This past week was very busy in the office. The week started with the report of the murder of Gordon Feist of Colville.   The Stevens County Sheriff’s office worked to investigate this killing, and within four days, detectives made an arrest.  Eric Booth is in custody.  He will be formally charged this week.  The investigation is continuing.   There is evidence from the scene that is at the lab and there is much testing to be done.  An attorney has been appointed for Mr. Booth.    His bond is now set at $750,000.

Last week there was a jury trial in District Court on a DUI case which lasted two days.  At the end of the trial, the jury could not unanimously agree and a mistrial was declared.   The office will decide whether to retry the case. A legal issue over the breath test arose during that trial which may affect other DUI cases that are currently pending.  This issue must be explored and a definitive ruling obtained to determine if other cases are affected by the problem.

On Thursday, I met with the Spokane Tribal Council in Wellpinit. The meeting was to talk about an issue over the prosecution of state game law cases.  At the heart of the issue is the question of whether state game law or tribal game law will be enforced on tribal land and by whom.  I explained to the Tribal Council that the prosecutor has no control over WFDW.   I also told the council that I respected the tribe’s right to control their tribal land. This problem is complicated by the apparent fact that the Spokane Tribe has never signed a treaty with the United States or the State of Washington regarding the application of state law to hunting and fishing on Tribal land.  I will write to the Attorney General and seek his involvement.

This past week I was visiting some folks at a small country gas station and the lady said that someone had told her that because of budget cuts, home burglaries would not be prosecuted in Stevens County.   I told her that information is completely false.  There is no category of serious crime that this office has decided not to prosecute simply because of strains in the budget.  The only area where we have made prosecution policy changes is in Driving While License Suspended III cases.  The majority of those cases are now handled as infractions as they are in many other counties.