ShelterSpokane2022

When Freeman High School graduate Rayce Rudeen was away from his Seattle apartment while undergoing opioid addiction treatment, his family found dozens of illicit pills ordered directly from the internet.

“It all began with him looking for herbs for his anxiety,” Marsha Malsam, Rudeen’s aunt, said during a news conference in Spokane on Tuesday. “It ended with us finding fentanyl in every envelope or package, or even in the heels of the shoes in his apartment.”

Rudeen returned home after treatment in 2016, but the peace was quickly broken. He overdosed and died three weeks later, his aunt said, one of the hundreds of deaths from synthetic opioid overuse that have occurred in Washington over the past several years. The scourge is especially prevalent in Spokane County, with overdose deaths nearly tripling in 2021 compared with the year prior, and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration has named the region as one of its 11 emphasis areas this year to combat local drug crimes.

Frank Tarentino, special DEA agent in charge of the Seattle Field Division, called fentanyl “a clear and present threat” to the community, with trafficking driven by massive profit margins. The drug, a labmade opioid that is anywhere from 60 to 100 times more potent than morphine, may be cut with other drugs and pressed into authentic-looking pills that hide their deadly potential.

“This is a business,” Tarentino said. “It is a half-atrillion- dollar-a-year business driven by greed.”

Federal drug enforcement officials have stepped up enforcement efforts, seizing 15,000 pounds of pure fentanyl in 2021. That’s enough to apportion a lethal dose to every single American, Tarentino said, and that’s just what has been seized across the country.

The federal government has selected 11 sites for Operation Engage, which Tarentino said connects DEA offices with schools, faithbased organizations, social service providers and other community organizations. Each of those cities, which include such locations as Washington D.C., Kansas City and Broward County in Florida, lists opioids, and fentanyl, as a drug of concern.

In Spokane County, seizures of fentanyl increased 1,098%, the DEA says.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich applauded efforts to bring attention to the fentanyl issue, but noted it was the latest in a long line of drugs he’s seen ravage the community, beginning with methamphetamine and then moving on to prescribed opioids and, finally, the synthetic kind that are in many instances smuggled across the Mexican border.

“America has an addiction problem,” Knezovich said. “It’s an absolute supply and demand problem. If there wasn’t a demand, there wouldn’t be a supply.”

Knezovich said demand is being fed by policies that legalize certain types of drugs, and called out the recent Washington Supreme Court decision that struck down the state’s drug possession statute because it did not require prosecutors to prove the defendant knowingly possessed drugs.

Complicating attempts to crack down on the trade is the proliferation of purchases made online using social media applications, such as Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram, Tarentino said. Drug deals can take place on those platforms without the knowledge of law enforcement or parents, and they are then automatically deleted. The DEA has released a guide of emojis frequently employed by social media users to advertise drug sales.

Tarentino said the federal government has been pressuring social media companies to more closely monitor activity that appears to be about selling drugs. During a detention hearing for two men tied to the drug distribution ring linked to the death of a Coeur d’Alene teenager last year, investigators revealed several images taken from social media alluding to the sale of pills.

“The DEA is definitely gaining some of the leverage in this area, and so is the Department of Justice,” he said.

Vanessa Waldref, U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington, said it was important for parents to get involved and talk to their kids about drug use and the specific dangers posed by fentanyl.

“As a mother, who’s navigating social media and screen time with her kids like so many parents, I find it frightening to know that these poison pills can be hidden in plain sight,” Waldref said.

Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward noted the city typically sees an uptick in the use of Narcan, a drug used to combat the immediate effects of an opioid overdose, in April, May and June.

“Prevention is the best way to eradicate this epidemic, and it will take all of us,” Woodward said.

The Operation Engage resources will be made available to local schools and community service providers, Tarentino said. Focus will be on prevention, education and enforcement of laws, he said.

Rayce Rudeen’s family have set up a nonprofit foundation that is also hoping to help educate families about the dangers of fentanyl. They have also been working with local school districts to help instruct educators and others about the safe administration of Narcan, after the state adopted a policy that public high schools must have the drug available, Malsam said.

“The whole point of our foundation is, if we could save one family from goingthrough the excruciating pain that we went through, we would be happy,” Malsam said.

Kip Hill can be reached at (509) 459-5429 or at kiph@spokesman.com.

Spokane police Chief Craig Meidl, left, and Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich watch as Marsha Malsam, of the Spokane Alliance for Fentanyl Education, is welcomed to the front of the room to talk about the growing problem with fentanyl at a news conference held Tuesday at the Davenport Grand. At far right is a photo of Rayce Rudeen, Malsam’s nephew, and a Freeman High School graduate who overdosed on synthetic opioids in 2016.

PHOTOS BY JESSE TINSLEY/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent In Charge Frank A. Tarentino, left, from the Seattle office of the DEA, listens as U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref announces an emphasis on prosecuting drug traffickers.

COUNTY WILL PAY $1M TO FAMILY OF MENTALLY ILL MAN KILLED BY DEPUTY

By Emma Epperly

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

The family of a mentally ill man who was shot and killed by a Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputy in 2019 will receive $1 million after the Spokane County Commissioners approved a federal civil rights lawsuit settlement Tuesday.

Ethan Murray, 25, was killed in May 2019 in a wooded area outside the Parkside Apartments at Mirabeau in Spokane Valley. Deputy Joseph Wallace told investigators he believed Murray had a knife, but an investigation revealed Murray was unarmed.

“A million-dollar settlement speaks louder than any denial of wrongdoing,” wrote Braden Pence, an attorney for Murray’s mother, in an email Tuesday.

Murray’s parents, Justine Murray and Mark Jentsch, filed the suit in July on behalf of their son’s estate in U.S. District Court in Spokane, alleging Wallace violated their son’s constitutional rights and the sheriff’s office provides inadequate training for dealing with mental health issues.

Since her son’s death, Justine Murray has become an outspoken advocate for mental health, homeless and addiction services, along with better police training on mental health issues. She founded the Ethan Murray Fund, in part to further her goal of 24-hour mental health crisis response in North Idaho, where she resides.

“There’s no real justice for Ethan, I feel, until we have a better system in place,” Justine Murray said Tuesday.

Despite the settlement, the claims made in the lawsuit remain disputed, and the county did not admit liability.

“In association with Washington Counties Risk Pool, the Spokane County Commissioners assessed the risk of the lawsuit and determined the best path forward was to mitigate the risk for the County and its citizens in the best way possible,” the county said in a statement Tuesday. “It was the recommendation of the Risk Pool to settle at this amount and resolve the lawsuit.”

The Washington Counties Risk Pool is an organization that allows member counties to jointly purchase insurance.

The Spokane County Commissioners approved the settlement without discussion as part of their consent agenda Tuesday.

Along with the statement, the county sent the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office’s 2019 statement finding Wallace’s use of force justified. Wallace continues to work for the sheriff’s office and has since been promoted to detective.

The Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office has not charged an officer in connection to lethal use of force in the last two decades. Prosecutor Larry Haskell did not immediately return request for comment on the settlement.

A spokesman for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Gregory, said the sheriff was unavailable for comment on the settlement Tuesday due to scheduling conflicts but would comment later.

The settlement is one of the largest law enforcement use of force settlements in the Spokane area since the city of Spokane paid the family of Otto Zhem for $1.67 million in 2012. Zehm was beaten in 2006 by officers who wrongfully believed he had committed theft, and he eventually died from his injuries. One of them was later convicted. The suit alleged deputies were aggressive and insensitive to Ethan Murray’s mental illness, in line with the “warrior mindset” training used at the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office faced criticism last year when it was scheduled to host a training program that aimed at readying officers for the moment they kill someone and how they’ll react to it. Murray was showing signs of mental illness when deputies arrived to the area where he had been camping, the lawsuit said.

When confronted by deputies, Murray fled toward the woods where he had been living. Wallace followed Murray, who he said did not comply with commands.

The deputy said Murray threatened him with a knife he pulled from his pocket, according to the prosecutor’s office statement. Wallace then shot Murray five times, killing him.

The prosecutor’s office said Murray had pulled a pair of black sunglasses from his pocket, which Wallace mistook for a knife.

Wallace did not file a statement on the incident until nearly a month later, and only after reviewing dispatch records and audio recordings of the incident, the suit alleged.

“The 30-day delay in the shooter’s statement is emblematic of the double-standard afforded to officers. Anyone who kills in the name of self-defense faces immediate arrest and questioning, except for law enforcement officers, who typically get a month of paid leave followed by a promotion, as the shooter received in this case,” Pence said.

In his statement, Wallace mentioned the knife he said he saw Murray pull out of his pocket. During the investigation, a knife was found on the scene but it was later determined to be a knife dropped by a deputy, the suit claimed.

Pence said it’s “difficult to accept” that the knife was dropped accidentally and “entirely unbelievable” the county would swiftly remove the knife from evidence without further investigation.

“This sequence, the appearance of the knife followed by its disappearance from the chain of custody, stinks of a coverup,” Pence said.

While Justine Murray said she and her legal team initially hoped to go to trial, the large settlement at least communicated “some respect for Ethan’s humanity and for the toll his death took on his family,” Pence said.

Investigation done in preparation for a trial and mediation helped his mother learn more about the case, she said.

The suit requested not only damages, but a requirement that the sheriff’s office expand its mental health response field capabilities and that officers be required to submit written statements within 24 hours of a deadly force incident.

Those requests weren’t part of the settlement; however, the sheriff’s office recently began wearing body cameras, something Pence said is a positive sign.

“I feel like if we had that in place with Ethan, it would have been a different story,” Justine Murray said of body cameras.

With a settlement reached, she plans to focus on creating real change through the Ethan Murray Fund.

With the nonprofit in its infancy, Justine Murray is talking with service providers in the region to see which gaps the fund can fill. One goal she has is an alternative to police responding to mental health calls, similar to a Eugene, Oregon, mobile crisis intervention program that responds to behavioral health calls. She also hopes to work on a documentary to share her son’s story.

“No amount of money can bring Ethan back,” Justine Murray said. “We’re going to do really great things in Ethan’s name, and that’s what I want to focus on now, is helping others.” Emma Epperly can be reached at (509) 459-5122 or at emmae@spokesman.com.

TurboTax ads about ‘free’ filing misleading, FTC says

By Tali Arbel

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Federal Trade Commission is suing TurboTax maker Intuit, saying its ads for “free” tax filing misled consumers. Intuit says it will fight the suit.

The consumer protection agency said Tuesday that millions of consumers cannot actually use the free tax-prep software option – two-thirds of tax filers in 2020.

They are ineligible, the agency says, if they are gig workers or earn farm income, for example.

“TurboTax is bombarding consumers with ads for ‘free’ tax filing services, and then hitting them with charges when it’s time to file,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement.

“We are asking a court to immediately halt this bait-andswitch, and to protect taxpayers at the peak of filing season.”

The agency says Intuit has for years focused on the word “free” in its ads, running them during major events like the Super Bowl.

The FTC has asked a federal judge to order Intuit to stop what it said were Intuit’s deceptive ads during the rush of tax season. This year’s tax filing deadline is April 18.

The FTC voted 3-1 in favor of filing the suit. The FTC complaint was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Northern California.

Intuit, based in Mountain View, California, said in a statement late Monday night that it will challenge the lawsuit.

“Far from steering taxpayers away from free tax preparation offerings, our free advertising campaigns have led to more Americans filing their taxes for free than ever before and have been central to raising awareness of free tax prep,” said Kerry McLean, executive vice president Intuit.

McLean said nearly 100 million Americans have filed taxes for free over the past eight years using TurboTax.

A display of TurboTax software is shown in a Sam’s Club in Pittsburgh on Feb. 22, 2018. The Federal Trade Commission is suing TurboTax maker Intuit saying its ads for “free” tax filing misled consumers.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Spokane Valley looks to curb street parking

By Colin Tiernan

THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Mailbox blockers and junk vehicle owners beware: If you’re parking in the street, Spokane Valley City Hall may be coming for you.

Spokane Valley City Council is working on a new ordinance that would define the city’s street parking policies. The regulations will likely make up an entire subchapter of city code.

The draft ordinance outlines the city’s authority to create no-parking zones and parking prohibitions. For instance, it would clarify the city’s ability to ban people from parking within 15 feet of a mailbox and parking unregistered or junk vehicles in the public right-of-way. It also outlines enforcement and penalty policies.

Parking problems in the Valley aren’t new, but they’ve gotten worse as the city’s population has grown. City Council members said the city would ideally have written parking regulations into law years ago.

The city’s trying to fix a handful of issues.

For example, Spokane Valley police Chief Dave Ellis said his department often gets calls from homeowners when someone living out of a car parks in front of their house. City Councilman Arne Woodard noted that longterm parking on public streets can interfere with plowing and emergency vehicle access.

The proposed ordinance outlines the city’s broad authority to tow vehicles for a host of reasons. Simply leaving a car on the street for more than 24 hours gives the city the right to impound it. But the ordinance also includes references to the most specific, and prevalent, parking violations.

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City Councilwoman Brandi Peetz said she’s most concerned about parking in front of mailboxes, which can prevent the Postal Service from delivering mail.

Junkers generate lots of citizen complaints, too. Some junk vehicle owners leave their cars out on the street for months on end. By Spokane Valley’s definition, a junker is a vehicle more than three years old that is extensively damaged, seemingly inoperable and worth no more than the scrap metal it contains.

“We’re not trying to stop people from utilizing their parking lane if there is one in front of your house,” Woodard said. “But it can’t be permanent.”

The City Council needs to answer at least two questions before finalizing the draft ordinance.

First, councilmembers will have to decide on a timeframe for enforcement. Do they want to tow cars that have sat on the street for a mere 24 hours, as state law allows?

Second, the city needs to settle on a fine amount for the newly described parking violations. Staff have noted that $30 per day or infraction is a common figure in other cities.

The city will also have to consider its own enforcement capabilities.

Volunteers handle parking infractions in Spokane Valley. The entire parking infraction team includes three or so people who donate their time through the Sheriff’s Community Oriented Policing Effort. Beefing up enforcement will likely require either more volunteers or more investment.

Regardless of what the new ordinance looks like, the Spokane Valley Police Department won’t be prowling the streets for parking offenders any time soon.

“They don’t have somebody driving around patrolling looking for that,” City Councilman Tim Hattenburg said. “They’re already stretched to the limit.

The city will focus on problem cases. People who go on vacation and leave their car parked on the street for a week probably won’t return home to find their car’s been towed.

The new ordinance will simply give the city “teeth” so it can better enforce complaints, Peetz said. Unless someone’s parking behavior angers neighbors or hurts public safety, they probably won’t get a ticket.

“It’s usually complaint driven,” Hattenburg said, “and it probably should be.”Colin Tiernan can be reached at (509) 459-5039 or at colint@spokesman.com.

SEATTLE INITIATIVE AIMS TO CUT HOMELESSNESS, CREATE HOUSING

Associated Press

SEATTLE – A ballot initiative proposed by a new housing and homelessness advocacy coalition would establish a public developer that would create, own and maintain public housing in Seattle.

The Seattle Times reported the initiative filed Monday is known as “social housing,” essentially publicly owned housing that is insulated from private market forces and designed to be permanently affordable. This model is popular in Europe.

The city clerk’s office will review the new ballot initiative to ensure it has been filed correctly. Once that has been settled, the initiative will receive a ballot title and members of the coalition will begin collecting signatures from Seattle residents. The coalition needs almost 27,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

“This is kind of a referendum on all elected officials,” said Tiffani Mc-Coy, advocacy director at Seattle’s street newspaper Real Change and co-chair of the coalition behind the measure, House Our Neighbors. “We’re very serious about solving the affordable housing crisis. We can’t wait another year.”

If the ballot initiative succeeds, it would create a public development authority, called the Seattle Social Housing Developer, which would be entirely separate from city or county government. The ballot initiative would create a renter-majority governing board to oversee the work and would establish a charter to determine what the authority can or cannot do.

The announcement about the initiative did not specify how much the new authority would cost or where the funding would come from.

Because this ballot initiative would operate outside of government, it wouldn’t have to follow federal housing stipulations, which generally creates certain low-income criteria that people have to meet to live there.

The homelessness advocacy organization, funded by Real Change, formed in response to Charter 29 – more commonly known as the campaign Compassion Seattle, which would have added into the city’s charter document a mandate to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on shelter and housing and to enforce camping laws.

The proposed amendment was kicked off the ballot by the Washington Court of Appeals, which ruled it would have interfered with state law.

However, Mayor Bruce Harrell pledged to adopt its main tenets when he was elected and has already started to take a more aggressive approach to clearing encampments.

GO ANYWHERE FROM HERE SPARK CENTRAL

By Nina Culver

FOR THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW

Creativity. Knowledge. Imagination. Spark Central is helping achieve these lofty and artistic goals in Spokane through a variety of classes and programs offered free to children.

The nonprofit organization is the result of a marriage between the education-focused Spark Center and INK Art Space, co-founded by noted local author and reporter Jess Walter.

Spark Center was founded in part by Jim and Joe Frank of Greenstone Homes, which developed Kendall Yards.

“It was Jim’s vision to bring West Central and Kendall Yards together,” Walter said. “It turned out to be a great fit.”

The groups have been working together under the name Spark Central since 2016.

Spark Central Station, as the donated space, at 1214 W. Summit Pkwy., is known, is open to all from noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. There’s a small library, art supplies galore, tables for creating and inventing and more.

“We flex, depending on needs,” said Spark executive director Brooke Matson. “Basically, our goal is to be a space where kids can access 24th century technology.”

One of the programs run by Spark Central at Audubon and Holmes elementary schools is called Level Up. It was created during the pandemic as students were struggling with online learning, Matson said. It brought small groups together to work on art and other projects.

“The program was initially to help kids end their school day together,” she said.

The groups of about 15 students at each school now meet twice a week. The groups decide what clubs they want to have, whether it’s newspaper writing, Minecraft, science, robotics or painting. “We want to grow the program, but we need more volunteers to do so,” Matson said. “There’s a lot of kids who get a lot of enrichment opportunities. Our goal is to catch the kids who don’t have or can’t afford those opportunities.”

There are also a variety of programs offered that change every month. Currently, there’s a Minecraft Club for grades 3-8 every Friday and drop-in workshops for computer coding, writing and drawing. April includes tabletop roleplaying game sessions, a drop-in for parents and kids and a family night. There are also programs for younger children, including creative play for preschoolers on the second and fourth Tuesdays in April from 1 to 2 p.m.

There’s no cost for anything Spark Central offers. Even memberships are free. Everyone should be able to create the future they want, Walter said.

“Your family not affording it shouldn’t be an impediment,” he said. “It felt like schools couldn’t even afford to offer some of these programs.”

Since the programs and summer camps are free, Spark Central depends on sponsorships and donations to survive.

Spark Central’s 6th Annual Salon, its biggest fundraiser of the year, is coming up April 15 at the Knitting Factory. The annual event is a gathering of artists of all types, including musicians and writers. One of the headliners is Pika Pika Dreamwolves, a band that formed during the August 2020 Girls Rock Lab camp.

The schedule also includes T.S. The Solution, DJ Spicy Ketchup, Atari Ferrari, Madeline McNeil, Olivia Brownlee and Starlight Motel. There will be video appearances by Myles Kennedy, a solo musician who has also performed with Alter Bridge and Slash, and musician Allen Stone. Jeanne Bourgeois, assistant concertmaster with the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, and Stephen Swanson, a double bassist for the Spokane Symphony, will appear in person.

Spark Central’s annual Creative Power Award will be given to musician Liz Rognes, who founded Girls Rock Lab. She’ll be interviewed on stage by Walter. There will also be signed books available from more than a dozen local authors, including Walter, Shawn Vestal, Sharma Shields and Chelsea Martin.

The event will also offer a culinary tour of the United States with skewered cheese stuffed meatballs from Chicago, Nashville hot chicken sliders, barbecue brisket cornbread canapes from Austin, Texas, New York cheesecake, smoked salmon cheese puffs from Seattle, carnitas tostadas from Los Angeles and more.

The fundraiser also includes an auction, with items up for bid including tickets to the musical “Hamilton” and dinners at local restaurants. In what has become an annual tradition, Walter will sign a box of Ding Dong treats and put it up for auction. It raised as much as $1,500 one year. Walter said that in addition to the sugary treats, this year’s winner will get an early look at his newest book.

The evening will be hosted by Kiantha Duncan, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, and musician Pat Simmons. Tickets are $125 and people can register at spark-central.org/spark-salon.

Victoria Gonzales, 12, selects a graphic novel from the shelves while mom Shari Rutherford looks for a book as well during a Drop In and Draw session on Jan. 29, 2020, at Spark Central.

LIBBY KAMROWSKI/ THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW