The News Tribune's Lights & Sirens blog provides breaking news, updates on on-going investigations and insights into other news from the Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound criminal justice community. It also gives The News Tribune an avenue to interact with readers, answer “What was that?” questions and provides a venue for readers to ask about on-going criminal justice issues and problems in their neighborhoods. The blog aims to inform, educate and, at times, entertain with weird or wacky crime news.
Stacey Mulick covers Pierce County crime and safety issues for The News Tribune. She’s worked at The News Tribune since May 1998. Contact her at stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com.
Adam Lynn covers courts as part of the Crime and Breaking News Team at The News Tribune, where he’s worked since 2003. Lynn has spent nearly half of his 21-year career chronicling criminal justice matters in Washington and won reporting awards for his coverage of serial killer Robert Yates. “The Corpse Had a Familiar Face” by renowned Miami Herald reporter Edna Buchanan is among his favorite books. You can contact him at adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com.
Brian Everstine is a night breaking news and general assignment reporter for The News Tribune. The Spokane native arrived in Tacoma in the summer of 2008 and still is adjusting to life on this side of the mountains. He has written for papers in the Tri-Cities and his hometown. Contact him at brian.everstine@thenewstribune.com.
Occasional contributers:
Database reporter Ian Demsky, ian.demsky@thenewstribune.com.
General assignment reporter Mike Archbold, mike.archbold@thenewstribune.com.
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UPDATE: Fire dispatchers now reporting it's a building in the 7400 block of 56th Street East. KIRO-TV aired some video shot from its chopper on the 5 p.m. newscasts. Looks like it might have been a farmhouse.
We've gotten a couple of calls into the newsroom about a fire in the Puyallup area.
Initial reports are that an RV caught fire at a park near the 7900 block of River Road East.
We've got calls out for more details.
The last witnesses were called Monday in the rape case against Tacoma middle school principal Harold Wright Jr.
Jury instructions and closing arguments are all that's left before the jury gets the case against Wright and co-defendant Richy Carter. Those should be accomplished before the close of business Tuesday. I'll be at closings and will file a story for the Wednesday paper/home page.
Monday saw many of the key players back on the stand.
Carter spent much of the morning explaining inconsistencies between statements he gave a detective investigating the case two years ago and statements he made on the stand during trial.
Deputy prosecutor Kevin McCann pressed on one point in particular. Carter insisted during his testimony that he never saw the alleged victim bare-chested the night she claims she was raped. McCann pointed to a police report Monday that quotes Carter as saying he saw the woman without her bra on that night.
Carter said he told the detective some things that weren't accurate because he was nervous and wanted to speak to a lawyer.
The alleged victim and her friend, Jamie Whittaker, also were called back to rebut testimony by Wright that he didn't smoke marijuana that night. Wright then took the stand again to deny (again) that he'd smoked weed at the party.
Seems Lights & Sirens is and adults-only blog.
Stacey's husband, ace political reporter Chris Mulick, turned us on to a Web site that examines the contents of blogs then assigns them a rating just like the movies get.
Seems our reporting on rape, sex, murder and porn earns us an NC-17. Who knew the truth was so ... naughty?
Anyway, it's kind of fun to type in blogs to see what you get.
BTW, the TNT's "edgy" Grit City blog rates only a PG. Gritty, my butt. Oops, that'll hurt our rating.
