The move will free Blagojevich from federal prison four years before he is scheduled to be released. He is among 11 people receiving clemency, the White House says.Read More
Prominent Inland Northwest architect and developer Ron Wells was sentenced in federal court Wednesday for his role in staging a car crash to defraud insurance companies. He was sentenced to a year of home confinement and must pay $240,000.Read More
Lorenzo Elias Mendez, a former officer of the Yakama Nation Tribal Police Department, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison this month. That’s after a jury found him guilty of attempted production of child pornography.Read More
Three women and six children were killed as they drove in a small convoy. Mexican officials say they are investigating whether the family members were targeted or were victims of mistaken identity.Read More
The 17-year-old Sharpe pleaded not guilty to one count of aggravated first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and 51 second-degree assault charges. He's accused of killing student Sam Strahan and injuring three other students at Freeman High School in September 2017.Read More
The Washington Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the state’s “three strikes” sentencing law, even for people who commit their first strike as young adults. But Justice Mary Yu also described “growing discomfort” with the “routine practice” of issuing mandatory life sentences.Read More
Twenty people are dead and at least 24 were injured in a mass shooting at an El Paso, Texas, shopping center on Saturday morning, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.Read More
A theft ring in Washington state sold millions of dollars’ worth of stolen goods on Amazon.com in the past six years, and a pair of Amazon delivery drivers was involved, recently unsealed federal court documents show.Read More
The first federal inmate scheduled to be executed under the newly re-opened policy is Danny Lewis Lee, a white supremacist from the Spokane, Wash., area convicted of three murders in Arkansas and bombing Spokane City Hall in 1996.Read More
"The Justice Department upholds the rule of law — and we owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system," Attorney General William Barr said.Read More
The semi-submersible vessel was reportedly carrying more than 17,000 pounds of cocaine, worth some $232 million. Read More
Bill Talbott, a 56-year-old Washington state man, has been found guilty of murdering Tanya van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook. A jury in Everett returned a verdict after two days deliberating over a cold case murder from 1987.Read More
A Pullman, Wash., family is suing the University of Utah following the murder of their daughter on campus in Salt Lake City last year. Jill and Matthew McCluskey announced the $56 million lawsuit Thursday, June 27 in a press conference. Lauren McCluskey was murdered Oct. 22, 2018 by a man she had dated.Read More
A superior court judge in southeastern Washington who was arrested in April on multiple charges involving sexual misconduct could face more charges. Nine women have reported some degree of sexual misconduct by Asotin County Superior Court Judge Scott Gallina from the time he took the bench in 2014.Read More
Washington's Sentencing Guidelines Commission, tasked with promoting accountability and equity in sentencing, has adopted a report to the state Legislature that urges lawmakers to consider two options for modernizing the grid with the twin goals of simplifying sentencing and increasing judicial discretion.Read More
On Friday, jurors heard about the mysterious final days of a young Canadian couple killed in 1987 — as well as the novel method authorities used to finally make an arrest three decades later.Read More
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) is pushing for more resources for survivors of sexual assault. For the third time, she's sponsoring a bill to increase the care available at medical centers nationwide.Read More
The Washington County sheriff in Oregon says there was nothing unusual about the call. Sure, it was broad daylight — 1:48 p.m. local time exactly — but "crime can happen anytime."Read More
Tens of thousands of people who were previously found guilty of misdemeanor marijuana possession charges could see their convictions vacated under a measure passed Monday by the Washington Senate.Read More
"Throughout his life, [Stephen] Paddock went to great lengths to keep his thoughts private, and that extended to his final thinking about this mass murder," officials said on Tuesday.Read More
"Firearms-related fatalities were the leading cause of officer deaths, with 52 officers shot and killed in 2018," the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund says.Read More
The severity of the officer shortage varies by location, but the national trend is clear: Since 2013, the total number of working sworn officers has fallen by about 23,000. The number of officers per capita is down even more sharply, from 2.42 per 1,000 residents in 1997 to 2.17 officers per 1,000 in 2016.Read More
Anthony Akers, who was wanted for failure to comply with the terms of his probation, became an Internet sensation after exchanging a series of Facebook posts with police in Washington state. Read More
A suspicious fire early Friday morning destroyed the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Lacey, Washington. If confirmed as arson, this would be the sixth attack on the faith in Thurston County this year.Read More
The program covers a number of real-world situations: assisting with the registration of sex offenders; identifying human remains; locating endangered and missing people; arming tribal law enforcement with information about people they encounter in traffic stops; and conducting background checks to vet foster parents.Read More
The Washington state Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty Thursday, Oct. 11, and converted all death sentences to life in prison.Read More
Washington state Sen. Joe Fain denied Faber’s written allegations to The Seattle Times. “Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved,” Fain told the Times.Read More
Cosby, 81, is the first celebrity to be sent to prison in the #MeToo era. The sentence completes the TV dad's stunning fall from groundbreaking cultural icon to convicted sex offender.Read More
"Sometimes, life gives you lemons. Sometimes, it gives you bananas," says the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "And sometimes, it gives you something you'd never expect!"Read More
Juan David Ortiz, 35, is being held in Laredo, Texas, after a would-be victim escaped from him and alerted police. Ortiz is thought to have killed four women over a two-week period.Read More
The Grant County, Washington, Sheriff’s Office is asking for help from anyone who witnessed a pair of alleged assaults at the Gorge Amphitheater last weekend.Read More
Ruya was at her third birthday party — complete with a pink doll-shaped cake and a Disney princess banner — Saturday evening when a man armed with a large knife attacked. Ruya and five other children were badly injured, along with the three adults who tried to protect them.Read More
A shooting spree in Tumwater, Wash., near Olympia, ended in a Walmart parking lot when a civilian shot and killed the suspected gunman, police said Sunday evening. At least two people were wounded: a teen-age girl with a minor injuries and a man who was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.Read More
A Snohomish County man faces a federal charge alleging he sent nearly a dozen explosive packages to government agencies in the Washington, D.C. area.Read More
A backlog of rape kits in Oregon is a year away from being eliminated following the passage of a state law mandating quicker testing, officials say. The kits collect biological material following reported sex crimes.Read More
A secret "gingerbread house" deep in a forest sounds like something from a fairy tale, but investigators in Seattle say the one they found was anything but. Now, 56-year-old Daniel Wood faces charges of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.Read More
In a vote unprecedented in modern times in the state of Washington, the state Senate voted Wednesday to abolish the death penalty and instead impose life in prison without the possibility of parole for those convicted of aggravated first degree murder. The measure now moves to the House.Read More
