Dear readers:

I'm out of the office this week, and Stacey's still on maternity leave.

That means this blog may be a little dark and quiet for a while (some of our colleagues have the ability to post here, but they seldom do).

Things should pick up again the first week of September when I return to duty and – let the pigeons loose! – Stacey comes back to work as well.

Have a good week, and thanks for reading.

Perhaps you saw this news update Thursday.

Law enforcement sources tell Lights & Sirens Tacoma police busted him Friday afternoon after receiving a tip from the public.

Way to go public!

Thomas Law is back in town.

Looks like he was booked into the Pierce County Jail about 3 p.m. Thursday, according to the jail roster.

He's to be arraigned today at 1:30 p.m.

Law, you'll recall, is the third person charged in last weekend's shooting outside Rudy's Restaurant & Lounge on Tacoma's East Side. He apparently hopped a bus shortly after the violence and was headed east when the authorities caught up with him in Kansas City, Mo., earlier this week.

He's charged with being an accomplice to first-degree murder and first-degree assault.

I'm planning to attend his arraignment and will try to post an update to the home page by mid-afternoon.

Danny Driscoll called the other day.

He operates Rudy's Pub & Grill at 7505 Steilacoom Blvd. S.W. in Lakewood. Driscoll said he's gotten calls in the last few days from concerned patrons, saying they'd heard there was a shooting outside Rudy's.

"They want to know if everything's OK," Driscoll said.

Rest assured they are.

The shooting in question occurred outside Rudy's Restaurant and Lounge at 6324 E. McKinley Ave. on the East Side of Tacoma, miles away from Driscoll's Rudy's.

I hope this helps clear up any confusion.

A woman from Castle Rock, Cowlitz County, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to one count of distribution of methadone.

Julie Schoonover, 36, was indicted earlier this month as part of an 8-month investigation into prescription drug abuse in Southwest Washington, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle reported.

Undercover law enforcement officers and informants purchased illegal prescription drugs from people across Southwest Washington. Seven people in all were indicted in the sting.

Schoonover – who reportedly sold 100 methadone pills on one day – is the first to plead guilty, according to federal authorities.

She's scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 6. Distribution of methadone is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine, although Schoonover probably will face much less than that.

That's the word from Pierce County deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen.

Sorensen, who is prosecuting the case along with colleague Mark Lindquist, told Lights & Sirens on Tuesday that jury selection in the case of Dominick Maldonado is churning along. Attorneys hope to have a panel in place by the end of next week, Sorensen said.

That means opening arguments could come as soon as Sept. 4 with witness testimony beginning immediately thereafter.

Interim prosecutor Dan Satterburg filed a second-degree murder charge Monday against Christopher Temple, the 18-year-old man suspected of killing his 3-month-old son, Aiden, earlier this month.

Temple is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 30.

Jennifer Leigh Rice wants her bail reduced from $500,000 to $50,000, according to paperwork filed by the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel.

She also wants to be able to travel to Thurston County, where she lives, and to contact her kids should she make bail, according to a motion filed last week by her court-appointed attorneys.

Superior Court Judge Katherine Stolz told Rice at her arraignment last week that she was prohibited from having contact with anyone under 18 should she make bail. The judge also restricted her travel to Pierce County should she bail out.

Rice is next scheduled in court Sept. 4. She'll likely make her bail arguments then.

About 3 p.m. Thursday, a fire broke out along southbound Interstate 5 in SeaTac.

The smoky blaze, pushed by stiff winds, threatened several homes and clogged traffic on I-5 near the South 200th Street interchange. It was a traffic nightmare and forced several folks to flee their homes.

Eight fire departments – SeaTac, South King Fire and Rescue, Kent, Burien, Boeing, Port of Seattle, Tukwila and Renton – responded and knocked it down.

Luckily, no one was hurt and no buildings were damaged.

But someone's dander sure got up.

I was coming home from an early-morning fishing trip to West Seattle today when I spotted a homemade sign saying, "Way to go smokers," posted in the blackened area burned by the fire.

Trouble is, it wasn't a discarded cigarette that caused the blaze, according to a press release issued by the Kent Fire Department on behalf of SeaTac firefighters.

Investigators believe a state Department of Transportation crew cutting brush in the area unwittingly started the fire when a mower blade hit a rock, causing a spark that ignited the tinder-dry foliage.

We'll see if the sign comes down once word gets out about what truly caused that fire.

Hmmmmm.

Sometimes, it's best if I just stay out of the way of a good story. This is one of those cases.

Here's a State Patrol press release* we received at Bad News Central yesterday. It comes from trooper Jeff Merrill of the King County detachment (Merrill sent the photo as well):

A wild foot chase yesterday involving several pedestrians and a gun resulted in one subject darting into traffic and getting run over.

The victim, a 23-year-old Renton man, told troopers that he was walking down Martin Luther King way Jr. (SR 900) near 68th Ave S. when he was confronted by a man with a gun.The victim turned and fled on foot. After running several blocks, he attempted to cross SR 900 and was immediately struck by a 1999 Chrysler.

The Chrysler, which was driven by a 24-year-old SeaTac man, along with his passenger, were showered with glass as the windshield exploded. The victim bounced up and over the car but got up and climbed into the back seat of the Chrysler after it stopped. The bloody and bleeding man pleaded for a ride away from the area.

The Chrysler driver refused and instead called 911. The occupants of the Chrysler were treated for minor glass cuts and (the man who got hit) was transported to Harborview Hospital for head injuries.

The collision is under investigation and a search is being conducted for the man with the gun.

* I redacted the names of the people involved to protect the innocent.

Pierce County authorities have released this booking photo of the Puyallup junior high school teacher accused of raping and molesting a 15-year-old student.

Diane Amanda Hillman, 39, is charged with third-degree child rape and third-degree child molestation. Court documents indicate she had an on-going relationship with the girl.

She pleaded not guilty Friday.

Hillman, a counselor at Ballou Junior High School, posted $10,000 bail Friday evening and was released, according to jail records.

She scheduled in court of a pre-trial conference Aug. 28.

I meant to post a link to this article back when Harold Wright Jr. and Richy Carter were still on trial, but I got busy and forgot.

I'm getting a second chance now that Wright and Carter are asking for new trials.

For the record, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Lisa Worswick required witnesses and attorneys in Wright's and Carter's original trial to insert the word "alleged" before any references to attack, rape or victim.

CORRECTION: I've been advised that Judge Worswick ordered only that participants refer to the woman who accused Wright and Carter of rape as the "alleged victim" or "complaining witness." There was no order from the judge regarding the use of the words "attack" or "rape."

Here's the Reuters report.

It's got to do with selling magazines door-to-door. Click here.

State Troopers who prowl the roads of District 8 soon will be carrying Tasers, those electric stun guns cops sometimes use to bring uncooperative people under control.

Trooper Brian George announced Wednesday that the district's personnel soon will receive the nonlethal weapons following eight hours of training, including being shocked themselves.

They'll get the Taser X26 model.

All the state's troopers eventually will be outfitted with the devices.

Stacey wrote a treatise about Tasers, including which South Sound agencies employ them, back in 2005:

=> Read more!

Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said Monday afternoon that deputies now are investigating 47 reports of windows being shattered by ball bearings.

We'll have a detailed account in Tuesday's paper, but here's a map provided by the sheriff's department showing the location of the attacks.

Pierce County sheriff's investigators need help identifying the people or person responsible for a series of incidents in which windows of cars, houses and businesses were shot out with ball bearings.

The attacks occurred July 30 to Aug. 2 in Spanaway and South Hill. Three cars were hit while people were driving them, investigators said.

A $1,000 reward is available for information that leads to arrests being made and charges being filed. Call Crime Stoppers with info: 253-591-5959.

Carlos M. Gonzalez-Castillo will be an old man when he gets out of federal prison.

Gonzalez-Castillo, 55, was sentenced Friday to 16 years, 8 months, in the Big House after being convicted of four drug crimes, the U.S. Attorney's Office reported.

Gonzalez-Castillo pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base, two counts of distribution of cocaine base and one count of possession of cocaine base with intent to distribute.

Federal agents said they began investigating him after he sold crack to an undercover informant in the parking lot of his apartment building.

The case was prosecuted by Doug Hill, a Pierce County deputy prosecutor who been specially assigned to the U.S. Attorney's Office to handle federal drug cases.

I spent part of two days this week listening to pre-trial motions in the case of Dominick Maldonado, the young man (seen here) who is scheduled to go on trial Aug. 14 for the Nov. 20, 2005, shooting spree at the Tacoma Mall.

I filed two stories from those hearings: One and two.

But here are a few tidbits from my notebook that didn't make the paper:

• The trial is expected to last a whopping two-and-a-half months, including jury selection.
• Deputy prosecutors Phil Sorensen and Mark Lindquist have identified more than 150 witnesses they may call to the stand, the majority of those law enforcement officers.
• Judge Linda Lee has requested a jury pool of more than 130 folks, of which the lawyers will choose 16 (12 jurors and four alternates). The pool is so large because there's been a ton of publicity about this case. Also, it's going to be tough to find jurors who can put their lives on hold for 10 weeks to hear it. Lee hopes to complete jury selection in two weeks.
• Lee will pick the alternates before testimony begins, but she won't tell them they're alternates until after closing arguments. Maldonado's defense attorney, Keith MacFie, told Lee that alternate jurors, if they know they're alternates from the get-go, sometimes don't pay as close attention to testimony as they should.
• MacFie plans to reserve his opening statement until the defense begins its case, which may be a month or more into trial.

We're still talking here at the paper about how we want to cover the case. I can't imagine us doing gavel-to-gavel coverage, but we'll definitely be there for opening arguments, closing statements and key witnesses if we're able to identify them ahead of time.

I'll try to keep you posted.

Sometimes, the laws make no sense to me.

This one, for instance.

Got this query from L&S regular contributor Jacob R. late last evening:

Something went down at about 9:30pm tonight. Heard a loud boom and lots of police cars after (there might have been police sirens before as well) and now 19th and J Street is closed down. I went and looked and there is a car in the middle of the street. A neighbor thought it was a gunshot, I thought it was a crash. Maybe police ramming a car?

The TNT's crack night staff posted this account of the action just before midnight Wednesday.

A few days ago I wrote about Lakewood police seeking a suspect in the stabbing of a woman.

Well, they caught him.

Gregory Lee McCullough Jr. is now charged with second-degree attempted murder, intimidating a witness, unlawful imprisonment and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence in the attack on his former girlfriend.

McCullough, 30, pleaded not guilty Tuesday and is being held in jail in lieu of $200,000 bail.

Terapon Dang Adhahn shuffled into Pierce County Superior Court about 9:35 Wednesday morning, shackled and unshaven.

He was there to find out which judge would hear the aggravated first-degree murder case against him in the death of 12-year-old Zina Linnik.

Judicial pre-assignments are done by lot in Pierce County, so Adhahn stood silently by with his attorneys, Richard Whitehead and Mary Kay High, while Judge Thomas Larkin pulled a numbered tile out of a small box.

The number was for Department 6, Judge Rosanne Buckner.

A pre-trial conference before Buckner was set for Aug. 10.

With that, Adhahn (seen here in a previous court appearance) shuffled back to jail.