Six men accuse former Seattle teacher of abuse

Six men who say they were sexually abused years ago by Edward Courtney, a former brother with the Congregation of Christian Brothers religious order, filed lawsuits Tuesday against Courtney, the order and the Seattle Roman Catholic Archdiocese.

In their lawsuits, filed in King County Superior Court, two of the men say they were abused in the 1970s when they were students at O'Dea High School, where Courtney taught.

Three say they were abused around 1979 when they were students at St. Alphonsus School, where Courtney was principal.

The sixth man said he was abused as a 13-year-old student in Othello, Adams County, when Courtney was his baseball coach.

According to court documents some church leaders knew as far back as the 1960s that Courtney sexually abused students yet allowed him to continue teaching.

Last fall, a Skagit County man who says he was abused by Courtney at St. Alphonsus School received a $1.1 million settlement.

Five other men who say Courtney abused them at O'Dea received a $1.9 million settlement in February last year.

Seattle

Board OKs lease or sale of school

The Seattle School Board voted Wednesday night to allow sale or long-term lease of the Martin Luther King Elementary School property in Seattle's Central Area.

The district closed the school in fall of 2006 after enrollment waned at the mostly African-American school.

A group of African-American leaders filed a lawsuit to save the school, but it was not successful.

At Wednesday night's board meeting several people spoke against the move to prepare the school building for another use.

Around the city, many former school buildings are being used as community centers or to house nonprofits.

The district already voted over the summer to allow sale or long-term lease of seven other buildings.

Seattle

Not-guilty plea in 1975 slaying

A man recently charged in the 1975 slaying of his childhood neighbor pleaded not guilty Wednesday in King County Superior Court.

James Groth, 49, was charged late last month with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Diana Peterson in the backyard of her Richmond Beach home in February 1975.

Groth, who was 16 at the time of the slaying, was interviewed after the slaying.

He also failed a polygraph test shortly thereafter, and another in May 2006.

King County sheriff's spokesman John Urquhart said Groth denied any involvement until cold-case detectives spoke with him again late last month.

During this most recent interview, he didn't deny any connection with Peterson's death, court papers said.

He said that he and Peterson fought just before her death but said it wasn't unusual since they would often "tussle," court papers said.

Seattle

Federal Way man charged in fatality

King County prosecutors charged a Federal Way man Wednesday with vehicular homicide in the death of a woman in a wrong-way crash on Highway 18 near Auburn.

Prosecutors allege Ernest San Nicolas, 50, was drunk when he was driving against traffic early Sunday and collided with a vehicle driven by Elissa Villegas, 25, according to charging papers.

Villegas was pronounced dead at the scene.

Nicolas was not seriously injured in the collision.

Nicolas was on his way back from a bar and a blood test showed a blood-alcohol level of .15, nearly twice the legal limit, according to court documents.

Nicolas has posted bail and was released pending trial, according to court documents.

Lacey

Interim prison chief appointed to post

Gov. Christine Gregoire appointed on Wednesday veteran prison official Eldon Vail to run the often-embattled state Department of Corrections.

He has been acting as interim secretary since November.

The prisons are overcrowded — 1,200 inmates are housed out of state — but have been fairly quiet.

The governor helped develop a new "re-offender re-entry" program that provides inmates with drug and alcohol treatment, schooling, job training, anger management and other services aimed at fixing some of the inmates' problems so they will be less likely to re-offend.

But it also has been a rocky time for the agency.

In late 2006, ex-convicts, some released early, were implicated in the deaths of three police officers, and scores of parole violators were dumped on the streets.

Department of Corrections Secretary Harold Clarke and Gregoire were blamed and critics complained about overcrowding and the quality of community supervision of ex-cons.

Clarke left in November and is now head of the Massachusetts prison system.

Vail has worked at the department for 31 years. He retired in 2006, but returned as Clarke's deputy last October when the department was in turmoil and faced labor unrest.

Hayden, Idaho

Man sees "mark of beast," severs hand

A man who believed he bore the "mark of the beast" used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said.

The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when Kootenai County sheriff's deputies arrived Saturday in this northern Idaho town. He was in protective custody in the mental-health unit of Kootenai Medical Center.

"It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived," sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said.

"He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn't bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad."

It was not immediately clear whether the man has a history of mental illness.

Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson would not say whether an attempt was made to reattach the hand, citing patient confidentiality.

Seattle Times staff and news services