandals, under the guise of “feminism,” recently sullied pin-up queen Bettie Page. The iconic 18-foot mural, painted 11 years ago the on the side of a Seattle house near Interstate 5, was doused in paint earlier this summer. A message painted on the side of the house by the vandals said the mura...
A Tacoma teen, “brutalized” by a police officer for riding her bike through a mall parking, lot has expanded her lawsuit to include the city and security guards. Surveillance video shows the officer and security staff in their vehicles chasing down the then 15-year-old girl as she and her brothe...
A man wearing brass knuckles attacked two others men at a hot dog stand after he was kicked out of a Seattle strip club for being too drunk. The attack occurred at about 1:30 a.m. A witness called police about a fight in progress. The 39-year-old attacker began hitting the men while wearing bras...
A Washington State high school shop teacher who, in May, told police he was attacked on campus and beaten bloody, made up the story. A media release posted on the City of Bothell website this week stated that after the teacher failed a polygraph examination administered by police, he admitted: “...
An ambulance driver under investigation for reckless driving when he was taking a patient to a hospital, recently had his credentials suspended by Washington state health officials. The former North Kitsap Fire & Rescue EMT is suspected of driving recklessly last year while transporting a pa...
A woman suffered severe facial injuries and a dislocated elbow when she fought off a man who attacked her in Redmond, east of Seattle. On a recent evening, the woman was walking her dog along the Marymoor Park Trail, located on the north end of Lake Sammamish, when a man jumped out of the bushes...
The right of a citizen to record police activities is largely protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Seattle Police Department in 2008 adopted a policy meant to protect that right. But now, Seattle City Council members are considering going one step further to r...
A man convicted of murder as a teenager and imprisoned 28 years ago was released from earlier this month after much of the original trial's evidence was discredited. Although a North Carolina judge ruled that there was not enough evidence to justify the conviction of a then 15-year-old Johnny Sm...
A Washington naturopath recently charged with inappropriately touching a female patient was accused if the same thing six years ago. The doctor who works at a medical spa in Redmond, Wash., east of Seattle, was charged this month with indecent liberties after a 29-year-old patient told police he...
Of Washington state's 38 county jails, only a few have policies for allowing inmates to vote and even fewer actually follow the procedures, according to a 2016 report from Disability Rights Washington, a nonprofit advocacy organization. On any given day, about 12,000 people are jailed in Washing...
Sex offenders in New York have a new restriction as a condition of parole. They cannot play Pokémon Go or other Internet-enabled games. Earlier this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to restrict sex offenders under from using...
Even though an Arizona woman committed no crime, she still had to pay $2,000, plus attorney's fees, to get her car back after it was seized by police. It is a feature of forfeiture laws in many states, including Washington, that let authorities seize property used in criminal activity or purchas...
Arizona police officers did not violate a homeless man's Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when they questioned him about a burglary before reading him his Miranda rights, according to a new ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court. The man, who confessed to burglary before being is...
Four out of five law enforcement officers say they use social media to gather information for their investigations and at least half check sites weekly in connection to open cases. Some are even using fake social media sites to gather information and cultivate “social media snitches.” Social med...
A Seattle man was arrested last month for indecent exposure after trying to scan his genitals at a Capitol Hill grocery store. Employees saw the man laughing to himself in the self-checkout line and they realized he was placing his genitals on the grocery checkout scanner. The 31-year-old man ra...
A 37-year-old Seattle man was charged last month with malicious harassment for threatening a mosque in north Seattle. The man was arrested after a brief standoff at his apartment. He was taken to jail and held on $2 million bond. Malicious harassment is Washington's hate crime law. The man wai...
Former Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman pleaded not guilty last month to felony hit-and-run and vehicular assault. If he is convicted on both charges, Coleman could be fined and sentenced to prison. The charges stem from a crash last October in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue. According...
A burglary suspect was arrested late last month after he is suspected of crawling through a doggie door to steal guns, electronics and knives from a Spokane home. The burglary took place a year ago, but by the time police identified a suspect and made an arrest late last month, the man was alrea...
In recent months Washington law enforcement officers and FBI agents have investigated multiple bank robberies. One of the suspected robbers was arrested after he was shot by a credit union customer. The other, a serial bank robber, remained at large as of early July. A 44-year-old man was arrest...
A spate of drive-by shootings recently in the Seattle area left a vehicle shot up, a 96-year-old woman wounded and several suspects behind bars. In late June, a 96-year-old woman was shot in the leg when someone opened fire on her home in the early morning hours. The victim's granddaughter calle...
