SEATTLE — The son of a recently deceased “Deadliest Catch” fishing boat captain won’t be charged with drunken driving or hit-and-run following his arrest in Seattle last month.
Instead, the King County prosecutor’s office said it will charge Jake Harris with reckless driving and driving with a suspended license.
Harris is a son of the late Phil Harris, who was captain of the crab fishing vessel Cornelia Marie on the Discovery Channel show. Phil Harris died Feb. 9 in Alaska after suffering a stroke. Jake Harris has appeared on the show as a deckhand.
He was arrested for investigation of DUI on Feb. 18 after the Washington State Patrol received calls about an erratically driven BMW on I-5, a few hours after a hit-and-run crash on the highway.
Prosecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe says there wasn’t evidence to support DUI or hit-and-run charges. Harris is due in court April 21.
Anacortes: Small plane lands in field
A small plane was reported down near a refinery at Anacortes, but the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office said the pilot survived.
KIRO-TV reported that witnesses heard the single-engine Cessna sputtering before it clipped power lines and went down in a field near the Tesoro Refinery on Saturday afternoon.
Only the Anacortes pilot was aboard. There was no report on the extent of his injuries.
Tacoma: FBI investigates nonprofit
State officials say the FBI is investigating the alleged misspending of nearly $2 million in public money by a Tacoma-based housing nonprofit.
Commerce Department spokeswoman Penny Thomas confirmed the investigation of the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association to the News Tribune newspaper. MLK received the money as part of a $4 million state budget appropriation as well as a $400,000 federal loan.
The money was supposed to be used to help build a mixed-use business and housing center in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, but the site remains vacant.
Federal judge dies of cancer at 75
U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess of Tacoma has died at age 75 following a battle with cancer.
Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik told the News Tribune newspaper that Burgess died Friday, surrounded by his family.
Burgess was a federal magistrate judge for more than a decade before President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. district judge. He took the oath of office in 1994, becoming the second black federal judge in the Western District of Washington.
Burgess handled prominent cases including a challenge to Washington’s blanket primary system, an attempt to block whale-hunting by the Makah Tribe, and the trial of Briana Waters, who was convicted in a devastating 2001 ecoterror fire at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture.
Oregon: Guard to use TNT on tree stumps
When it comes to uprooting tree stumps, the Oregon National Guard doesn’t fool around. Next month, Guard engineers at the Camp Adair rifle range will blow up 129 of them with TNT.
Guard officials tell the Albany Democrat-Herald it will be both camp improvement and training. The stumps are left over from a logging project have to be cleared for a road project. And the engineers get to polish what an officer calls “a vital skill set.”
Associated Press
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