Submitted by admin on Sat, 2005-10-29 08:00. ::
A Seattle weight-loss doctor and former obstetrician who was suspended from prescribing medicine has reached a settlement with the state medical board.
Dr. Michael E. Greer is allowed to prescribe medications with certain restrictions, but he is barred from ever practicing obstetrics. The state Medical Quality Assurance Commission stayed a five-year suspension of Greer's license. It could be suspended if he fails to comply with conditions.
The commission alleged last spring that Greer prescribed high-risk drugs for weight-loss patients whose conditions did not justify the risks. The state also said he was negligent as an obstetrician in the case of a patient whose baby was born with brain damage and later died.
As part of the settlement, Greer agreed his actions "fell below the standard of care of a reasonably prudent obstetrician." He said he retired from obstetrics in 2000.
The complaint was filed by the parents of the baby, Nathan Jackman. They'd hoped to get Greer's license revoked. The settlement "makes us sick to our stomachs," said the father, Craig Jackman.
EPHRATA, Wash. — A Kennewick man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death last summer of Jonathan M. Carrico, whose body was found in a Mattawa-area orchard on Oct. 14.
An orchardist found Carrico's skeletal remains covered with an old sleeping bag in an unused root cellar about 2 miles southwest of Mattawa. There was a .22-caliber slug lodged in the skull, according to the county's chief criminal deputy, John Turley. Authorities believe the man died in early July.
Investigators believe Carrico and Quesnell were involved in methamphetamine dealing, Turley said Monday, noting that Carrico had an extensive juvenile record.
Quesnell, arrested in the case after an interview in the Kennewick Police Department, was being held in the Grant County Jail on $1 million bail.
Each country's name was engraved in English and repeated in the country's own language: "Norway/Norge," "Denmark/Danmark," "Finland/Suomi," "Iceland/Island." With the upside-down A spoiling "Sweden/Sverige."
"There are always ways to feather out mistakes like that. Happens all the time. Maybe they can thermal it with heat or try a stone patch," he said.
The project is already facing local criticism. The original plan was to get the stone from the five countries, not granite engraved in China, said Marianne Forsblad, executive director of the Nordic Heritage Museum.
Rodger Jerome Nelson, 33, was sentenced for bank and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft by Chief U.S. District Judge Robert S. Lasnik. Prosecutors had sought a significant prison term.
Nelson and co-defendant Lori Linn Simmons "undertook an extraordinary criminal spree by which hundreds of people's mail was stolen, cars were burgled, and scores of people's identities were stolen and exploited for Nelson's and Simmons' own personal gain," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan M. Harrison.
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A former Bethel school teacher who raped a 14-year-old student has been sentenced to three months in jail and then two years and seven months in treatment.
Former Bethel Junior High School teacher Chad Denis Maughan, 35, told a judge Thursday he was sorry he'd raped the student and betrayed his wife and seven children.
But he said he was afraid to spend more time in jail and wasn't like the people there. "I don't mean to judge them. But their language and their attitudes ... It's the worst place I've ever been."
"You're in jail because you committed a serious crime, probably a worse crime than most of the people in there," Pierce County Superior Court Judge James Orlando said.
But he concluded that treatment under a special sentencing alternative "would help society more." So Maughan will spend most of his two-year, 10-month sentence at home while he gets treatment, takes polygraph exams and checks in with the court.
Orlando denied Maughan's request to let him go home immediately, but left open the possibility he could receive treatment in Utah, where his wife and children have moved and where his extended family lives.
If Maughan fails to cooperate in treatment, he could go to prison. Maughan will serve three months in jail, with credit for the 41 days already served. He also will have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
PASCO, Wash. (AP) — A Richland man has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for vehicular homicide in a 2004 accident that killed his wheelchair-bound grandfather.
After Richard Oliver De Vine, 41, is released from prison, Franklin County Superior Court Judge Robert Swisher ordered 18 to 36 months community supervision with substance-abuse treatment.
De Vine was seen going into a west Pasco bar on Nov. 21, 2004, just 30 minutes before he drove into the median of Interstate 82 near Pasco. The van reportedly was going at least the 70 mph speed limit when it struck a turnout, flew into the air and then crashed in the median.
Passers-by found both De Vine and his grandfather — Harold B. De Vine, 94 — unconscious. The elder man was in the back of the van, seated in his damaged wheelchair, documents said.
Troopers said Richard De Vine smelled of alcohol, with bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Told he was under arrest, De Vine stated, "I know I'm drunk," according to court records.
Richard De Vine and his wife had been caring for his grandfather for about 11 months after Harold De Vine had broken his hip and had several strokes since 2002, said H. Terry De Vine — the victim's son and the driver's father — in a letter to the court.
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A 19-year-old man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for vehicular homicide in a February wreck that killed an acquaintance.
Perez pleaded guilty Tuesday to vehicular homicide, vehicular assault and first-degree theft in the Feb. 19 accident. Sheriff's deputies said Perez took several people on a joy ride in a car that belonged to a woman he was house-sitting for.
Passenger Donald Jackson, 15, was killed when the vehicle collided with a pickup. The teen was thrown from the car into nearby brush, and his body was not found until hours after the wreck when deputies began reconstructing the accident.
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