SPOKANE – Federal authorities were embarrassed when a bank robber given a three-hour jail pass for a doctor’s appointment escaped while being escorted by two women, neither in law enforcement.
Dale D. Reed dashed out the back door of a Post Falls, Idaho, doctor’s office Monday after he was granted a furlough from the Spokane County Jail so he could be treated for chronic hand pain stemming from an old gunshot wound.
Reed was facing a possible 25-year sentence Nov. 26 after pleading guilty to armed robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank on Spokane’s South Hill in 1998. He was still at large Thursday, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Pipeline blast pleas: Olympic Pipe Line Co. and Equilon Pipeline Co. pleaded innocent Thursday to federal charges stemming from the 1999 pipeline leak and fire that killed three people in Bellingham. Frank Hopf Jr., who was a vice president and manager with Olympic at the time, also pleaded innocent. An initial trial date was set for Nov. 9, said U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Lawrence Lincoln. A grand jury produced a seven-count federal indictment two weeks ago, naming Olympic Pipe Line, Equilon Pipeline and three of Olympic’s officers or employees.
Guilty plea in murder: A second Spokane man has pleaded guilty to helping beat and tie up another man who drowned after being tossed into a Stevens County lake. Frank J. McCauley, 31, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Stevens County Superior Court to first-degree rendering criminal assistance. He agreed to join Christopher W. Morlan in testifying against co-defendant Shonda R. Foster at her first-degree murder trial Nov. 13. Morlan and his sister-in-law, Foster, both 26 of Spokane, are accused of beating, binding and killing Neal E. Bowen, 34, last April.
Gas causes illness: A middle school in southwest Washington was evacuated and classes canceled Thursday after students fell ill from inhaling hydrogen sulfide gas, Skamania County sheriff’s officers said. Sixteen students and a teacher at Canyon Creek Middle School in Washougal, about 20 miles east of Vancouver, were taken to hospitals in the Vancouver-Portland area, Undersheriff Ed Powell said. A hazardous materials crew detected the gas inside one of the classrooms but was still trying to determine the source, Washougal firefighter Thomas O’Donohue said.
New Indian museum: A new museum focusing on the rich Indian legacy of the Inland Northwest, with additional galleries for modern and contemporary art, is rising in one of Spokane’s oldest neighborhoods. The $28 million Northwest Museum of Arts &Culture is scheduled to open Dec. 5 in Browne’s Addition, an area of old mansions and vintage apartment buildings along the Spokane River. The collection includes everything from fishing hooks to beadwork, as well as some contemporary items.
From The Herald’s news services
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