Employee accused of sex with goat

A former employee of Eatonville's Pioneer Farm Museum in Pierce County has been accused of having sex with a goat and charged with animal cruelty.

According to charging papers, a tour guide saw Arthur Lawton, 63, having sexual intercourse with the animal in a barn on May 8 during an evening event at the museum.

His employers later fired him, according to the court document.

Lawton is the second person charged in the county since the Legislature made bestiality a crime in response to the fatal injury to a man having sex with a horse in Enumclaw. A man accused of having sex with the family pit bull was acquitted in May.

Seattle

Body found in Elliott Bay is identified

A man whose body was pulled from Elliott Bay on Wednesday has been identified as Dean Halpaus.

A passenger on the ferry Skagit spotted the body in the waters north of Harbor Island, according to Seattle police. Seattle firefighters retrieved the body, which the King County Medical Examiner's Office identified as Halpaus.

Halpaus, 42, of Seattle, was dressed in a black T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, according to police. The Medical Examiner's Office said Friday that they were awaiting toxicology tests before determining a cause or manner of death. Seattle police are investigating.

Tacoma

Narrows Bridge scofflaws cited

About a month after the Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened, the state Department of Transportation announced that it has issued 3,347 citations of $49 each to drivers who evaded its tollbooths.

The number of citations is about 3 to 4 percent of total crossings, officials said, and that's fewer evaders than most toll structures experience nationwide.

Some lanes have no tollbooths, and tolls are paid through the Good To Go! pass, which is affixed to the car and read by a sensor as the car drives onto the bridge.

Eleven of the citations were issued in error to drivers with valid Good To Go! passes but those errors are being resolved, according to the Department of Transportation. Those citations have been removed from the court docket, and the drivers will be contacted and assured that they don't have to pay the fines, according to a news release.

Violators are given 15 days to respond to the mailed citations, which were certified by the State Patrol.

Drivers may pay by mail, by phone or online. They may also ask for a hearing if they believe there were mitigating circumstances or if they believe they did not commit the infraction.

Drivers can sign up for Good To Go! by visiting a customer-service center in Gig Harbor or Tacoma, by applying online at www.wsdot.wa.gov/goodtogo or by calling 866-936-8246.

Friday Harbor

86 orcas counted; 1 less than in 2006

The Center for Whale Research at Friday Harbor has counted 86 orcas in this year's census of killer whales.

That's down one from last year, but it's not a final number as calves could be born in late summer.

The research center counts and identifies orcas by photographing them. The Puget Sound orcas — in three pods known as J, K and L — spend late spring to fall in the inland waters of Washington and British Columbia.

Olympia

Boat owner finds stolen craft by air

The owner of a stolen boat took to the air to find his $180,000 pleasure craft.

An hour and a half after Steve Boone rented an airplane and took off from Olympia Airport, he spotted the 34-foot boat, then followed it from above as it was towed along a highway until two people were stopped and arrested Thursday.

Boone, owner of Northwest Harley-Davidson, in Lacey, told The Olympian that an article Wednesday on the theft generated a tip that on the night his boat was taken from U.S. Marine Sales and Service, a couple was seen at a gasoline station in Shelton towing a boat with a pickup that was much too small for the load.

The couple mentioned that they were heading for Port Ludlow, about 60 miles north of Olympia, so that was where Boone told the pilot to head.

About 10 miles south of Port Ludlow, near Quilcene, Boone said, he spotted the boat in a marina.

Soon afterward, a vehicle began towing the boat on U.S. Highway 101 toward State Route 104, so Boone called Olympia police from the air as the pilot followed the rig for about 20 miles until it was stopped by Jefferson County sheriff's deputies.

Dick Machlan, an Olympia police spokesman, said detectives would confer with Jefferson County authorities, who had two people in custody and were holding the boat.

Redmond

Line work to close section of park road

Work crews will close a portion of Northeast Marymoor Way, which winds through King County's Marymoor Park, for four hours at midday Tuesday while they install an irrigation line.

All parking lots and facilities will be open during the road closure but no traffic will be allowed through from either direction.

Northeast Marymoor Way runs between West Lake Sammamish Parkway and Northeast 65th Street. The closure will be at a work site just west of the interpretive lot entrance, and just east of the paved path that runs north-south between soccer fields 5 and 6.

Seattle Times staff and news services