PASCO — A woman who cheated the welfare system out of more than $100,000 over 10 years expected to spend six months in jail and six months under home supervision, but a judge says she’ll go to prison.
Carma L. Smith, 41, of Tacoma pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree theft in Franklin County Superior Court on Tuesday.
Her lawyer, Michael Davidson, and Franklin County deputy prosecutor Jim Bell recommended that she be sentenced to the six-month jail term followed by home monitoring. She also would have to repay the money.
But Judge Robert Swisher said that was unacceptable to him.
"I just think Ms. Smith needs to go to prison for this," he said. "I don’t think you can walk away from a $100,000 theft and not expect to go to prison."
Davidson said Smith has five children at home and a husband who has heart disease.
Swisher acknowledged it would be a hardship on her family.
But, "this is a tremendous amount of money taken from the people," he said. "In good faith, I cannot accept the recommendation. I just cannot."
Swisher set sentencing for April 9.
Lake Forest Park
Police shoot man waving sword, gun: Police shot a man several times after he swung a sword and then pulled out a handgun and pointed it at officers, police said. Donald Daniels, 19, of Lake Forest Park, was shot Wednesday morning. He was listed in satisfactory condition Thursday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Officers responded to a report that the man was walking down a street swinging a sword, Cmdr. Scott Drown said. When they told him to drop it, police say he refused and pulled out a gun. Police fired several shots and wounded the man. His gun was later determined to be a BB gun. Police are asking that he be charged with felony assault. The Lake Forest Park officers involved in the shooting have been placed on leave while the case is investigated by Bothell police.
Spokane
Defendant pleads guilty in drug robbery shootings: The alleged getaway driver has pleaded guilty in a Jan. 29 gang drug robbery in which a man was killed. Izaac J. Innes, 21, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Spokane County Superior Court to one count of second-degree murder. His sentencing date has not been set. Innes had been charged with first-degree murder, along with co-defendants Anthony M. Millspaugh, 17, and Drake M. McDaniel, 14. Police say all three are gang members who attempted to rob Cody Glotfelty, 22, of a quarter-pound of high-grade marijuana they had agreed to purchase. Millspaugh and McDaniel allegedly pulled out handguns and opened fire on Glotfelty and two of his friends, then ran to a car where Innes was waiting. Glotfelty died at the scene and his friends — brothers Solomon Struckman, 21, and Vincent Hill, 20 — were wounded. Struckman and Hill have been charged with conspiracy to deal in a controlled substance and illegally using a house for a drug transaction.
Pasco
Man charged in death of live-in girlfriend: A man has been charged with second-degree murder in the beating death of his live-in girlfriend, with whom he had a 2-year-old son. The charge stemming from the death of Juanita Montelongo, 20, was filed Wednesday against Delonde Pleasant, 23, who remained in the Franklin County Jail with bail set at $500,000. His next appearance in Superior Court is set for Tuesday. Montelongo died less than 90 minutes after she was found unconscious by police at the couple’s home Sunday morning. She had been beaten from her head to her feet and her face was black and blue, investigators wrote.
Oregon
Woman is billed $2,000 for "free" internet: Pamela Ourshalimian of Talent was surprised last month to get a $2,000 bill for her "free" internet service. It turned out that her son had accidentally changed the dial-up number to a long-distance number. But Ourshalimian says she had no way of knowing about the change until her bill arrived — and now her Internet provider says it’s her fault for not being more careful. "What is so scary to me is how easy the number is to change," Ourshalimian said. When she contacted her long-distance provider, AT&T to complain, the communication giant blamed Juno’s merger with another free Internet service provider — NetZero — to become California-based United Online. A Juno spokesman said it is the user’s fault if a long-distance charge is incurred during dial-up. The possibility of incurring long distance charges was a fact that Juno was pressured to make explicit by a consent decree from the Federal Trade Commission issued last year. According to Chuck Harwood, regional director for the FTC’s Northwestern region, consumers need to protect themselves by checking with their phone company to ensure that the number their modems use to get access are, in fact, local. "It’s not quite clear who is responsible for the charges, but it’s probably the phone company, and the phone company most likely won’t take responsibility for the charges," Harwood said.
From Herald news services
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