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Northwest briefing

Wednesday, November 15, 2000

Lake Union rowing center sunk in court

SEATTLE -- In her 3-year-old battle to keep city building officials from booting her Lake Union Crew rowing facility off Lake Union, entrepreneur Rome Ventura took her case to federal court -- and lost.

U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein on Monday refused to grant Ventura the preliminary injunction she had sought to hold the city at bay until she could get a jury to hear her case.

Rothstein said she now would "meet with the parties to confer on scheduling (Lake Union Crew's) removal of the structures."

Ventura, a housing/condominium developer known for tackling tough projects and saving old buildings, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Her Lake Union Crew venture was a $2 million dream that became a nightmare

She built two barges, put a two-story office suite on one and a tall shellhouse -- complete with an indoor rowing tank -- on the other, then moored them in front of property she bought at 11 E. Allison St. just south of the University Bridge.

Ventura claimed the barges were vessels and immune from city building codes.

But building officials disagreed and ordered the structures moved.

Among the issues for neighbors was parking. There is little in the area.

Under the law, the city now can tug the buildings away at Ventura's expense. But where to put them is the question.

Conviction upheld in Seattle stabbing

OLYMPIA -- The Washington Court of Appeals has affirmed a Seattle man's first-degree murder conviction for a February 1996 stabbing under the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Darrell Everybodytalksabout appealed his conviction to the three-judge panel on a number of grounds, including the contention that the trial court shouldn't have allowed the prosecution to introduce character evidence from a police officer who frequently saw him around Pioneer Square.

While the appellate court held that the evidence should not have been allowed, it found that even if the evidence had been excluded, the outcome of the trial probably wouldn't have changed.

Everybodytalksabout, in a filing from prison, argued that the trial judge should have instructed the jury to consider the effect the defendant's drunken condition had on the crime.

The appeals court held that there is no proof that Everybodytalksabout was unable to form criminal intent that night.

Everybodytalksabout is serving a 27-year sentence. He has maintained that he was not present when Rigel Jones, 23, was killed on Feb. 4, 1996.

Jones was stabbed, robbed and left to die alongside his pickup truck after becoming separated from his girlfriend during a night of club hopping.

Lawsuits settled in teen strip search

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Nearly three years after a group of young teenage girls were strip-searched at Duniway Middle School, the last two lawsuits that resulted have been settled.

The final two plaintiffs among the 36 seventh- and eighth-grade girls were Nicole Blane and Jessica Gentry, who were represented by McMinnville attorney Kent Gubrud.

Their cases had been scheduled to go to trial Dec. 5 in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The lawsuits named the city and the school district, both of whom turned the matter over to their insurance companies. The defense case was handled by Portland attorney Martha Hodgkinson.

Hodgkinson said the settlement includes a clause barring either side from disclosing the terms, but she felt "this was resolved to everyone's satisfaction."

After locker thefts were reported, girls from physical education classes at Duniway were detained on Jan. 29, 1998. Two female employees of the McMinnville Police Department were called to the school to conduct a search.

The girls were asked to lift their shirts, shake out their bras and briefly lower their pants. None of the missing items were found.

Heart attack may have felled fisherman

SALEM, Ore. -- Rescue workers have recovered the body of a fisherman who died of an apparent heart attack.

Dean Allen Schroeder, 41, of McMinnville was declared dead by the time medical help reached the remote Drift Creek Falls wilderness area, about 10 miles east of Lincoln City.

Schroeder had gone fishing Sunday with two companions.

Crews had to wait until Monday to bring Schroeder's body out because of darkness and hazardous terrain.

P-I staff and news services

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