Inmate accuses Snohomish County Jail guard of rape

Everett

A Snohomish County Jail guard is on paid administrative leave, accused of raping an inmate.

Jail administrators received word of the allegation Saturday after the alleged incident Friday between a male guard and a female inmate, jail spokesman Jim Harms said.

The guard was placed on leave after the allegation by the inmate, as is standard with the jail's policy on such matters, Harms said.

Neither the inmate nor the guard was identified by officials.

Everett police are investigating the incident, police said.

Burien

18-year-old held in crosswalk fatality

An 18-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in a hit-and-run crash last month that killed an 81-year-old Burien woman.

John Emmanual Fernandez was arrested without incident in the Top Hat area of unincorporated King County, northeast of Burien, on a $100,000 felony warrant.

The warrant was issued after the May 16 crash on Ambaum Boulevard Southwest that killed Valerie Glass, according to the King County Sheriff's Office. Glass, who was also known to acquaintances as Barbara Taylor, was in a marked crosswalk when she was fatally struck, police said.

Police are still looking for the 1991 Oldsmobile 88 with Washington license plate 845KVT that the man was believed to have been driving. Anyone with information on the car is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 206-296-3311 or 911.

More info sought after man charged

King County sheriff's detectives are hoping to speak with friends and former girlfriends of a Kent-area man charged with killing his stepdaughter more than three years ago.

Joel Zellmer had a pattern of dating or marrying women with young children, the Sheriff's Office said. During the relationships, investigators said, Zellmer injured many children or suggested taking out life-insurance policies on them.

Zellmer, 37, was arrested June 6 and is being held at the King County Jail in lieu of $5 million bail. He's accused of drowning his 3-year-old stepdaughter to collect a $200,000 life-insurance policy. The girl died Dec. 3, 2003, in the family pool.

Authorities initially ruled the drowning an accident. But they reopened the probe, according to court records, after finding that the death fit a pattern of near-drownings and other bizarre injuries that befell the young children of women Zellmer had dated or married.

Zellmer is charged with first- and second-degree murder, as well as theft, for allegedly faking a head injury to collect $193,000 in disability payments from the state Department of Labor and Industries. Anyone with information about Zellmer is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 206-296-3311.

Renton

State shuts down escrow firm

The state of Washington has shut down Exceptional Escrow Corp. of Renton after examiners said the company's owner, Catherine Wiseman, illegally used consumers' escrow funds for operating expenses.

The state Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) on Tuesday appointed Brian Budsberg, an attorney with the Olympia law firm of Brian Lowell Budsberg, as a receiver to take over the company and safeguard more than $2.5 million of consumers' escrow funds.

Earlier this month, the DFI issued a cease-and-desist order banning the company from transferring money out of its bank accounts or taking on new business. A routine examination of Exceptional Escrow uncovered questionable transactions, according to DFI, including the transfer of more than $65,000 from one escrow account to the general operating account. Exceptional Escrow has locations in Renton, Bonney Lake and North Bend.

Kenmore

Man killed after crashing into tree

A 30-year-old Kirkland man died Monday when his vehicle went off Northeast Bothell Way near 83rd Place Northeast in Kenmore and crashed into a tree.

The State Patrol identified the man as William Steven Walsh.

Walsh was trying to pass another eastbound vehicle at about 5:15 p.m. when he lost control of his 1995 Jeep Cherokee, swerving off the right shoulder, State Patrol Trooper Jeff Merrill said. The vehicle crashed into a tree and rolled, coming to rest in shrubbery along the Burke-Gilman Trail.

Olympia

Insurance industry seeks repeal of law

The insurance industry, calling itself Consumers Against Higher Insurance Rates, has raised more than $650,000 to repeal a new state law.

A referendum to ask voters if they want to retain the law was filed last month with the Secretary of State's Office. The industry wants Referendum 67 on the ballot, then would campaign against it. If the referendum is defeated, the law would be repealed.

The law, among other things, allows a court to approve triple damages if an insurance company violates the so-called Insurance Fair Conduct Act and unreasonably denies coverage or payment.

According to the most recent reports at the Public Disclosure Commission, 13 insurance companies — most from other states — donated $651,511 to the referendum campaign since mid-May.

On the other side, the Washington Trial Lawyers donated $100,000 earlier this month.

The campaign has until July 21 to collect 112,4440 signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot.

Seattle

King County gets a new Web site

King County rolled out its redesigned Web site and new Web address on Tuesday: kingcounty.gov. Until now, the county was at www.metrokc.gov.

Moving the county's 100,000 Web pages to the new address will take place over the next 18 months. The site recently began using a Google search engine intended to make searches easier.

County employees' e-mail addresses also are changing to the kingcounty.gov domain.

Use of the county site increased 50 percent from 7.6 million to 11.5 million page views between January 2006 and January 2007, the county reported. Use of the Metro bus Trip Planner, property Parcel Viewer, online property tax payments and jail inmate lookup have sustained some of the most rapid growth.

Seattle

Initiative backs election of director

An initiative that calls for election of the King County elections director got a boost Tuesday when proponents filed petitions containing more than 74,500 signatures with the county clerk.

Toby Nixon, spokesman for Citizens for Accountable Elections, said the number of valid voters' signatures almost certainly exceeds the 54,732 minimum required to put Initiative 25 on the county ballot. Submission of petitions had been delayed while sponsors raised more money to pay a signature-gathering firm.

If the Metropolitan King County Council adopts Initiative 25, voters would decide in November whether to amend the county charter to hold the first nonpartisan election of an elections director in February 2008, Nixon said.

Election of a director would be pushed back to February 2009 if the County Council decides voters should vote twice on the issue, first on the initiative, then on the charter amendment — and if voters approve both measures.

"We believe that the head of the Elections Department in King County should be directly accountable to the people, should be an independent voice for the quality of elections in King County," Nixon said.

Algona

Candidate pulls out; position reopens

Algona residents who want to run for City Council will get another chance.

King County election officials are reopening Position 3 for candidate filing today through Friday because the only declared candidate, Karen Rames, withdrew last week.

Rames said she had filed as a candidate because incumbent Ed Britz didn't file for re-election. She withdrew after learning that Britz failed to file because he didn't realize the initial filing period was June 4-8, earlier than in previous years.

"He's done a good job. We'll let him continue," Rames said Tuesday.

Times news services