Central football player jailed on rape charge
Published 11:19 pm Friday, September 28, 2007
ELLENSBURG — A Central Washington University football player has been jailed on a rape charge involving a student he apparently knew while both attended Lake Stevens High School.
Josh A. Rojas, 21, a sophomore linebacker who transferred to the Wildcats from Iowa Wesleyan College, was arrested Monday on a charge of second-degree rape and was released Tuesday after posting $10,000 bond. Arraignment was set for next Monday.
If convicted, Rojas faces a standard sentencing range of 6½ years to 8½ years in prison.
An 18-year-old freshman told police Rojas assaulted her at his apartment the night of Sept. 21 after the two met at a party a few blocks away, according to documents filed in Kittitas County Superior Court.
A friend, Chris Jameson, said he had known Rojas “for a couple years now, and I would never suspect this from him.”
Friends said Rojas and the young woman had seemed to be getting along OK, but police Capt. Ross Green said it was unclear how well they knew each other.
Spokane: Inmates get drunk on sanitizer
Four Geiger Corrections Center inmates who mixed hand sanitizer and Kool-Aid to make an alcoholic drink became so rowdy after downing the beverage that guards intervened Friday, a Spokane County sheriff’s spokesman said.
“The inmates out here at Geiger Corrections are considered low-risk inmates — when they’re sober,” Sgt. Dave Reagan said. “But when they are affected by drugs or alcohol, they become something other than low-risk.”
Officers finally strapped two of the intoxicated inmates into restraint chairs, Reagan said.
The inmates may be moody in part because of a decision to suspend Geiger volunteer programs pending review, Capt. John McGrath said. On Thursday, Geiger inmate Roger H. Nordling, 54, escaped during his Bible study after a volunteer let him out of a small building to get fresh air.
He remained at large Friday.
Bellevue: Driver crashes into store
A driver rushing to beat someone else to a parking spot slammed into a department store Friday evening, injuring a 14-year-old girl inside the building, police said.
The girl was being treated at Overlake Hospital for scrapes and bruises, Bellevue police Cpl. Marcia Harnden said, while the driver, a 37-year-old woman from Bellevue, was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence.
“She was just racing to get in and beat the other person to the parking spot,” Harnden said. “She said she stepped on the accelerator and she just couldn’t get herself stopped after that.”
The Lincoln sedan smashed through the automatic sliding glass doors of the T.J. Maxx and took out several clothing racks. It came to a stop 20 yards inside the store.
Oregon: Pet deer won’t be put to death
Bucky the yearling buck deer is headed for the wild, but his mother, Snowball, remains in the custody of the state of Oregon.
The blacktail deer lived as pets until Sept. 12 with a Molalla couple. But state wildlife officers confiscated them because it is illegal in Oregon to hold such wild animals without a license.
The action caused an uproar among Oregonians who thought it heavy-handed, and Department of Fish and Wildlife officials quickly said that Snowball and Bucky would not be put to death.
Snowball, who has leg deformities, was rescued from a roadside six years ago and lived with Jim Filipetti and Francesca Mantei.
Bucky is the offspring of Snowball and Mr. Magoo, a blind buck who came “as a friend for Snowball” from a friend of a friend, Filipetti said. Mr. Magoo impregnated Snowball, a surprise. “It was a blind deer,” Filipetti said. “I didn’t know he could do that.”
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no bold lede-in:Oregon power plant to run on methane
A new power plant is going online in Southern Oregon that produces electricity from methane gas drawn off a landfill.
Rogue Disposal and Recycling planned a ceremony Friday to dedicate the Dry Creek plant in White City, which will produce 1.3 megawatts, enough to power about 3,000 homes.
The plant is the fourth of its kind in Oregon and the first in the state in nine years. The others are in Portland, Corvallis and Eugene. Another is due to go online next year at Finley Buttes in Northeastern Oregon.
Methane is a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon monoxide. Getting rid of it is part of the battle to turn back global warming.
Landfills are the biggest single source of it in the U.S., accounting for 1.8 percent, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Other major sources are livestock, natural gas systems and coal mining.
Alaska: Eight months for walrus ivory sale
A Juneau man was sentenced Friday in federal court to eight months in prison for selling ivory and other walrus parts.
Frederick R. Reynolds, 53, who lived part time in Pilot Point, was sentenced in federal court in Anchorage by U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Skrocki.
According to prosecutors, Reynolds and co-defendant Michael Sofoulis, 46, of Juneau, collected walrus parts from carcasses found on beaches near Pilot Point, a tiny community on the Alaska Peninsula, about 375 miles southwest of Anchorage.
From Herald news services
