The Associated Press

Two teens were shot early Wednesday in Shoreline in the Richmond Beach area.

SPOKANE — The city of Spokane will pay $1.67 million to the family of Otto Zehm, who was beaten to death at the hands of police in 2006.

An out-of-court settlement reached today also called for the city to formally apologize for the death of Zehm, and to implement better training for police officers.

The settlement follows two days of mediation efforts by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan of Oregon.

The civil lawsuit was filed by attorneys Jeffry Finer and Breean Beggs on behalf of the mother and estate of Zehm, a mentally ill janitor who died two days after the beating.

The civil case is separate from a criminal case filed in federal court over the death of Zehm.

A jury in Tacoma needs more time to deliberate in the voyeurism case against the father-in-law of a missing Utah mother.

Jurors broke for the day this afternoon after considering Steve Powell’s fate for several hours. They planned to return at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

Powell faces 14 counts of voyeurism stemming from what prosecutors say are images found on a disc in his bedroom of young girls who lived next door.

Jurors questioned that evidence during deliberations, asking if the disc was found in boxes containing only Steve Powell’s belongings.

Steve Powell is the father-in-law of Susan Powell, a Utah mother who disappeared in 2009. Her husband, Josh, killed himself and the couple’s two young children in a house fire earlier this year.

The closure, effective immediately, is the result of tests that showed contamination as the diesel fuel reached mussel beds.

Also today, divers plugged a leak in the sunken Deep Sea that was spewing one or two gallons of diesel a minute into Penn Cove.

Skimmers and absorbent booms were deployed by the clean-up contractor. Divers also have pumped 1,900 gallons of fuel out of the vessel and continue working today

Petty Officer Nathan Bradshaw says the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is paying for the cleanup, and the Coast Guard will seek to recoup the money.

The 128-foot derelict fishing boat caught fire Saturday and sank Sunday in 50 feet of water.

A jury in Tacoma has reinstated the death penalty for a man convicted of raping, robbing and stabbing a neighbor to death.

The Pierce County prosecutor’s office says the jury reached its decision Tuesday and Allen Eugene Gregory will be sentenced again on June 13 to die.

Now 39 years old, Gregory was convicted of aggravated murder in 2001 for the 1996 killing of Geneine Harshfield who was attacked after she returned home from her bartending job. The killing went unsolved until Gregory’s arrest in a rape case two years later produced a DNA match.

In 2006 the state Supreme Court upheld the murder conviction but overturned the death sentence. Pierce County prosecutors decided to re-try the penalty phase. It began two months ago and went to the jury Monday.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office today dismissed the charge against Joshua Garland. He was accused of  “grabbing a police officer’s hand and twisting his arm,” Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the county prosecutor’s office, wrote in a news release. 

“After reviewing video provided by Garland’s defense attorney showing the alleged incident, prosecutors no longer believe they could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Donohoe wrote. 

Garland has been out of jail since May 2. His lawyer, Andrea Robertson, said he has documented numerous social-activism events since 2010 through his photography.

After Garland’s arrest, Robertson said that her client was at the protest ”taking pictures.”

“His hand was on the camera and the other was at his side when the officer approached him,” Robertson said, adding that she believes the officer pushed her client in the chest and that her client’s hand went up. She insisted her client did not lay a hand on the officer.

Robertson said that to show her client’s innocence, she pieced together video segments posted on YouTube by witnesses and other footage shot by a local television station. She brought the video segments to prosecutors. The segments, she said, made it clear “there was absolutely no way that the officer’s account of events is what actually happened.”

“I don’t think there is any way you could intrepret the way he [the officer] described it,” Robertson said.

Donohoe said that three other people are still charged with allegedly assaulting police officers during the May 1 protests:

Paul Campiche, 23, is charged with two counts of third-degree assault for allegedly throwing a bottle at an officer and then kicking a second officer who was attempting to arrest him;

Robert Ditrani, 23, is charged with one count of fourth-degree assault for allegedly spitting on an officer;

Maria Morales, 30, is charged with fourth degree assault for allegedly hitting an officer in the chest, according to Donohoe.

Amina Kocer-Bowman, 9, was wounded when the .45-caliber handgun discharged in the boy’s backpack Feb. 22 at Armin Jahr Elementary School. She underwent five surgeries for a shattered elbow and damage to her  internal organs.

The Kitsap County prosecutor had charged the boy’s mother, Jamie Chaffin, and her boyfriend, Douglas Bauer, with unlawful possession of a firearm and felony third-degree assault for negligently allowing the boy access to the gun.  The boy reportedly obtained the handgun during a visit to his mother’s home days before the shooting.

In Kitsap County Superior Court this morning, Chaffin pleaded guilty to the two counts and in exchange the prosecution dropped the assault charge. Chaffin, who faces just over a year in prison when sentenced, also agreed to testify against Bauer.

Bauer’s defense lawyer asked a judge to dismiss his criminal case against his client. The judge, instead, dismissed an unlawful posession of a firearm charge against Bauer. The assault charge still stands and Bauer will stand trial in July, said Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Morris.

In cases in which a child obtains a weapon through an adult’s alleged negligence, prosecutors generally file a gross-misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment. But when he filed the assault charges in March, Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge said the case called for tougher penalties.

“The adults have the responsibility for the firearm,” Hauge said at the time. “It was no different from if they said to him: ‘Here, put this [gun] in your backpack.’ “

Doreen Starrish, 28, had initially been charged with first-degree assault/domestic violence and sought on an arrest warrant. After Aaron C. Smith, 27, died at Harborview Medical Center, Starrish turned herself in to police.

Detectives say Starrish stabbed Smith because he refused to let her take the children out of the house. Witnesses said Smith had refused because she was drunk, according to charging paperwork.

Sheriff’s deputies were called on May 3 to the home Starrish shared with Smith, in the 1500 block of Northeast 190th Street. Friends who were at the home that night told investigators that the couple had been arguing for several hours when Smith was stabbed.

After stabbing Smith, Starrish fled with the couple’s two daughters, who deputies say are 7 and 3, according to charging papers.

An Amber Alert was issued for the children. That night, Seattle police received a phone call from Smith’s brother, saying the children had been dropped off at his grandmother’s house. The grandmother told deputies Starrish had called her to say a woman named “Alice” was responsible for the stabbing. It’s unclear in the charges who “Alice” is.

According to charges, before surrendering to police Starrish posted this explanation on her Facebook page:

“Every one aarons dead I didn’t do it I ran kuz I didn’t want r girls to get taken away…”

At the time he was stabbed, there was a domestic violence order in place barring Smith from contacting Starrish, according to court records. A misdemeanor assault case is pending in Shoreline District Court, listing Smith as the suspect and Starrish as the victim, a detective wrote in her report.

In the earlier incident, the victim of the hit-and-run called 911 at 12:27 p.m. to report the pickup had hit three vehicles before driving away.

About an hour later, at 1:37 p.m., the pickup hit the SUV in the University District on Northeast 50th, police say.

Seattle police spokesman Jeff Kappel said the pickup driver showed signs of impairment, and officers drew blood. No citations were issued, pending further investigation.

EARLIER POST | Two men were taken to the hospital after a traffic collision at the intersection of 15th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 50th Street this afternoon.

Seattle Fire Department spokesman Kyle Moore said first responders were called to the intersection after a small SUV and a pickup collided. The SUV was on its side and the driver of that vehicle was trapped inside, said Moore. That man was extricated through the back window and transported to Harborview Medical Center in stable condition.

The driver of the pickup, a man in his early 40s, was evaluated by paramedics and taken by medics to Harborview in serious condition.

Seattle Police did not immediately return calls seeking information but are reported to be investigating the cause of the accident. The accident has caused traffic slowdowns in the area.

EARLIER POST | Everett police and firefighters are searching for a man who reportedly went into the water when a 12-foot dingy sank in Port Gardner Bay.

The Coast Guard received a report at about 1:30 p.m. that a man was pulled from the water after the dingy went down. The man told his rescuers that a second man was still missing.

The missing man is not believed to be wearing a lifejacket, the Coast Guard said.