Tag: whatcom county superior court
By Caleb Hutton
BELLINGHAM — A Bellingham driver was sentenced this week to a year in jail for crashing into a pedestrian, fracturing and dislocating her shoulder.
Steven Gary Fisher, 57, struck the woman with his van at 4 p.m. Dec. 6, as she was crossing the road to get her mail in the 4200 block of Northwest Avenue. Witnesses tailed the van to a trailer park on Axton Road.
Fisher admitted to police he’d been drinking that afternoon and had his last drink about an hour before the crash, according to court records. He told the officers he didn’t think he hit anyone.
He was sentenced Thursday, Feb. 7, in Whatcom County Superior Court.
“Think long and hard if you’re ever going to drive again, sir,” Judge Ira Uhrig told Fisher. “You might just not want to drive.”
A hit and run charge was dropped as part of the plea deal. Fisher can serve six months of his sentence behind bars and six months on work release.
By Caleb Hutton
A 49-year-old drunk driver must serve one year in prison for crashing into a utility pole along Blaine Road, sending his girlfriend to St. Joseph hospital for a compound leg fracture.
Jack A. Smith Sr., of Birch Bay, showed signs of “extreme” impairment on the night of Nov. 19, after he crashed his Plymouth Voyager into the pole, according to charging documents. He admitted to troopers he was drunk.
His 48-year-old girlfriend — who attended several recent court hearings still bound to a wheelchair — suffered injuries to both legs. Neither Smith nor his girlfriend wore a seat belt.
Smith pleaded guilty earlier this month. He was sentenced last week to a year behind bars. He had two past felonies out of of Nebraska for possessing illegal drugs.
By Caleb Hutton
Deborra Garrett will be sworn in as the next Whatcom County Superior Court judge at a courthouse ceremony at 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 11.
Garrett, a veteran lawyer who was president of the local bar association, edged out District Court Judge Dave Grant in the November 2012 general election, winning 52.6 percent of the vote.
She’ll be the first woman in Whatcom County elected to serve on the Superior Court bench. Garrett replaces retiring Judge Steven Mura. (Trivia: Garrett ran for Superior Court judge two decades ago but narrowly lost to Mura.)
Here’s the press release from Garrett’s team.
Deborra Garrett will be sworn in as Whatcom County Superior Court Judge on Friday afternoon, January 11, 2013, at 3 pm, in the Council Chambers at the County Courthouse, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham. She will be the first woman to serve on the Whatcom County Superior Court bench.
County voters elected incoming Judge Garrett to this open position in the general election last November. Current Superior Court Judges Ira Uhrig and Chuck Snyder will participate in the ceremony. Washington State Appellate Court Judge Mary Kay Becker, a long-time friend and resident of Whatcom County, will perform the swearing in. The public event will be followed by a reception, sponsored by the Whatcom County Bar Association, in the courthouse rotunda.
Deborra Garrett has been a member of the Bellingham and Lynden firm of ZenderThurston since 1993. Before that time she practiced law with the firm that is now Raas Johnsen & Stuen. She has been active in community service her entire professional life, including pro bono assistance to Womencare Shelter and the YWCA, and to low income people through LAW Advocates. She has just stepped down as Whatcom County Bar President and has been active on state and local committees to improve the administration of justice. She will begin her official duties on Monday, January 14, 2013.
By Caleb Hutton
FERNDALE — An employee at the Ferndale O’Reilly Auto Parts has been charged with stealing money and merchandise from his former employer.
Joe Manuel Rodriguez, 22, is accused of running a scheme where he would scan items as returns, then take both the refund and the item for himself, according to charges filed in Whatcom County Superior Court.
A loss prevention officer found 23 false reports, totaling $936.01 in stolen refund cash. Rodriguez admitted he had the items at his home, according to the charges.
Police recovered stolen tool sets, mirrors, portable tire inflators, gloves and a camera set from Rodriguez’s apartment — all small stuff, but it added up to more than $600 in physical merchandise, said Ferndale Police Lt. Matt Huffman.
Rodriguez, who lives in Lynden, was charged last week with theft in the second degree.
By Caleb Hutton
Aristides Nolasco, a man convicted of molesting a preteen girl, must serve one year and eight months in prison, according to a ruling handed down last week in Whatcom County Superior Court.
Here’s the story Zoe Fraley wrote in June, when Nolasco pleaded guilty.
A 47-year-old man pleaded guilty to molesting a preteen girl who had come forward to a school counselor about the abuse after watching a school video about bullying and sexual harassment. Aristides Nolasco pleaded guilty to second-degree child molestation Thursday, June 28.
The Bellingham Police Department began investigating the sexual abuse last October after the girl came forward with the allegations. She told officers that when she was 9 or 10, Nolasco had touched her breasts and vagina under her clothes while they were driving to pick someone up, according to court documents.
She told investigators that he told her she should rub her breasts in the shower so that they would grow. When she was 11, he reached down her shirt while she was watching TV on the couch. She told investigators that she sat up and hugged a pillow to stop him from going any further.
When investigators interviewed Nolasco, he originally told them that the girl was making up the allegations for attention. He later admitted that she wasn’t lying and that he remembered the incident in the car and the one on the couch, though he couldn’t recall if he had touched her breasts the second time.
Nolasco had no felony history.
By Caleb Hutton
Via police scanner traffic:
9:03 a.m. A caller reported a woman was burning court paperwork that had just been delivered to her at an RV park on Beachcomber Drive in Birch Bay. Dispatchers said the court order hadn’t been delivered yet, according to their files, but the caller said the owner of the RV park had just served the paperwork.
9:35 a.m. A woman, in her 40s, had an allergic reaction in the Ferndale High School cafeteria. An ambulance responded.
11:20 a.m. A man ran from law enforcement. He may have told a witness he had warrants. (Location has been scratchy, but it’s probably near East Sunset Drive.) Helicopter helping in search.
At 11:51 a.m., dispatchers radioed to the pilot, “They got him detained.”
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