Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks has had yet another success in defending a groundbreaking conviction of an Oak Harbor child murderer.
The Washington State Court of Appeals sided with the prosecutor in a decision filed this week on a personal restraint petition filed by attorneys representing former Oak Harbor resident James Alexander.
An Oak Harbor man accused of raping a toddler and causing traumatic injuries is now facing more serious charges based upon his confession that he zipped the little girl into a backpack and repeatedly kicked her “soccer style,” court documents indicate.
Although it was residents of a rural Island County neighborhood who inspired a state law legalizing golf cart zones two years ago, a legal hurdle prevented the county commissioners from following the town of Coupeville’s lead in adopting a golf cart-related ordinance.
In fact, the county’s top civil attorney suggested that some jurisdictions, including Coupeville, have acted contrary to law in adopting ordinances for golf cart zones that are more restrictive than allowed by state law.
An Oak Harbor Public Works employee is suing the city for allegedly violating her medical privacy rights regarding HIV testing.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, filed the complaint for damages against the city in Island County Superior Court Jan. 23. The lawsuit asks for unspecified damages for injury to her reputation, loss of wages and the cost of therapy, emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life and loss of consortium.
In China, 2012 is the year of the dragon. On Whidbey Island, it’s the year of the geriatric poodle.
The owner of a North Whidbey farm caught a couple of burglars by closing the door on a semi truck’s trailer and trapping the two men inside, court documents state.
Prosecutors charged one of the alleged burglars, 30-year-old Johnny Arellano of Coupeville, in Island County Superior Court Dec. 18, 2011, with burglary in the second degree. He pleaded not guilty Jan. 3.
Now that it’s the New Year, administrators at Whidbey General Hospital are hoping to move past well-publicized violations of a complicated federal law which cost the hospital a CEO and more than $850,000.
Hospital CEO Tom Tomasino, who took over after the problem emerged, said the administration now has a streamlined, triple-check system to ensure all contracts with physicians are complete and legal, while the hospital has the administrative staffing to deal with the swelling number of contracts and other legal documents.
The Barefoot Bandit insulted the Island County sheriff, the prosecutor and members of the media in private while he publicly professed remorse and humility for his high-profile crime spree.
Newly released excerpts of Colton Harris-Moore’s emails and phone conversations from a federal detention facility show a different side of the 20-year-old man than his attorneys represented in court last month.
State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen made national headlines this week for announcing that she will vote in favor of a bill to legalize gay marriages.
The Democratic senator’s decision means state lawmakers now have enough votes to pass the marriage equality bill. Haugen, a Camano Island resident, announced her decision Monday after dithering on the issue for weeks while listening to her constituents.
A truck that was supposed to make roads safer during last week’s snow storm on Whidbey Island instead fell victim to the ice and snow.
It fell on its side.
Connie Bowers, assistant county engineer for Island County, said a combined sanding and snowplowing truck went off of Hastie Lake Road at a tight turn and tipped over last Tuesday. The driver wasn’t injured. A tow truck was called to pull the truck out after it was emptied of sand.
A 22-year-old North Whidbey man is facing a felony charge for allegedly trying to break into his father’s ex-girlfriend’s home in the middle of the night to retrieve his childhood dog, court documents state.
Chad Woods pleaded not guilty in Island County Superior Court Jan. 9 to attempted residential burglary.
A resident of Olympic Drive in Oak Harbor called 911 at 12:46 a.m. on Dec. 22 to report that someone had tried to kick in the back door and was attempting to enter through a rear window.
Joshua Lambert claims he had an extremely intense, day-long hallucination on Oct. 3 of last year.
That was the day he allegedly stabbed one of his grandfathers more than 30 times, tied up his great aunt with packing tape and then drove to his mother’s house where he also stabbed his other grandfather to death.
In a jailhouse interview with the Whidbey News-Times, Lambert discussed some of the details of the two murders he’s accused of committing on North Whidbey. In addition, the newspaper obtained more information about the crimes and Lambert’s history through public records requests.
A 61-year-old former Coupeville woman who scammed an elderly Alzheimer’s patient was sentenced in federal court this month to nearly four years in prison and ordered to pay more than $2 million in restitution.
Shea Saenger pleaded guilty last summer to mail fraud. A federal judge sentenced her on Jan. 6 to 46 months in a federal prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Saenger admitted to defrauding a retired eye doctor named Norman Butler of his life savings by starting an online relationship with him, falsely representing that she was single and wanted to marry him, and then tricking and bullying him into sending her money.
