Couple sought for beating dog

King County animal officers and Auburn police are looking for a man and a woman who severely beat a dog with a baseball bat and left him for dead.

The Labrador mix suffered several skull fractures and swelling to the brain. While he still may die, or have lasting brain injury, he was resting comfortably at a veterinary clinic in Burien on Friday.

Witnesses said the couple, described as transient, were seen taking turns beating the dog with the bat Thursday on 41st Avenue Southeast, just east of D Street Southeast in Auburn.

The couple were not in custody Friday but police had a lead on where to find them, said Bobbie Egan of King County Animal Services. They could face felony charges.

Nonprofit group Friends of King County Animal Services, is collecting donations to help cover the dog's care. They may be made online at www.friendsofkcac.com/donations.htm or mailed to P.O. Box 5791, Kent, 98064.

3 Capitol Hill churches damaged

Three Capitol Hill churches suffered thousands of dollars in damage when a Seattle man hurled rocks and bricks through windows, overturned a container of baptismal oil, threatened a person with a knife and threw his bicycle at a police officer before he was arrested Thursday morning.

The man is suspected of breaking four stained-glass windows at Capitol Hill Presbyterian New Church Development at 1729 Harvard St., according to a police report. He is also suspected of shattering two stained-glass windows, four glass doors and a glass window at Trinity Lutheran Church at East Highland Drive and 10th Avenue East. And police say he broke a large, glass, decorative container of baptismal oil inside St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral at 1245 10th Ave. E.

The man was booked into the King County Jail on suspicion of malicious mischief, assault and felony harassment.

Robert C. Boruchowitz, the director of The Defender Association for nearly 28 years, has accepted a teaching position at Seattle University Law School. Boruchowitz began as a staff attorney with the office in 1974 and worked on misdemeanors, juvenile, felonies, and appeals before becoming director in 1978.

He was part of a three-attorney team that obtained a life sentence for a client in a capital case, and he argued a number of cases in the state court of appeals and Supreme Court. He also worked on a case that resulted in a finding that the City of Seattle's "prowling" ordinance was unconstitutional, according to his office.

In recent years, he has participated in an evaluation of the New Orleans public-defender system, as well as evaluations of the Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., public-defender offices.

Under Boruchowitz's leadership, the Association also established an investigator intern program.

The Defender Association is the county's oldest public defender office, representing clients in about 11,000 cases a year with 79 attorneys.

Boruchowitz will remain as director until January and then will serve as a consultant during transition. The association has not yet announced a replacement.

Man admits to using name of band singer

A transient was arrested on accusations of identity theft after impersonating the co-founder of the Alan Parsons Project pop group, authorities said.

Michael D. Rodgers, 55, told residents that he was singer Eric Woolfson — who formed the band with Parsons in 1975 — and tried to get them to give him money, said a police sergeant.

According to investigators, Rodgers offered several people new cars if they agreed to pay the luxury tax. But nobody took the bait.

"He comes across as very quiet and sincere and sort of looks like a musician might look," said Sgt. Marc Shrake, spokesman for the Troutdale Police Department.

"He told us he's been using Woolfson's name for 20 years ... said he had to make a living somehow."