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.

HALLOWEEN ASSAULT NETS

FIVE DAYS

Kirk Tyler Magill, 24, Spokane Valley, was sentenced to five days in jail and ordered to pay fines and fees of $1,450 after entering an Alford plea Friday, Aug. 26, to an amended charge of assault in the fourth degree. Magill was charged with an assault which happened outside of the Thai Ginger bar in Pullman last Halloween.

He was sentenced to a year in jail with all but the five days suspended. Amount of restitution will be set at a future date for the victim who sustained injury to a tooth, a concussion and a possible shoulder injury.

Magill was allowed a deferred sentence which will allow him to clear the charges if he meets conditions of the sentence.

His sentence paralleled one ordered for Joseph Broncheau who was arrested after the same incident. Broncheau’s case involved another victim.

PUP TRAILER

COLLISION

Gavin Burt, 20, Palouse, escaped injury Friday when the 1967 Chevrolet flatbed truck he was driving collided with a pup trailer on Highway 272 just outside of Palouse. According to the Washington State Patrol report, the trailer was being pulled by a 2004 Freightliner truck and trailer driven by Rodney Presho, 55, Moses Lake. He was rounding a curve to the left at 6:20 p.m. and the trailer went into the oncoming lane. Burt attempted to avoid the trailer by moving as far as possible to the right but the rear of the trailer struck the left front of the flatbed.

YOUTH COULD FACE CHARGES

A recommendation to charge a 17-year-old Vancouver youth in connection with a fight at Rosalia Aug. 4 has been forwarded by the Sheriff’s office to the prosecutor’s office. The recommended charge will be second degree assault. Both the youth and Charles A. Green were hospitalized after EMTs and deputies responded to Green’s residence in Rosalia that night. The youth was taken by a Medstar helicopter to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane for treatment of possible head injuries. He was found on the floor of the residence covered in blood.

The report said subsequent interrogation and witness accounts led to the recommendation for a charge against the youth.

Green sustained cuts around the eyes, nose injuries, and a fractured jaw. He was taken by Rosalia EMTs to Whitman Hospital in Colfax for treatment.

Alcohol is believed to have been involved, and Green could face contributing charges, according to the report.

JUVENILES FACE TWO CHARGES

The two juvenile boys arrested in the Schmuck Park play field area early Aug. 12 were formally charged Aug. 25 with burglary and malicious mischief. The two boys, ages 14 and 15, reportedly entered the announcers’ box above the football field grandstand. Police reports said they also were lighting fires in the track area and admitted lighting other fires in the Schmuck Park area. The fires have been under investigation by the Colfax Police Department over the summer months.

The youths were summoned to a juvenile court hearing Tuesday, Aug. 30. They were released to the custody of adults and prohibited from possessing matches and lighters. They were also banned from contacting each another.

PULLMAN POLICE SEEK TASER

Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins Monday, Aug. 29, put out a lost Taser notice and asked anyone with information to assist. A Pullman officer discovered the Taser missing from his holster after pursuit of a subject for a possible alcohol violation. The officer stopped the suspect at 3:20 a.m. Sunday, but the suspect fled when asked for identification, and the officer pursued him on foot. The officer deployed Taster darts, but one missed. He later realized the Taster had fallen from his holster in the area of B and Colorado Streets in Pullman.

POLE IGNITES

IN STORM

A Colfax fire crew responded to a report of a power pole fire in the E. 300 block of Fairview Sunday night at 8:28 p.m. The fire was believed to have been started by rain falling on deposits built up on the pole during the long dry spell and acting as a conductor.

An Albion fire crew was called out at 9:49 p.m. by reports of wires being blown down by the storm.

Fire crews also received reports of a blaze in the south section of the county which turned out to be what has been named the Bell Plain Complex fire four miles northwest of Pomeroy. The fire on mobilization reports Monday morning was estimated at 5,000 aces. Some evacuations took place early in the fire, but residents were later allowed to return home. Lightning strikes at about 6 p.m. were believed to be the cause of the fire.

FOUR HURT

NEAR PULLMAN

Four people were injured Saturday in a three-vehicle collision on Highway 195 at the intersection of the Wawawai Road (Highway 194) at 1:35 p.m. According to the Washington State Patrol report, Riley Huddleston, 22, Pullman, was driving a 1994 Toyota Corolla northbound on Highway 195 and attempted a left turn onto Highway 194 in front of a 1992 Acura Legend being driven southbound by Jeannette Solimine, 47, Colfax. She sustained head and neck injuries.

Huddleston sustained arm injuries. Shaylee Huddleston, 20, sustained head, neck and arm injures and a two-year old in the Corolla car sustained cuts and abrasions.

The Corolla was also struck by a 1997 Dodge Ram pickup driven by David Ackerland, 25, Clarkston. He was also driving southbound and struck the Toyota after Solimine’s car veered to the right and into the southbound ditch.

FAIR OFFICE MOVES

The Palouse Empire Fair office was in the process of moving Monday, and opened for business at the fairground in Mockonema Tuesday morning, according to Fair Secretary Terry Jeffries.

Advance tickets for the Northstar Carnival rides are now available at the Colfax Grange Supply for $15. The discount tickets will be available through Sept. 7.

All-day ride tickets during the run of the fair will be sold on the grounds for $18.

Among work projects at the fairground Saturday was a cleaning and stall door painting project which brought volunteers from the Wheatland Gallopers of Palouse and Stars & Stripes 4H Clubs. All 60 stall doors on the horse barns were prepped and painted.

ENDICOTT REUNION AT 150

Planners for the 100-year reunion of the Endicott School have received approximately 150 responses to invitations which have gone out for the Sept. 10 event at the school. The reunion date was slated to allow the Endicott grads and former students to attend the Palouse Empire Fair and other events going on in the area.

A luncheon buffet will be served from 1 to 3 and class memories will be from 3 to 5. Former Washington Governor Mike Lowry will be the emcee.

POT PLANTS

TOTAL: 26,000

Newspaper neighbors to the south report the Eckler Mountain area marijuana bust in Columbia County was much larger than the original report. Aug. 25, last Thursday’s, Waitsburg Times reported agents found and destroyed nearly 26,000 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $25.7 million. It rates as the largest marijuana bust in the state this year.

The Eckler Mountain area is in the Umatilla National Forest. The grow was spotted by a National Guard helicopter crew which noticed the orderly terraces cut for the growing operation.

A Columbia County Sheriff’s specialist believes the massive marijuana grows are being done by Mexican nationals with possible financing from Mexico. Agents believe growing marijuana in remote areas such as the Blue Mountains has increased because of the tougher practices now in place at the US-Mexico border, according to the times report.

LEWISTON DRIVER HITS GUARDRAIL

Anthony J. Pladson, 27, Lewiston, was unhurt Aug. 25 when he lost control of the 1994 Chevrolet Cavalier he was driving and collided with the guardrail along Highway 195. According to the Washington State Patrol report, Pladson was driving southbound at 12:37 p.m. when the Cavalier went into the guardrail just past mile marker 21.