Tag Archives: courts

A small sign of possible big changes at Broadway’s QFC grocery stores as federal trial to block merger begins in Portland — UPDATE

Posted on by
14

Monday, the trial to determine if regulators can stop the merger of the nation’s two largest grocery chains began in a federal court in Portland, Oregon.

On Broadway, the company lined up to take over one of the street’s two QFC supermarkets has filed some of its first paperwork to make the transaction a reality.

The company formed by C&S Wholesale Grocers has applied to assume the liquor license for the QFC grocery store in Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market shopping center, public records show.

The filing is one of a flurry of similar filings by the company in the county and across the state as it begins the process of taking over the stores, according to the state liquor board. Continue reading →

Court proceedings detail deadly Madison Valley carjacking including suspect’s Summit Ave address

Posted on by
11

The King County Superior Court found probable cause Thursday to hold Jahmed Haynes jailed for Murder in the First Degree and Animal Cruelty in the First Degree in Tuesday’s deadly carjacking in Madison Valley.

80-year-old dog walker Ruth Dalton was dragged and killed in the incident. Dalton’s dog was also stabbed to death. Police say witnesses attempted to intervene to stop the attack including one man who tried to stop the carjacking armed only with a baseball bat.

According to the police information filed in the case, Haynes was arrested Wednesday after being tracked down by police at 15th and Pine just blocks from his residence in a Summit Ave weekly hotel. Continue reading →

Wrongful death trial blaming state for Black Lives Matter protester struck and killed on I-5 set to begin

Posted on by
14

Taylor (Image: The Stritmatter Firm)

The wrongful death trial against the State of Washington in the crash that killed activist Summer Taylor in a 2020 Black Lives Matter protest on I-5 is set to begin, the law firm representing Taylor’s family announced.

The Stritmatter Firm says that the state’s “failure to properly and fully close the freeway that night” allowed the driver that struck and killed Taylor as a group of protestors filled I-5 to enter the roadway in the deadly incident.

“The state could have prohibited protests on the freeway. Instead it allowed the protests, told the protesters it was closing the road, but failed to fully close the road,” the firm wrote in an announcement on the case, adding that the state “closed the freeway on 30 different occasions to allow the protesters to occupy the roadway on 19 different evenings.” Continue reading →

Updating the RayShauna Webber murder case: a missed guilty plea in 2019 Cal Anderson stabbing

Posted on by
Reply

A memorial to Webber on the south edge of Cal Anderson

RayShauna Webber

This summer marked the five-year anniversary of the stabbing death of RayShauna Webber in Cal Anderson Park.

While many reported on the killing and the arrest of truck driver David Nichols in what police said was a knife assault over an offer to light a cigarette in the park, CHS and other media missed an important update in the case.

After the original not guilty plea, lawyers for Nichols arrived at a plea deal with the King County Prosecutor in 2022, according to court records.

Under the terms, Nichols pleaded guilty to second degree murder and assault in the case and was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison.

The 2022 deal makes the Webber murder case one of the few Capitol Hill homicide cases to reach a conclusion in recent years.

Webber, 25 at the time of her killing, is remembered as “a social butterfly and an empathetic spirit.” She left behind a life partner and child.

“RayShauna will be remembered by her outgoing charismatic nature and delicate touch,” her family wrote.

 

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month. 

 

Court updates: deadly Capitol Hill Station stabbing, First Hill ax murder attacks

Posted on by
7

KOMO and area TV stations aired Sound Transit security video showing the deadly fight

Court proceedings in two widely followed area murder cases have continued this summer with important updates in each but no clear timeline for trial in either.

Shawn Patrick Moore, 26, pleaded not guilty to charges of second degree murder and intimidating a witness in the Capitol Hill Station stabbing this May that killed neighborhood chef Corey Bellett.

In the most recent proceedings in the case, the court is targeting a September trial for Moore — but continuance dates in complicated murder trials are frequently extended.

New attention on the case came earlier this month as Sound Transit released security video showing some of the altercation that led to the deadly attack in which prosecutors say Moore killed Bellett in a fight over a run-in on the escalator that grew into a brawl on the light rail platform. Continue reading →

With a story stuffed with Korean food, Hugo House, and CHOP, Oma Bap ends its 10-year run on Capitol Hill

Posted on by
15

(Image: Oma Bap)

Korean food has become ubiquitous here in the time since food and drink entrepreneur Peter Pak first brought Oma Bap to Capitol Hill. Thursday marks the final day of service at the last location of the local “fast casual” chain. The neighborhood’s bibimbap and bulgogi scene lives on.

The shadows of the CHOP protests of 2020 are also part of Oma Bap’s story.

“While this chapter may be coming to a close, please know that this isn’t goodbye forever! We have made the difficult decision to take a step back in order to prioritize our families, our health, and exciting new opportunities at Microsoft,” the restaurant’s message to customers announcing the closure reads. Continue reading →

Free speech: Jury awards $680K to protesters arrested in 2021 Capitol Hill anti-cop graffiti case

Posted on by
4

Four protesters arrested in the winter of 2021 for marking the East Precinct with anti-police messages in chalk and charcoal were awarded $680,000 by a jury last week in a federal civil rights lawsuit that has played out over years of injunctions and appeals.

Lawyers for Derek Tucson, Robin Snyder, Monsieree de Castro, and Erik Moya-Delgado argued the Seattle Police Department and officers Ryan Kennard, Dylan Nelson, Alexander Patton, and Michele Letizia violated the group’s First Amendment free-speech and peaceful assembly rights over the temporary anti-police messages scrawled in chalk and charcoal around the East Precinct and on cement barriers placed outside the facility at 12th and Pine in the wake of the 2020 protests. Continue reading →

With speeding and risky driving, Seattle and county face ‘alarming increase’ in traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes

Posted on by
11

(Image: King County Prosecuting Attorney)

The King County Prosecuting Attorney can confirm what you’ve witnessed. Seattle-area drivers are driving faster and more dangerously coming out of the pandemic causing “an alarming increase in traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes,” the office says.

Prosecutors in the Felony Traffic Unit say they saw a 143% increase in felony-level traffic crime cases through May compared to the same period in 2019.

“According to the data, the years 2019–2020 corresponded with a significant spike in deadly crashes in King County that has yet to subside,” the prosecutors said in a statement this week. Continue reading →

‘I want to live my truth’ — Eyeing Texas move amid harassment allegations, removed Seattle Police chief comes out in Pride-month interview

Posted on by
12

The mess around leadership at the Seattle Police Department has a new plot twist.

The former department chief at the center of a $5 million sexual discrimination and harassment claim brought by four women who worked in his department now says he is homosexual.

Adrian Diaz used right wing radio Jason Rantz’s conservative talk show on KHTT radio to make the announcement the former chief said was necessary to clear up “accusations” against him as he considers jobs outside Seattle.

“I want to live my truth. I don’t want to be hidden behind any curtain or anything like that. I want another opportunity to serve a city. And, you know, it’s not easy when you have some false allegations against you,” Diaz said in the Rantz interview according to the Seattle Times. “I don’t want to have any secrets if I decide to go to another city.” Continue reading →

Producers sued over deadly shooting during Broadway/Pike street racing outside Capitol Hill Block Party’s fences

Posted on by
14

The street racing was caught on the SDOT traffic camera at the intersection

The family of Essence Greene, the 20-year-old shot and killed last July as late night crowds formed around street racers outside the fences of the Capitol Hill Block Party at Broadway and Pike, is suing the music festival’s producers.

KOMO is reporting on the lawsuit it says blames organizers “for failing to disperse the crowd so people could safely leave the event.”

KOMO reports the lawsuit, which does not appear yet in King County Superior Court filings, blames producers Independent Event Solutions for failing “disperse the crowd from the event or move barriers so the crowd could disperse more easily.”

The annual Capitol HIll Block Party is a three-day festival that is unique as one of the few music events of its scale in the country to be operated as a ticketed event on city streets.

Greene was one of four people shot when gunfire rang out as large nightlife crowds were dissipating after the street racing takeover of the intersection after the 2023 Capitol Hill Block Party’s second day had ended for the night. Continue reading →